03.+Solutions

=Issues= This program represents the intial trial in China, and used the same learning design that has proved successful in Australia, with very little modification for the Chinese market. While the program has been successful in terms of participants completing their program, the levels of interaction online were disappointing. While the Shanghai group contained a mix of Chinese, other Asians and some Westerners, as a group they did behave differently to groups observed in Australia. While we cannot generalise about the trends and tendencies observed in this group, it is important to observe the different patterns of interaction and seek to understand the issues.

Summary of Perceived Issues

 * Lack of confidence and comfort of voicing personal feelings and opinions in an open forum;
 * Possible lack of confidence with written English in open forums;
 * Knowing how to express what, when and for what reason;
 * Sensitive to privacy and avoid the possibility of losing face (feeling of being shameful);
 * Disparity of levels within the group (ie some senior managers, some mums not yet returned to the workforce);
 * Possible lack of clarity around what was required to pass (information is online but perhaps not explicit enough, and other communications were face to face at Shanghai promotional events and not necessarily clear about certification requirements);
 * Lack of time was cited by most as a reason for low participation, and this is in line with Australian experiences of increasingly busy lives with competing demands on our time; and
 * Missed opportunity to bring the whole group together synchronously online (eg webinar) to create greater group dynamic;
 * Low level of participation online by facilitator - type of posts expected and accepted were not modelled often and early;
 * Students predominantly from more vertical cultures, unfamiliar with being given forum to speak their minds publicly.

Possible Solutions
The current learning design centers on a self-motivated and individualistic learner, such as we find commonly on Australian programs. It may be more appropriate to modify the Shanghai classrooms to suit a more collectivist culture. Some suggestions include; more work in small groups rather than the focus on the individual, less reflective questions and more factual questions, and a greater emphasis on the achievement of a series of goals leading to the final outcome of certification.
 * Modification of the Learning Design**

Considering the emphasis of memorisation on understanding in the Chinese context (Chan 2010), and the fear of "loss of face" (Hofstede 2008), the learning design would benefit from incorporating more memorisation type tasks, especially at the outset, so that participants are given the opportunity to undertake and succeed at memorisation type tasks and participate in a less threatening manner than revealing individual opinions. Another approach to assist with the lack of participation could be a demonstrated discussion, for example, between the moderator and the facilitator or between the moderator and a participant who has been primed. This demonstration would include brief, challenging, reflective comments, as well as some reiteration of the facts of the subject.

While it is recognised that lurking can be considered as having educational benefit to the individual (Lave and Wenger 1991), it is not conducive the social constructivist approach as the amount of contributions for learners to benefit from decreases as lurking increases. As such the Netiquette agreement, which is required to be read and agreed to by all participants at the outset of the course, and whose purpose is to outline the rules and expectations within the community (Shea 1994) could be made more explicit in terms of expectations around the volume and nature of contributions in line with Wang's (2006) assertion that permissions are needed to challenge and argue perspectives.
 * Netiquette**

It would also be appropriate to provide more variation and flexibility in the learning design to take into account multiple cultural realities and the various ways of knowing, doing, interacting, and learning (Henderson in Wang, 2006). Similarly, offering more private and introspective options, such as a private journal as opposed to the public blog may encourage those students who felt threatened with the openness of the online community to contributing their reflections.

China has people-oriented, warm and personal communications preference, which may explain their response to the “worried” email that prompted learners to participate online after a period of inaction. There is a preference for face to face communications, followed by phone, and finally email. Online communications in the “disembodied” classroom would presumably come last in this list. Considering the increased emphasis on socialisation and people in the Chinese culture, it follows that the second stage in Salmon's Five-Stage Framework, socialisation, which needs to occur successfully before content oriented participation will be successful, needs to be considerably more emphasised, this could be aided by more warm and personal “socialising” activities at the beginning of the course. This could also include a synchronous meeting such as a webinar prior to the commencement of the online classroom. In the webinar students could gain further insight into behavioural expectations through modelling (Bandura 1977), by observing the facilitator interacting in the online classroom and discussing the style of posts that are useful and acceptable in this format. Allowing them to practice posting a short comment would have also enable them to set the tone for the type and style of conversations they were to have online throughout the eight week program. They could also be encouraged to take opposing views; teaching them how to critique and argue their point to prepare them for the online classroom. The moderator in this demonstration must be open-minded, caring, listening but decisive, giving instant and concrete feedback (Ingram, Ou & Owen 2007).
 * Communication Styles**

The socialising activity designed for Asian groups, which was the discussion of your Chinese Zodiac sign and reflection on how that might be relevant to their coaching style, is not effective and should be replaced by a less threatening and more personal/warm socialising activity as it was discovered that not all signs are considered “auspicious”.
 * Socialisation**

