Assessing benefits: a comparative evaluation of English-Japanese online intercultural exchanges (OIE) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

The pandemic-induced shift to online learning has increased the relevance of Online Intercultural Exchanges (OIE) as a means to navigate student mobility challenges. Our study investigates the role of OIE in the internationalisation of higher education, focusing on how students’ perceptions of the benefits of internationalisation through OIE have shifted from the pre-pandemic to the pandemic period. We analysed an English-Japanese OIE programme conducted by an Australian and a Japanese university from 2018 to 2022, noting students self-reported higher gains in learning engagement and outcomes during the pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period. Our research, guided by the frameworks of ‘Internationalisation at Home’ (IaH) and ‘Internationalisation at a Distance’ (IaD), highlights the potential of OIE as an effective model that addresses the diverse needs of a student body transcending the traditional dichotomy of ‘home’ and ‘abroad’.