Exploring Students' Communication and Project-based Learning Experience in an International Distance Course

Previous research in distance education points out that improving depth and quality of communication and interaction is of utmost concerns. This study intends to explore students’ communication and project-based learning experiences in an international distance course conducted by three universities across Japan and Taiwan. This paper first describes the rationale of the study, and how it was designed and implemented. Results of the study showed that students of different countries actually demonstrated different degrees of perception of how useful technologies were in their learning experiences. Also, both main and alternative information communication technologies adopted by students groups were different. Moreover, students of the three participating universities possessed different perceptions of the project-based learning curriculum implemented in the international distance course. This paper further discusses implications of results of the study and suggests that more future research is needed to advance understanding of learning and communication in distance