“Tolerance, inter-cultural dialogue and respect for diversity are more essential than ever in a world where peoples are becoming more and more closely interconnected.”

—Kofi Annan, Former Secretary-General of the United Nations

Culture is an important aspect to consider in terms of open learning in the twenty-first century. My PBL group decided to centralise culture as an important element to focus on for this topic, alongside the aspect of Data Protection policies around the world.

In my group, we decided to focus on a SWOT analysis for further breakdown each topic. My responsibility was to focus on the strengths and weaknesses of culture as an element in online teaching and learning. Therefore, I brainstormed the following aspects to consider that formed part of our SWOT analysis:

  1. Strengths: Diverse cultures engaged in OER courses and material can lead to enhanced learning
  2. Weaknesses: Students may feel alienated if only one from their culture, difficulty from the facilitator’s side to reach all students as may not be versed in all languages
  3. Opportunities: Collaborative work has higher chances to create higher quality materials, new technologies and course materials allow for students from different cultural backgrounds.
  4. Threats: OER courses may be tailored to reflect a specific language and may not account for other languages which could lead to language barriers,  due to varying socio-economic classes, students may not be able to access digital resources.

Mind Tools (2023) suggest that in order for a SWOT analysis to be successful, the different aspects of a SWOT analysis should intersect with each other so that we can maximise strengths and opportunities and limit weaknesses and threats. This was applied to the topic as follows:

  1. Strategies to make use of Opportunities through our Strengths: Create courses that consider languages within that geographical region OR allow for translation services – using video software and uploading of key core such as how to guides, policies in different languages
  2. Strategies to minimise the potential dangers lying in sectors where Weaknesses meet Threats: Students that feel alienated should have access to support groups who can assist them throughout the learning course
  3. Strategies to make use of Opportunities to minimise Weaknesses: Place students in online groups where they have members of their culture as well as other cultures. They can learn from different cultures and feel comfortable because they have members of their culture too.
  4. Strategies to prevent Threats through our Strengths: By the course material available in different languages (or at least core documents/material) students can have an improved learning experience e.g. at my institution we have documents in our open learning course that are in all of our 11 official languages, allow courses to be freely accessible to students of different cultures and socio-economic classes

The group also decided to focus on the relationship between culture and data protection with respect to online learning and openness. We decided to research how data protection is observed in different countries. While there was some similarities, there was also differences in the application of these policies. Different cultures have diverse values and beliefs about open learning.

References:

Mind Tools, 2023. Swot Analysis. [Online] Available at: https://www.mindtools.com/amtbj63/swot-analysis. Accessed: 9 April 2023.