Digital Intercultural Communication and Groupwork

Groupwork is part of the social aspects of education and can be a rewarding way of exploring ideas with your peers and finding new perspectives. Working together requires a basic understanding of the characteristics and personalities in the group, as well as the strengths of each member, so that appropriate roles can be assigned.

Communicating effectively can be difficult at the best of times, and sometimes being online can cause some issues. Not least because, depending on the culture of communication combined with previous experiences and backgrounds, you may need to establish the assumptions that you may have about each other.

The University of Alberta ran a project where they explored assumptions about aspects of intercultural communication when working in groups. All Groupwork is Multicultural Groupwork created pods and allocated students to groups where they explored assumptions about the ways of working across different cultures. This is the inspiration for our work on the digital aspects of working in groups as part of the Digital Experiences of International Students project.

If you would like to participate in a workshop to explore these differences and hopefully create a resource to support students in developing our version of guidance in an accessible, engaging way, then please provide your contact details and we will be in touch.