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Using a graduate seminar with 24 students from varied ethnic/cultural groups, the paper analyzes benefits and challenges of the medium and argues that ethnicity should guide cultural indicators.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/canadian-journal-of-learning-and-technology-volume-30-winterhiver-2004-597681/597681/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/canadian-journal-of-learning-and-technology-volume-30-winterhiver-2004-597681/597681.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"pop out","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-02","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",5,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What learning challenges does the paper identify for online distance education?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"It notes ongoing problems such as high dropout rates and the need to improve learning results. It also describes challenges in asynchronous CMC including technology frustration, coordination/timing delays, and skills deficits.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How does the study define culture for analyzing CMC behavior?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"The paper discusses culture as shared patterns of behavior and shared meaning, then argues that ethnicity should be used as the indicator of cultural background rather than nationality. It further applies a continuum between low-context and high-context cultures.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"Who participated in the exploratory case study and how were groups assigned?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"There were 24 graduate seminar participants from varied ethnic/cultural backgrounds. Twelve were assigned to the low-context cultural group (e.g., United States, UK, Australia, New Zealand) and twelve to the high-context cultural group (e.g., Pakistan, China, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand), using English as primary or secondary communication accordingly.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},597681,1792967325,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,100,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":55,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":30,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":143,"read_time":111,"preview_page_count":4},962090760408,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45","Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology  \nVolume 30( 1 ) Winter / hiver 2004  \nMorse, K . (2003) . Does one size fit all? Exploring asynchronous learning in a multicultural environment . JALN, 7 ( 1 ), 37 55.  \nZuochen Zhang, University of British Columbia  \nAs new technologies become less expensive, provide greater access to various forms of multimedia, and are integrated into all aspects of everyday life, online learning environments are becoming more prevalent. Online education, as experienced through course management systems, is being heralded as meeting the needs of students ’lifestyles by managing time conflicts and access from remote locations, and helping people to juggle personal commitments ( Harrison & Bergen, 2000) . However, research indicates that improvements are needed to prevent high drop out rates and to improve learning results ( Byun, et al., 2000; Carr, 2000; Moshinskie, 2001) . Online distance education courses need to be designed in such a way that learners with different backgrounds and preferred learning approaches will feel motivated and gain the best possible learning results from such courses . It is a challenge for instructional designers of online education courses to determine learners ’ preferred learning approaches and related social and cultural issues, and to design learning environments to meet these needs . Designers of such programs should consider cultural differences in their design as students of different cultural backgrounds may have different perspectives and interpretations of learning content ( Driscoll, 2000; Gayeski, et al., 2002; Moshinskie, 2001) .  \nThe case used for this study was a graduate seminar delivered fully online using asynchronous computer mediated conferencing communication ( CMC) for class participants to discuss topics and issues raised from the reading materials assigned by the instructor. Based on a review of literature on asynchronous CMC, the author lists the benefits of this medium as flexibility, participation quantity and quality, communication openness/ access, and post participation review/ access for references . He also lists various challenges such as technology frustration, coordination, timing/delay frustration, and skills deficits . The author points out that even though culture is a primary factor in“determining individual behavior patterns, and provides the paradigm by which experience is interpreted, assimilated, and adapted”( p. 40) , a systematic consideration of the role culture plays in CMC is missing in the literature .  \nThis paper discusses different definitions of culture, such as “shared patterns of behavior”,“systems of shared meaning and understanding”,“...those learned roles of behavior which bound accepted acceptable practice in a group environment”, a result of fundamental societal assumption, and the concept of national culture, and argues that the indicator of cultural background should be ethnicity rather than nationality . The author goes on to introduce a continuum between low context and high context cultures, and uses a table to illustrate the difference between low context education perceptions/ expectations and high context education perceptions/ expectations .  \nCharacteristics of low context learning are :  \n Emphasis on learning outcomes (students as contributors to exploration and/or development) .  \n Emphasis on attitudinally based \"deep\" learning.  \n Wide variety of learning tools and assessment instruments .  \n Informal lecturer/student relationships .  \n High student numbers/high contact time .  \nThose of high context learning are :  \n Emphasis on teaching inputs (student as recipients and reproducers of materials ) .  \n Content and knowledge based learning.  \n Individual and examination based assessment.  \n Formal lecturer/student relationships .  \n Small group sizes/low contact time .  \nThe participants for this exploratory case study were 24 students with a variety of cultural/ethnic backgrounds . Parti","cbCaij09hlm2BeAy","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaij09hlm2BeAy","pdf",90642,"English","# Background and Rationale\n## Asynchronous CMC in multicultural settings\n# Study Method\n## Graduate seminar design and participants\n# Definitions and Cultural Framework\n## Culture definitions and ethnicity vs nationality\n## Low-context vs high-context learning\n# Findings and Implications\n## Influence on perceptions and expectations\n## Design and delivery recommendations\n# Limitations\n## Potential change after cultural exposure\n# References","[{\"question\":\"What learning challenges does the paper identify for online distance education?\",\"answer\":\"It notes ongoing problems such as high dropout rates and the need to improve learning results. It also describes challenges in asynchronous CMC including technology frustration, coordination/timing delays, and skills deficits.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the study define culture for analyzing CMC behavior?\",\"answer\":\"The paper discusses culture as shared patterns of behavior and shared meaning, then argues that ethnicity should be used as the indicator of cultural background rather than nationality. It further applies a continuum between low-context and high-context cultures.\"},{\"question\":\"Who participated in the exploratory case study and how were groups assigned?\",\"answer\":\"There were 24 graduate seminar participants from varied ethnic/cultural backgrounds. Twelve were assigned to the low-context cultural group (e.g., United States, UK, Australia, New Zealand) and twelve to the high-context cultural group (e.g., Pakistan, China, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand), using English as primary or secondary communication accordingly.\"}]","Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology - Volume 30 - Winter/hiver 2004 | PDF",1792085492]