中部大学教育研究20

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中部大学教育研究No.20（2020）―114―JournalofChubuUniversityEducationNo.20（2020）ActivatinganOnlineCourseOnDemand:AnExampleofaCross-CulturalCommunicationCourseSHIOZAWATadashi＊1＊1Professor,DepartmentofEnglishLanguageandCulture,CollegeofHumanities,ChubuUniversityAbstractTheworld-widespreadofthenewcoronavirusinfection,COVID-19,forcedustoconductmostcoursesonline.Amongthecoursestheauthortaughtonlinewasanintroductoryfreshmancourse,“Cross-CulturalCommunicationA.”Thiscourserequirestheparticipantstothink,feel,andactinawaydifferentfromhowtheyusuallydointheirhomeculture.ButhowcantheyachievethisgoalbysimplyreadingslidesonaLearningManagementSystem?BydrawingonMeaningfulLearningTheoryandSelf-DeterminationTheoryaswellassomerelatedlearningtheories,theauthorhadthelearnersmakeslidesthemselves,demonstrateandteachwhattheyhadlearnedtotheirfamilymembers,writeessaysontheircross-culturalexperiencesaftereverylesson,andreportonvideoclipsthatstimulatetheiremotionalbehavioramongothers.Healsotriednottoteachtoomuchtoencouragetheirautonomy,andadaptedauniqueevaluationsystemofwhichthepurposewastoaddpointsforwhattheyhadlearned,andrefrainedfrompenalizingforwhattheyhadnotlearned.Inthisway,moststudentstriedveryhardtoreceiveextrapoints.Asaresultthecoursewasverywellreceived.Thispaperdepictssomeattemptstomakethison-demanddistancelearningcourseasparticipatoryandstudent-centeredaspossible.Somedrawbacksandpointstoimprovearedescribedaswell.Keywordson-demand,onlinecourse,cross-culturalcommunication,participatoryteaching,meaningfulteachingtheory