Multicultural online collaborative learning: students' engagement in design thinking framework

Abstract

This paper presents a collaborative learning course in which students from four universities in different Asian countries work in mixed teams to learn how to develop user-centered products and solve problems in a hands-on way using the Design Thinking framework. For the past three years, the courses were conducted entirely online. Cooperation and collaboration among diverse people from different backgrounds are essential to solving the social problems facing the world today. Like many universities, we have been actively sending our students abroad to provide opportunities to experience diverse cultures and values, but the pandemic has made it very difficult to travel abroad for the past three years, forcing universities to shift from face-to-face classes to online classes. The pandemic has made it extremely difficult to travel abroad for the past three years, and universities have been forced to shift from face-to-face to online classes. During this time, four Asian universities, to which the authors belong, have jointly launched an online problem-solving collaborative learning course aimed at supporting students to "No one will be left behind," as stated in the SDGs.The structure of the course, profiles of participating students, improvements to the course, student evaluations, and challenges found are described.