This week's reading about diversity is particularly inspiring for me. Describing globalization in the words of Thomas L. Friedman, the author of one of my favorite books called The world is Flat, "...any activity where we can digitize and decompose the value chain, and move the work around, will get moved around." With businesses using strategies such as 'off-shoring' and 'outsourcing' to gain competitive advantage, partnerships are being created around the world to secure the best and the cheapest resources. Such changes have created a need for a diverse work force, and therefore, impact the education system to meet these changing needs. Diversity, now, an issue that does not have to be managed, but can be explored to create alternative views and multiple perspectives.
What does this mean for online learning?
Addressing diversity among students in online learning can prove to be a challenging task. Online constructivist learning approach can be helpful to create an environment that allows all learners to share their experiences and views. A design based on a mixture of tools in cultural contexts can be employed. Information resources, such as books or the internet can be used to provide the necessary knowledge required. practical examples, cases studies and problem situations can be incorporated in the design to make learning more meaningful. One of the key features of such a design is encouraging learners to communicate with each other. That too can be developed using social networking tools such as chat, blog etc. To foster collaboration, exercises can be performed in teams.
What other design components can we use to address diversity?
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I think one can create an environment of openness and diversity by encouraging students to create an online persona, either by blog or on their description page. They could have links with a map of the region where they are from, music, traditions, language, even a recipe to share with the others in class. It is often interesting and helpful to learn about the place of origin. It sparks discussion as well.
ReplyDeleteMy first question would be, what do you mean by diversity? Cultural, religious, gender, generational, etc.? Do you think all these forms of diversity need to be taken into account while designing an online course? I am not coming up with an answer. I would like to hear your views. Do you think designs should vary, based on the gender, on the cultural background of the learners? Probably...Working in a diverse environment, whenever designing a new programme, we always aim at coming up with a content which tends to be rather neutral. That also goes with our online offerings. I never worked in an environment which was not diverse, so for me it is hard imagining how to develop an online course for a "mono-unique" audience.
ReplyDeleteBonnie, those are all great suggestions, but we have to be careful about categorizing everyone based on these individual characteristics. Emphasizing similarities along with differences is a key characteristic of using diversity as a tool to enhance the learning experience.
ReplyDeleteAnne, diversity includes all the aspects you mentioned. If I am to design training for a very diverse audience, I will first take into account all the similarities they have with each other as part of my design and then address differences. You are right by saying that we aim to design trainings to be neutral but that is only limited to the material or information you are presenting. Diversity comes into account when you relate this information or the learning material to real life examples or work scenarios. How do you think your participant’s culture or belief system affects the way they will learn this new information? How will they use it given the particular context of their organizational trends and culture?