Abstract
This paper reviews past research that focused on questions of culture in distance learning. Of specific interest are the studies that examined the influence of culture on students’ learning and engagement in asynchronous learning networks (ALNs). The purpose of this review is three-fold: to present the state of knowledge concerning the questions of culture in distance learning, to highlight important methodological issues that past research has left unresolved, and to provide practical insights into teaching culturally and linguistically diverse online communities of learners. For these purposes, 27 studies are examined and the findings are reported under the following categories: What do studies focusing on questions of culture in distance learning tell us? What implications do they suggest for practice and future research? Also, the paper provides methodological insights for researchers who wish to investigate the cultural dimensions of distance learning in future studies.
Highlights
This paper will provide a definition of culture and use it to examine the research literature on distance learning
Zhao et al (2005) concluded that “distance education in essence is still education [...] The factors found to have an impact on the effectiveness of distance education are factors that would affect the effectiveness of face-to-face education” (p. 1865)
The review was guided by the following question: What research evidence do we have on how culture influences students‟ distance learning experiences? For the purposes of this paper, students‟ distance learning experiences will be operationalized as their learning and engagement in asynchronous learning networks (ALNs)
Summary
This paper will provide a definition of culture and use it to examine the research literature on distance learning. It will demonstrate how cultural factors interact with and influence students‟ learning and engagement in asynchronous learning networks (ALNs), networks for anytime and anywhere learning via computer communications technologies (Hiltz & Goldman, 2005). The intent is to raise awareness about the cultural factors that may affect ALN learning and to provide guidance for practice and future research. This paper views distance learning as a process that is sensitive to social, cultural, and contextual factors (Warschauer, 1998; Wegerif, 1998). Questions of Culture in Distance Learning: A Research Review Uzuner Considering the cultural dimension as a crucial element in the effectiveness of ALNs, the paper supports and elaborates on the idea that successful ALN learning is dependent on optimal uses of available technologies, teachers‟ pedagogical-content knowledge, and students‟ motivation level, it is dependent on the cultural (mental) representations learners and teachers bring to the learning situation.
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