There are opportunities to change both the style of moderation and the location of the moderator. Currently the program is moderated by an Australian moderator, however, a local moderator could bring the required cultural understanding, and perhaps would be less intimidating to local participants. A further opportunity for improvement is in increasing the online presence of the face to face facilitator. In the Shanghai program the facilitator was not often online and despite sending a few emails to encourage participation, did not do very much to scaffold learning and encourage participation online. As this facilitator was clearly highly regarded and liked according to student essays it would have been beneficial for him to have a stronger presence online.
 * Moderators**

It may be helpful for the role of the moderator to be more fully explained, to ensure students are aware of the moderator's role and their responsibility for assessment of the various online tasks. The moderator's responses could emphasise the teacher-student relationship more in the beginning of the course before moving toward a student-student orientation towards the end.

It appears that many of the students currently rely on computers at work as the medium for accessing online learning materials. The increasing popularity of mobile technology in China could create greater flexibility for access for such learners; however contributing to online forums using this medium is not necessarily a simple task. For this reason, it would be advisable to design some learning activities that are more easily completed using handheld devices. For example, after reading an article, instead of the students contributing to an online forum or blog, a set of questions with simple 'yes/no' answers and/or other limited answer options, could be completed and then submitted.
 * Mobile Devices**

The introduction of a spell/grammar check function in the online classrooms may help the students to feel less constrained in their posts. As non-native English speakers/writers, there are no casual writings or online postings; each one must be an effort to ensure they are communicating clearly and correctly (Ingram, Ou & Owen 2007). Instant and productive feedback when they do post will encourage further posting. Printed instructions on how to use the online classroom are provided at the beginning but are perhaps not enough. The IEC could also attach information on the certification pathway (outlining the steps to take to certify). This information is available online but could be helpful to have it on email also.
 * Spell Check**


 * Transfer of Knowledge**

=
With the intention to avoid the kind of reductionism which can lead to destructive stereotyping, eLearning content (explicit and tacit knowledge) should take into consideration the systems and values of the learner as such building blocks of culture. This may continue to influence how readily the learner is able to actively learn about the content in a meaningful way.======

=
One way to remedy the issue of the influences of culture on learning may be to adopt a community model of knowledge development, which assume that there are no “best practices” (Littrell 2002). The model recognises the context-specificity nature of knowledge and takes into account the cultural dynamics of knowledge. Instructors could apply their understanding of management in the Chinese context to design learning activities that recognise the difference between Western knowledge and Eastern practice thus bridging the gap in the experiences of the learner and the instructor. With the utilisation of a community model of knowledge development, knowledge is the product of a visible social construction where new concepts interpreted on a community and individual level and are subsequently meaningfully integrated with existing knowledge of the individual and community. In addition, learners could be introduced to a variety of effective management styles and have the opportunity to adopt a style or a hybrid of styles that suits their own context of practice.======

The course could benefit from having cultural specialists or those who hold an innate understanding of Chinese culture review it and make recommendations. We can make suggestions and improvements as Australian student educators based on theory, but the experience required to fine tune this course internally in Australia would require the course to be run several more times with an increasingly refined informed trial and error approach each time, which would be costly for IEC.
 * Engaging a cultural specialist**


 * References**

Ardichvili, A., et al., 2006. 'Cultural influences on knowledge sharing through online communities of practice', Journal of Knowledge Management, vol 10, no. 1, pp. 94-107.

Bandura, A. 1997. Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: W.H. Freeman.

Chan, C. K. K. 2010, "Classroom Innovation for the Chinese Learner: Transcending Dichotomies and Transforming Pedagogies" in Chan, C. K. K. & Rao, N. (eds.), CERC Studies in Comparative Education. Revisting the Chinese Learner: Changing Context, Changing Education, Springer Comparative Education and Research Center, The University of Hong Kong

Hoftstede, G. 2008, "Cultural Differences in Teaching and Learning", FUHU Conference on Education and Training in the Multicultural Classroom, Copenhagen Ingram, A. L., Ou, C. & Owen, R. J., 2007, 'Cross-Cultural Issues in Online Education', Journal of the Research Center for Educational Technology (RCET), vol. 3, no. 1.

Lave, J. & Wenger, E. 1991, Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, London: Cambridge University Press

Littrell, R. F., 2002, ‘Desirable leadership behaviours of multi-cultural managers in China’, Journal of Management Development, vol. 21, no.21, pp. 5-74.

Salmon, G. 2002, e-Moderating: The key to teaching and learning online, 2nd ed., RoutledgeFalmer, Oxon

Shea, V. 1994 The Core Rules of Netiquette. Viewed online on 19 March 2009 <[]>

Wang, H., 2006, 'Teaching Asian Students Online: What Matters and Why?', PAACE Journal of Lifelong Learning, vol. 15, 2006, pp. 69-84.