ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a fully online, credit-bearing, elective course that has been developed to bolster the intercultural learning and engagement of undergraduates from a Hong Kong university who are participating in an international exchange programme. To help the participants optimise their international exchange experience and make the most of the second-language environment, the course aims to ease their adjustment and propel them to a higher level of intercultural competence and engagement in the host environment. The online course draws on the Intercultural Development Continuum (IDC), post-structuralist notions of identity, and transformation theory. Intercultural Communication and Engagement Abroad has been designed to propel international-exchange students towards higher levels of intercultural competence while they are in the host environment. With the help of NVivo, a software programme, a content analysis of the rich qualitative data also pointed to the benefits of the intervention to enhance intercultural competence and engagement.
