eLearning+implications+for+course+designers,+teachers+and+stakeholders



**Implications for course designers, teachers and stakeholders**

The development and design of eLearning and distance eLearning courses in Japan has largely fallen on the teachers of the courses. Brown, Hartman, Aoki and Yamada (2009), during the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative 2009 conference presentation, highlighted for teachers and designers the issues facing eLearning in Japan. These issues included a lack of training and funding for course development. As a result many Japanese teachers are looking to import eLearning courses from other countries. Attempting to use an eLearning course with one cultural group that was developed for a different cultural group has its own set of implications. On the table below we have attempted to identify some basic elements of eLearning design and to indicate with either an X or √ whether students learning from an educational culture perspective would be comfortable if an eLearning course incorporated that element.
 * **Elements of eLearning design ** ||= **Japanese ** ||= **New Zealand ** ||
 * Construction of knowledge ||= X ||= √ ||
 * Collaborative Group work ||= √ ||= √ ||
 * Student Centred focus ||= X ||= √ ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Highly visible teacher presence ||= <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">√ ||= <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">X ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Peer assessment ||= <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">X ||= <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">√ ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Structured weekly requirements ||= <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">√ ||= <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">X ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Instant messaging ||= <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">X ||= <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">√ ||
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Use of forum and discussion boards ||= <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">√ ||= <span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">√ ||

<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Dunn and Marinetti (2002) clearly warn about the importance of taking into consideration the educational culture preferences of the learners. "To ignore them would lead to pedagogic disasters" (p 26). This statement is strongly supported by Aoki and Bray (2006) who go further in their advice for Japanese designers in saying that when designing courses, due to the differences in cultural learning styles of the students, designers should not try and imitate Western eLearning design. <span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Many Western designed eLearning courses encourage the students to become researchers and critical thinkers as they construct knowledge from the vast amount that is available via the web. This is certainly the case with New Zealand developed eLearning. Japanese students who are not used to this style of learning will be disadvantaged as they will struggle with the limited structure that inquiry learning involves.

<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">We invite you to join in our discussion on what you would do and to have you share your personal experiences so together we can learn.

<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: verdana,geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;"> include component="comments" page="eLearning implications for course designers, teachers and stakeholders" limit="10"

<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: justify;">