Adding Intercultural Communication to an IS Curriculum

Authors

Alanah Mitchell, Drake University
Robert Benyon, Rhodes University

Abstract

Increasingly, today’s information systems (IS) programs are focused on making sure students are graduating with well-developed soft skills. One of these necessary soft skills is intercultural communication, which is the ability to communicate with people from different cultures. This teaching tip presents an assignment designed to increase the intercultural communication competency of IS students in both the U.S. and South Africa. Students from two different countries/cultures worked together one-on-one in order to improve their intercultural communication competency skills using a variety of technologies including email, Skype, Facebook, WhatsApp, SnapChat, Instagram, and FaceTime. The findings from this experience suggest that students are surprised by what they can learn from developing a relationship with a global partner. Lessons related to assignment successes and challenges are shared as well as plans for future assignment adopters.

Recommended Citation

Mitchell, Alanah and Benyon, Robert (2018) "Adding Intercultural Communication to an IS Curriculum," Journal of Information Systems Education: Vol. 29 : Iss. 1 , 1-10.
Available at: https://aisel.aisnet.org/jise/vol29/iss1/6