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Best Practices for Culturally Responsive Online Instruction Amy Mazur The George Washington University Washington, DC [email protected] Tara Courchaine The George Washington University, Washington, DC [email protected] Abstract: Culturally responsive online instruction should be designed with a framework that supports students’ cultural and linguistic differences by providing differentiated instructional opportunities that reflects students' strengths, rather than their deficits. This paper - 2049 -

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Page 1: Best Practices for Culturally Responsive Online ...adlawrence.blogs.wm.edu/files/2011/03/George-Washington-OLL-mo… · Best Practices for Culturally Responsive Online Instruction

Best Practices for Culturally Responsive Online Instruction

Amy Mazur

The George Washington University

Washington, DC

[email protected]

Tara Courchaine

The George Washington University,

Washington, DC

[email protected]

Abstract: Culturally responsive online

instruction should be designed with a framework

that supports students’ cultural and linguistic

differences by providing differentiated

instructional opportunities that reflects students'

strengths, rather than their deficits. This paper

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addresses the role of the instructor in

implementing best practices for online

communication within a culturally responsive

instructional framework. After exploring current

research on the impact that culture has on

communication in online learning environments,

will make recommendations based on a replicable

online model that is currently in place at The

George Washington University.

Introduction

The role of the instructor is critical in terms of both

communication and instruction in evaluating the success of

online distance programs. One of the first and most important

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steps to creating a positive environment for communication is

finding competent and experienced instructors to support the

development and facilitation of a successful online program

(Santovec, 2004). Instructors are responsible for developing

courses, planning content, building communication and

collaboration, providing feedback and assessing learners. They

are also responsible for making sure learners have the supports

they need to navigate the online environment, including

understanding outlines, lectures, discussions, course rubrics and

participation expectations. Programs should be designed to

facilitate learning using a culturally responsive framework, in

order to support instructors in developing positive relationships

with students and creating an inclusive instructional

environment (Moore & Neal, 2007). This paper will address the

role of the instructor in facilitating effective communication

practices as a part of a culturally responsive instructional

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framework. In order to meet this goal, several terms will first be

defined: cultural responsiveness, asynchronous online learning

and communication. Once these have been defined the authors

will review current literature to identify best practices for

implementing culturally responsive online teaching practices,

identify the ways in which those practice have been incorporated

into the GWU bilingual special education distance model and

make recommendations for improved online communication and

instruction.

Cultural responsiveness can be defined as "a set of attitudes,

behaviors, and policies that integrates knowledge about groups

of people into practices and standards to enhance the quality of

services to all cultural groups being served." (Moore & Neal,

2007). It begins with the instructor’s understanding of his/her

personal culture, expectations and biases and the ability to

respond to the cultural, linguistic, social, emotional and

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educational needs of his/her students and is essential in

providing successful online instruction.

Asynchronous online learning refers to the interface and

model though which courses are offered. Asynchronous means

that courses are not offered in real time. A student may respond

at a time that is convenient for them rather than a scheduled

predetermined time. (Requirements such as, “Respond to two

colleagues’ postings before next Tuesday,” are examples of

asynchronous discussion procedures.) Online learning means

that students are participating in coursework in a virtual learning

environment. Students do not meet in a traditional classroom for

instruction, but participate using a web-based interface.

Universities use a variety of platforms to support online

learning; one technology to support this would be Blackboard.

Other content management systems such as WebCT, Moodle,

and even social networking sites such as Facebook are used for

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online instruction. Asynchronous learning can be beneficial to

students because it offers flexibility in responding, and allows

them to process information on their schedule taking as much

time as they need. However, it also has the potential to increase

miscommunication due to delayed feedback or cultural

misunderstandings.

Communication, for the purposes of online instruction, can

be defined as the way in which the instructor conveys ideas to

students and the way in which students convey ideas to each

other or to the instructor. Communication could be achieved

through the phone, email, chat, asynchronous online discussions

using the course discussion board, lectures or other materials

posted by the instructor. For our purposes we will primarily

focus the communication that occurs in the online discussion

board. In online courses students are often expected to

participate in weekly discussions by posting responses to

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questions and responding to the posts of other learners. They are

required to post within course timelines, but are not required to

be online at the same time.

The understanding each of these definitions above play a

critical role in examining best practices for culturally responsive

instruction.

Culturally Responsive Instruction

The success of a culturally responsive learning environment

relies on the cultural competence of the instructor and the

framework provided for communication. (Cartledge & Kourea

2008). Instructors need to recognize their personal beliefs and

biases, in order to respond to their students in a culturally

responsive manner. What instructors know and what they think

they know about different cultures has the potential to affect

their teaching (Cartledge and Kourea 2008). Without culturally

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responsive instruction, learning tools (i.e., books, teaching

methods, and activities) may be selected that are incompatible

with and in the worst scenarios, marginalize the students'

cultural experiences. When students feel marginalized they may

feel a dissonance that affects their ability to learn and succeed

academically.

Culturally responsive teaching should provide the

framework necessary to help teachers build positive

relationships with students and to help them use instructional

strategies that encourage the inclusion of students' cultures and

linguistic differences instead of considering deficits that can

interfere with learning (Moore & Neal 2007). Within the courses

students should be actively participating, interacting and

communicating with peers and their instructor to develop a

learning community.

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Smith and Ayers (2006) make a number of recommendations

for creating a culturally responsive online learning environment.

