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Multi-Cultural Issues in eLearning

Issues in eLearning

Firstly what do we mean by culture?

Culture is defined as "patterns of 'thinking, feeling and potential acting' that every person carries within him or herself, and which he terms 'mental programs'. The source of these mental programs lies within the social environments in which one grew up and collected one's life experiences. In short, culture affects who we are, how we think, how we behave and how we respond to our environment. Above all, it determines how we learn". (Marinetti and Dunn (n.d.), quoting Dutch anthropologist Geert Hofstede)

What Happens when we do not pay attention to Cultural factors?

"Lack of culturally appropriate learning is considered to be a major cause of unsuccessful completions. Inadequate teacher and provider sensitivity to cultural differences, lack of teacher relations with students and their communities as well as language difficulties all contribute." (A&E R019RL, p. 5)

"The development of a culturally sensitive learning environment should be viewed as a shared responsibility amongst teachers, developers, administrators and learners" which involves "consultation of participants to ensure a rich and purposeful model is being developed." (Goodear 200l, p. 13)
(http://pre2005.flexiblelearning.net.au/guides/crosscultural.html )

What are these differences that we should consider regarding culture?

Language differential: Language and culture are related to each other, and it is difficult to understand one without the other. For e-learners with different cultural backgrounds, simple sentences should be used and slang should be avoided.

Educational culture differential: Different cultures have different educational values. E-teachers and course designers should be sensitive to the differences while offering courses for global e-learners.

Technical infrastructure differential: Not every e-learner has the same technical infrastructure such as broadband and access to mobile wireless technology. It is not appropriate to believe that e-learners in other places can access multimedia items as quickly as in people in developed countries can.

Local versus global differential: Some cultures emphasize the local context whereas others value a global perspective. E-teachers and course designers should understand the target audience’s perspectives.
Learning style differential: How students learn is based on their cultural background. The learning style in one culture may not fit the learning style of other cultures.

Reasoning pattern differential: People from different cultures can have different thinking patterns and different views of objectivity. E-teachers and course designers should understand these differences and incorporate them in e-learning.

High-and low-context differential: High-context cultures value the group over the individual, and they are collectivistic cultures. Low-context cultures value the individual over the group, and they are individualistic cultures. This difference might cause problems when learners from different cultures meet in the online learning environment.

Social context differential: The social context affects how learners respond to new information. The interaction between the social context and the target learners’ high- or low-context cultural background should be considered in the course design and e-learning.

Other socio-cultural factors influencing learning processes
(http://www.ub.es/euelearning/delphi/docs-htm/2/3.htm)

When designing online courses and learning materials, what should we find out?
(From McLoughlin and Oliver)

1. What kind of learning environment is most familiar to the students?

2. How does the cultural background of these students influence their use and view of time?

3. How do students conceive the role of the teacher?

4. What kind of relationship do students want with a teacher?
5. What kinds of assessment tasks will be fair and unbiased?

6. What rewards and forms of feedback will be most motivating for these students?

7. Is the locus of control congruent with these students’ own sense of personal
control?

8. What cognitive styles characterize the target group?

What, then, are practical suggestions?

Based on a literature review, Wang and Reeves (2007) compiled a list of suggested principles for teachers who want to construct and implement culturally-sensitive online education in an article, "The Meaning of Culture in Online Education: Implications for Teaching, Learning, and Design."
1. Adopt an epistemology supportive of multiple perspectives in order to make
e-learners from different cultural backgrounds feel comfortable enough to share
their opinions.

2. Create flexibility in learning goals, tasks, and modes of assessment in order to provide e-learners from different cultural backgrounds more options to suit their educational needs.

3. Ensure different forms of support within and outside the community, such as creating an online discussion forum for learners to communicate ideas and share experiences.

4. Provide necessary support to increase students’ self-confidence and motivation early in the course.

5. Design activities that enable small groups to provide peer feedback.

6. Discuss embedded values explicitly and honestly in class.

7. Clarify the level of English skills required in the course and use simple sentence structure.

8. Avoid slang, colloquialisms, and local humor when possible.

Other interesting Matter Related to Cultural differences in eLearning as applied to Health and English Language Proficiency

1. A tool to help in knowing socio-economic and health comparisons on various countries and continents. The World Health Chart is developed in collaboration between WHO and Swedish institutions. The aim is to visualize world health development and thereby enable better use of international health data for learning, advocacy and hypothesis generation. A first beta-version called WHC 2001 Public Beta 0.1 is now free to download for testing. http://www.whc.ki.se/index.php

2. A study presents findings on the efficacy of an online learning environment developed to foster EFL students’ intercultural competence. The project offered opportunities for EFL students to use their own societal and cultural practices as the focus for EFL learning. Despite some technical difficulties with the computers, the collaboration between the two groups of students was successful. The students’ e-forum entries demonstrated four types of intercultural competences:

(A) interest in knowing other people’s way of life and introducing one’s own culture to others

(B) ability to change perspective

(C) knowledge about one’s own and others’ culture for intercultural
communication

(D) knowledge about intercultural communication processes.

http://llt.msu.edu/vol10num3/liaw/

Article by: [edgar] [ephrem] [janaka] [julie ann] [manex] [mercy] [portia]