Internationalization at Home: An Occupational Therapy Synchronous Collaboration Between Cyprus and the United States

Abstract

Importance: Designing, implementing, and measuring the effectiveness of sustainable Internationalization at Home programs will support the development of cultural competence among occupational therapy students. Objective: To explore potential sustainable, effective methods for enhancing cultural competence in occupational therapy students through cross-cultural online collaborations. Design: Pretest–posttest, parallel mixed-methods design. Setting: An online collaboration using video conferencing technology and classrooms at the European University Cyprus and the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences. Participants: Bachelor of science and master of occupational therapy students at the European University Cyprus and the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences, respectively. Intervention: Online video conferencing collaboration between occupational therapy students in which students discussed their perspectives and experiences regarding social injustice and occupational therapy’s role in working with vulnerable populations. Outcomes and Measures: Each campus participated in focus groups, and students completed individual reflections. Themes were derived from the qualitative information gathered. Quantitative data were collected using the Cultural Awareness Scale for Occupational Therapy Students (CASOTS). Results: CASOTS did not reflect changes in cultural awareness. The qualitative measures identified students’ desire to participate in more frequent and culturally diverse experiences. Challenges included length of preparation and actual communication time. Inclusion of prior asynchronous sessions and methods to overcome the language barrier was suggested for future implementation. Conclusion: Synchronous cross-cultural collaborations may enhance occupational therapy student’s cultural awareness and may be more attractive than traditional in-class teaching. Further development is necessary to overcome challenges. What This Article Adds: Documenting the benefits and barriers of implementing Internationalization at Home experiences will allow academic institutions to create sustainable methods for enhancing occupational therapy students’ cultural competence. Recommendations to further enhance Internationalization at Home experiences provide opportunities for increased cultural collaboration.

Effects of an Internationalization at Home (IAH) Programme on Cultural Awareness among Medical and Nursing Students in Hong Kong and Indonesia During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Mixed-Methods Study

“…However, this result came as a surprise to them, which indicated that they might have had few chances to participate in inter-cultural activities or meet people from different cultural backgrounds online or o ine before, which was also found in other study [17]. Thus, it is essential to have cross-cultural activities or programmes at school or to integrate IAH in the curriculum, so that international programmes can be available to all students in their home campus [13]. In addition to new knowledge, a few students in this study developed a sense of international social responsibility and cultural sensitivity in clinical practice.…”

“…Speci cally, we need to be alert to placing equal importance on different cultures in future IAH programmes. On the other hand, there were some barriers to the programme, and language was the one mentioned most often, as in other studies [13,15,19]. Language barriers signi cantly affect communication because people who come from various cultural backgrounds do indeed need more time to process a foreign language to communicate effectively than those from the same cultural background [20].…”

“…In addition, there were some disagreements among the students in our study on the duration of the activities. One study showed that having activities last less than one hour at a time is the most effective duration [13], which needs further study.…”

“…The small sample size (only 18) could explain the lack of change in some dimensions. However, Psychouli et al [13] suggested that there was no change in the cultural awareness of students after an international online conferencing collaboration and that the students had a strong desire to participate in more frequent and culturally diverse experiences.…”

A scoping review of online international student collaboration in occupational therapy education

“…Globalisation is the interdependence, integration and interconnectedness of the world that has been influenced by the World Wide Web and a networked society (Frank, 2012). There is evidence of globalisation in occupational therapy curricula through international learning activities including international practice placements (Davies, 2017) and international interuniversity blended mobility (online and face-to-face) student exchanges (Truman et al, 2021) and interuniversity online learning (Aldrich, 2015; Psychouli et al, 2020).…”