The aim of this study is to explore how embedding Online Intercultural Exchange (OIE) in an Intercultural Communication course enables students to experience, interpret, and apply intercultural awareness in practice, focusing on the reflective, interpretive, and meaning-making processes that form a foundational stage preceding full intercultural competence. The study seeks to understand how students engage with diverse cultural perspectives, critically examine their own assumptions, and develop a deeper understanding of intercultural interaction within an international, digitally mediated learning environment.

The study investigates OIE as an experiential digital learning environment in which students actively co-construct knowledge of culture through interaction and reflection. In line with the European Commission’s Virtual Exchanges in Higher Education and Youth initiative, which recognizes that virtual exchange complements but cannot replace physical mobility, the study foregrounds intercultural awareness rather than intercultural competence. Intercultural awareness emphasizes recognition, understanding, and critical reflection on one’s own and others’ cultural assumptions, communication styles, and behaviors, coupled with the ability to adapt perception and interaction accordingly (Byram, 1997; Deardorff, 2006; Fantini, 2009). Key dimensions include self-awareness, other-awareness, perspective-taking, behavioral adaptation, and critical reflection. Awareness forms a foundational component of competence, focusing on reflective understanding rather than demonstrated performance.

This study is guided by the key question: how does embedding OIE within an Intercultural Communication course enable students to experience, interpret, and apply intercultural awareness in practice? To explore this main question in depth, the study examines three interrelated dimensions. First, it investigates which aspects of intercultural awareness students experience, both explicitly and implicitly, as they engage with peers from diverse cultural backgrounds. Second, it examines how students apply this awareness in their interactions, adapting communication strategies and collaborating effectively across cultural contexts. Finally, the study considers the practical and pedagogical challenges associated with integrating OIE into higher education, identifying potential drawbacks and limitations that may inform future curriculum design and teaching practices. Together, these research questions enable the study to capture both the experiential and reflective dimensions of intercultural learning while situating the findings within broader discussions of inclusive, digitally-mediated internationalisation in higher education.

The study integrates intercultural communication theory, experiential and transformative learning theory, and critical intercultural pedagogy. Edward T. Hall’s phenomenological concepts of high- and low-context communication, time, and space (Hall, 1959, 1976) illuminate the tacit dimensions of culture revealed in misunderstanding, pacing, and negotiation. Kolb’s experiential learning cycle (1984) frames OIE as a process moving from concrete experience to reflective observation and conceptual reinterpretation. Transformative learning theory (Mezirow, 1991) and reflective learning theory (Moon, 2004) account for dissonant experiences that challenge assumptions and foster perspective shifts. Cultural dimensions theory (Hofstede, 2001) is used critically to highlight tensions between abstract models and the complexity of lived intercultural interaction (Kramsch, 2009; Baker, 2015). Contemporary OIE scholarship emphasizes learner agency, reflective dialogue, and negotiation in international contexts (O’Dowd & Lewis, 2016; Dooly & Helm, 2018; Baker, 2021; Helm, 2023; Guth & Helm, 2022).

Data derived from a 6-week OIE project involving 105 students from Vilnius University, University of Latvia, Universidad Austral de Chile, and National Louis University (USA). Teams included students from Europe and non-European universities, reflecting inclusive internationalisation practices. The study aligns with EU policy goals promoting digital mobility, intercultural competence, and inclusion (Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2021–2027; Digital Education Action Plan 2021–2027; Virtual Exchanges in Higher Education and Youth initiative, European Commission, 2021; 2024; 2025).

This study contributes to European and international educational research by investigating the reflective, interpretive, meaning-making dimension of intercultural awareness, highlighting how structured virtual exchanges support critical reflection, learner agency, and preparation for intercultural competence. 

The study employs a qualitative interpretive research design, focusing on students’ reflective meaning-making and epistemological engagement in intercultural interaction (Denzin & Lincoln, 2018; Creswell & Poth, 2018). This approach is often used to investigate intercultural awareness as a reflective and interpretive process that precedes competence. The empirical context is a 6-week OIE project embedded in an elective Intercultural Communication course at Vilnius University during Autumn 2025. The project involved 105 students from four universities: Vilnius University (Lithuania), University of Latvia (Latvia), Universidad Austral de Chile (Chile), and National Louis University (USA). The present study focuses on 32 Lithuanian students, whose reflective journals provide rich qualitative data. Participants from Vilnius University included local and 11 international exchange students. Baltic students were enrolled in the course, while Chilean and U.S. participants joined voluntarily. Students were organized into 33 international teams of three to four members, ensuring collaboration between Baltic students and partners from Chile or the USA. English was the lingua franca. Teams followed a syllabus of 16 thematic topics grouped under Education, National Culture, Language, Media and Communication, and The Future of Human Communication. Two tasks were compulsory: a self-introduction and a comparative chart of national education systems, universities, and the courses offered in them, while the remaining four topics were freely selected by each team, emphasizing learner agency (Benson, 2011). Tasks included multimodal outputs such as videos, podcasts, infographics, posters, and digital stories. Data collection relied primarily on semi-structured Intercultural Journals, completed after each team meeting, prompting reflection on communication challenges, cultural assumptions, emotional responses, and perspective shifts. Journals were complemented by students’ digital artefacts uploaded to MS Teams and weekly progress reports on Padlet, providing contextual and process-oriented data. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2021). Coding was iterative and theory-informed, identifying patterns relevant to the three sub-questions: aspects of intercultural awareness experienced, application in practice, and practical/pedagogical drawbacks of OIE.

These conclusions are tentative, as the data are still being labeled, grouped, and interpreted, but emerging trends already provide valuable insights into students’ intercultural learning. Overall, the findings based on 32 Intercultural Journals suggest that embedding OIE in an Intercultural Communication course fosters intercultural awareness across reflective, interpretive, and applied dimensions. Students demonstrated increased self-awareness, recognizing their own cultural assumptions and biases, which often led to a deeper understanding of their native culture. At the same time, they developed other-awareness by noticing differences in partners’ communication norms, pacing, and implicit expectations. Through structured reflection, students engaged in perspective-taking and critically examined stereotypes and preconceptions, showing that even initial encounters can trigger meaningful reconsideration of prior assumptions. In their interactions, students applied intercultural awareness by adapting communication strategies, negotiating meaning collaboratively, and adjusting multimodal outputs to suit diverse partners. Reflection appeared to be iterative, with insights from one interaction informing subsequent tasks, demonstrating how awareness can translate into practical, collaborative problem-solving. The project also revealed practical and pedagogical challenges. Unequal participation, time zone differences, and varying levels of commitment sometimes hindered collaboration, while technical limitations affected certain interactions. Some theoretical concepts proved difficult to translate into lived experience, and reflection-intensive tasks required careful scaffolding. Reduced informal interaction, limited embodied cultural learning compared to face-to-face mobility, and students reported that the project demanded the development of broader organizational and communication skills. Taken together, these tentative findings highlight the importance of learner agency, structured reflection, and team-based collaboration in creating conditions for students to experience, interpret, and apply intercultural awareness. From a European and international perspective, the study supports OIE as an inclusive, digitally mediated form of mobility, contributing to EU goals for intercultural competence, internationalisation, and digital learning.

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