UF Faculty Department College
Anthony Manganaro University Writing Program College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Partner Faculty Department Partner Institution
Reine Azzi Communication, Arts, and Languages Department Lebanese American University
Title:
Intercultural Awareness Between Lebanon and the U.S.
Project Description:

This virtual exchange project is a collaboration between undergraduate students at the University of Florida and Lebanese American University. UF students taking the “Arabs in America'' course will create interview questions, administer interviews to LAU students, reflect on their results in synchronous class sessions, and incorporate their relevant primary research into their final assignment. At LAU, students completing the “Advanced Academic English'' course will create a comprehensive questionnaire containing diverse student research angles, administer the attitudinal survey to UF students, reflect on the survey results, and incorporate their reflections into their final assignment (the results and discussion section of an IMRD paper). Student collaboration will be completed asynchronously through icebreaker activities and the Google form survey, while small working groups will meet synchronously to gather data for the interviews.

Learning Outcomes:
  • Identify connections between the perspectives and experiences of multiple cultures
  • Ask complex questions about other cultures, identify and articulate answers to these questions that reflect multiple cultural perspectives
  • Synthesize other perspectives when investigating and collecting data on a specific topic
  • Interpret intercultural experience from more than one perspective/worldview and demonstrate ability to act in a supportive manner that recognizes the feelings of another cultural group
  • Recognize new perspectives about their own cultural rules and biases 
Participating Countries:
Lebanon
Number of Participants:
11 UF students and 28 students from the partner institution
Discipline:
English
UF Course Code & Name:
ENC2305 - Analytical Writing and Thinking: Arabs in America
Project Duration:
4 weeks
Activity Type(s):
Student-to-Student Dialogue
Student-to-Student Project
Other
Time allotted to each activity:
Synchronous Activities: 2-3 hours
Asynchronous Activities: 3-5 hours
Local group activities: 2-3 hours
Individual work: 5-6 hours
Technology Tools:
Videoconference (Zoom)
Messaging Applications (WhatsApp)
Learning Management Systems (Google Drive)
Collaborative Authoring Platforms (Google Forms)
Message Boards/ Video Boards (Padlet)
Email
Sequence of Activities:

Project Introduction and Google Drive Orientation- After initial coursework, the VE project is introduced to students in each respective university in week 5 or 6.

Shared Icebreaker Activity- Students from both universities will participate via Padlet and respond to questions pertaining to intercultural communication differences between Lebanon and the US.

Individual Prepwork- The UF group will begin preparing their interview questions while the LAU group will work on their collaborative class questionnaire.

Assigning Dialogue Groups/Data Collection- At LAU, students will create an attitudinal survey and administer the survey to UF students. At UF, students create questions and administer interviews synchronously to LAU students. 

Post VE: Data Analysis/Final Reflection- LAU students will then use the data generated to complete the method/results section of their empirical paper. UF students will use portions of their interview answers in their final research paper, and also reflect on their VE intercultural dialogues both during synchronous class discussions and in their final portfolio.

Sequence of Activities:
OPEN FILE