Training Industry Magazine - July/August 2020 - 50

GLOBAL
OUTLOOK

DEVELOPING ELEARNING FOR A GLOBAL
AUDIENCE: CULTURAL CONSIDERATIONS
BY LUCY HODGE

Consistency is a vital part of workplace
training: We want to ensure that all
learners receive the same key messages
and have equal learning opportunities.
As workforces continue to globalize,
eLearning offers an obvious solution.
Centralized and standardized digital
courses are available to anyone in the
world with internet access.
But can the same course be equally as
effective for learners who live and work
thousands of miles apart? Research
shows us that the answer is yes - as long
as instructional designers respond to their
audiences' local preferences and needs.
Culture is a helpful concept for
understanding the distinct requirements
of international learners. In her work on
multicultural eLearning instructional
design, Lyn Henderson describes culture
as "the manifestation of the patterns
of thinking and behaviour that results
through a group's continuing adaptation to
its changing social, historical, geographic,
political,
economic,
technological,
and ideological environment. Culture
incorporates race, ethnicity, religion,
class, gender, values, traditions, language,
lifestyles, and nationality as well as
workplace and academic cultures."
Identifying different cultures within a
training audience can be challenging.
Dutch social psychologist, Geert
Hofstede, suggested one possible
solution in the 1980s. His "cultural
dimensions" model rated six categories
of difference between societies to
describe so-called national character.
Hofstede used the categorizations

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to suggest broad differences in how
students and teachers interact in
different countries. His approach remains
popular within the instructional design
community as a tool for anticipating how
international learners will respond to
different learning approaches.
The Hofstede model offers a tempting
shortcut to discovering culturally specific
learning needs and preferences.
Unfortunately, the real world defies such
simple categorizations. Modern societies
include multiple cultures that intersect,
coexist and compete with each other.
The emerging field of sociocultural
theory argues that culture is individual.
It is therefore the role of a trainer to
understand each learners' culture and
create teaching programs that align with
individual experience. Realistically, of
course, this is not simple to implement,
as online courses may be designed for
thousands of global students.
If we are to reject spurious notions of
cultural groups but can't cater to thousands
of students' individual needs, how can we
deliver training that is appropriate for all?
A few strategies are available.
BLENDED SOLUTIONS
eLearning for multicultural groups can
be supported by regional classroombased training or social group settings.
Local teams can contextualize the
training and account for geographical
(e.g., health and safety precautions
in different climates), legislative (e.g.,
differing environmental regulations)

and other localized differences (e.g.,
variations in language, etiquette and
prior learning).
Creating online social spaces and
encouraging
interaction
between
learners and instructors (e.g., discussion
boards, email and feedback) can fulfil
the same function. Posing questions
relating to the learners' cultural
experiences enables the instructor to
modify their teaching practice.
An open dialogue allows cultural insiders
to shape the training design and ensure
that it does not privilege one group above
another. Unfortunately, many corporate
eLearning courses - such as mandatory
training - are designed to be taken
without social support, collaboration or
trainer interaction. Instructional designers
therefore face the dual challenge of
identifying cultural differences in their
audience and accounting for this diversity
without disadvantaging any one group. On
these occasions, the following strategies
can be used:
INTERNATIONALIZATION
This strategy seeks to be culturally neutral.
For example, no cultural markers (e.g.,
symbols, colloquialisms, settings or colors)
that may offend or confuse any identified
groups are included.
The internationalization approach
cannot really respond to diversity in
learning cultures. Although the aim
is to be neutral, more frequently the
product reflects the learning culture
that the designer is most familiar with.

https://www.hofstede-insights.com/models/national-culture/ https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1016625432567 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1016625432567 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262262873_Theorizing_a_Multiple_Cultures_Instructional_Design_Model_for_E-Learning_and_E-Teaching https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262262873_Theorizing_a_Multiple_Cultures_Instructional_Design_Model_for_E-Learning_and_E-Teaching https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262262873_Theorizing_a_Multiple_Cultures_Instructional_Design_Model_for_E-Learning_and_E-Teaching https://www.southampton.ac.uk/assets/imported/transforms/content-block/UsefulDownloads_Download/556FF0E46EA742B2822ED2D32D89EA74/Hofstede%20(1986)%20Cultural%20differences%20in%20Teaching%20and%20Learning.pdf https://www.southampton.ac.uk/assets/imported/transforms/content-block/UsefulDownloads_Download/556FF0E46EA742B2822ED2D32D89EA74/Hofstede%20(1986)%20Cultural%20differences%20in%20Teaching%20and%20Learning.pdf

Training Industry Magazine - July/August 2020

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