Kansai University has concluded a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) project in collaboration with San Pedro College (SPC), Philippines. This collaboration brought together ASEAN Studies students led by Prof. Aisyah Astari and psychology students from SPC led by Prof. Arvie Villegas and Prof. John Orly Orgue. The project enhanced both universities’ learning experiences by providing opportunities to explore cross-cultural perspectives related to human behavior and psychology in Japan and the Philippines. Through this collaboration, students identified cultural similarities and presented their findings through digital posters as their final output.

Over the three-week collaborative learning period, students learned about each other’s cultures while working in multicultural teams. They collaborated to create engaging poster presentations representing cultural concepts from their own countries. For example, students introduced “Matinahuron” from the Philippines, which is similar to Keigo, the Japanese system of honorific language. This project enabled students to address social and real-life challenges by collaboratively developing creative outputs, while enhancing teamwork, cross-cultural communication skills, and broadening their international perspectives.