As a result of a short online collaborative project with students enrolled in a research class at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, Kansai University students in the KUGF independent study (doing research in English) course could practice interviewing skills as a method for collecting data for conducting research in social sciences.

 

 

Students in mixed nationality groups first studied the cultural differences between individualistic and collectivist societies and then took turns to interview each other regarding the different cultural representations of these concepts in their respective countries of residence over three weeks. Given the time zone difference between Japan and the USA, the project was done asynchronously, but students in the KU class presented the results of their collaborations in a real-time online session.