First, coursework should be student centered in order to help

them construct knowledge and develop multiple perspectives

provided by listening and responding to the feedback provided

by other learners. Textbooks should not be required in all

aspects of instruction; instead, students should identify links and

resources that are appropriate and increase learning (Smith &

Ayers 2006). For example, the instructor may use the text to

help students build foundations and background, but then

provide or ask the students to provide additional resources or

supports to extend learning. These materials will be more

valuable because they are culturally rich and intrinsically

important to the students who find them (Smith & Ayers 2006.)

Based on the findings above, a culturally responsive model

should encourage student interaction with each other and with

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their instructor, and materials should be developed to reflect a

variety of cultural values and styles (Smith & Ayres 2006). This

should include responsiveness to various communication and

learning styles.

For online courses to be culturally responsive, instructors

must be not only culturally competent themselves, but must also

be able to teach cultural competence to learners so that they are

able to build an environment of respect and understanding.

Instructors need to model cultural competence for their students

and provide opportunities for culturally responsive learning to

occur. The asynchronous format of many online programs limits

the instructor’s ability to react and mediate as s/he would in a

traditional classroom setting, so s/he must do more than post

culturally responsive lectures and resources (Picciano, 2002).

The instructor must also be able to facilitate communication that

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leads to the construction of knowledge and skills that students

can apply in other settings.

Brown (2007) cited several research articles that indicated

that in order to be culturally responsive, educators must design

instruction in a way that is responsive to students’ beliefs and

experiences. Gay (2002) agrees that cultural responsiveness is

critical, but that respect and appreciation of culture alone does

not create a true culturally responsive classroom. In order for

instructors to be effective when working with culturally and

linguistically diverse students it is essential to implement the

following five components of culturally responsive instruction

which are; developing a culturally diverse knowledge base,

designing culturally relevant curricula, demonstrating cultural

caring an build a community of learning, building effective

cross-cultural communication and delivering culturally

responsive instruction.

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Instructors need to have both the knowledge and a working

understanding of the cultures they are encountering in their

classrooms. Culture can affect both the students’ and the

instructor’s cultural, linguistic, social, emotional and educational

responses to learning. The relationship between a student and a

teacher is “dialectical, situational, culturally embedded, and

mediated by perceptions, expectations, and attributions.” (Gay

2002) In summary, online programs need to build from a

culturally responsive framework based on Gay’s five

components, employ culturally responsive instructors and design

instruction to respond to the individual needs of learners.

Role of the Instructor in Providing Culturally Responsive

Instruction

As noted above, the role of the instructor is critical to the

success of culturally responsive online courses. Once the

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courses have been developed instructors need to decide the

method(s) they will use to provide instruction and the manner in

which they participate in the course. The components of their

role include course development, planning and posting content,

scaffolding communication and collaboration, providing

feedback and assessing student progress. In a 2006 study,

Dennen, Darabi, and Smith looked at the communication and

interaction between the instructor and the learner in online

courses and found that communication and instructor feedback

significantly impacted student performance. Instructors surveyed

perceived responding to student inquiries, providing extensive

feedback, providing examples, modeling communication

guidelines, and checking email as the most important aspects of

instructor-student interaction. They felt it was important to

respond to students as individuals to help them feel supported in

their learning (Dennen, Darabi & Smith 2006). This data shows

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that it is important for instructors to consider their role in their

personal communication with students as a critical component of

student success.

Given this information, it necessary to consider how the

instructor should frame their participation in the course. Swan

suggests that instructors should practice “restrained”

participation in online course. She believed that instructor

participation was more important toward the beginning of the

course when it’s necessary to provide modeling and guidelines.

She suggested participation through threaded discussion, and

though individual responses to the student either within the

online interface or through email. The instructors should be

providing support to lessen the perceived distance between the

instructor and the students. She suggests that the instructor’s role

should be to provide students with the support they need to build

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their own discussions and scaffold knowledge to build higher

level thinking skills (Instructor’s restrained participation 2004).

Instructor’s Role in Facilitating Communication

The communication models that exist within online learning,

especially asynchronous online learning programs, can lead to

misunderstandings and misinformation that would not occur in a

typical classroom (Picciano 2002). As noted above, when

students respond asynchronously, they do not receive immediate

feedback because other learners are not required to be online at

the same time. When designing online coursework the instructor

needs to acknowledge that the students’ success in an online

course is dependent on their sense of “presence” within the

course. This idea of ‘presence’, while it is applicable to both

online learning and face-to-face learning, is not a universally

understood concept. Rather, the idea of “presence” is one which

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is culturally mediated and which can vary according to an

individual’s expectations and beliefs regarding issues such as

communication, appropriate learning behaviors, and interaction

with the instructor, as each of these has the capacity to impact

the quality of a student’s experience in a class and to impact the

way in which he or she relates to others who may be “present.”

For example, the instructor’s and students’ expectations may be

different in terms of course requirements and “presence”. As

you will see below, different cultures value the role and

expectations of communication differently. An instructor from a

culture that values student participation and feedback may

require a student to share their own perspective and critical

feedback the group in order to get an “A” in the course. A

student may not be comfortable participating or providing that

feedback because, within their culture, it is disrespectful or

inappropriate. The cultural responsiveness on the part of the

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instructor can help to mitigate these factors to improve student

success.

Clearly, several different factors may play into whether a

student feels ‘present’ , but one of those issues is based on

instructors understanding of culture and how communication is

framed in order to respond to cultural differences. One of the

primary factors that may impact the instructor’s role in online

communication can be indentified by examining Hofstede’s

theory of power distance index and its potential impact on

student participation and learning in online coursework.

Hofstede (1991) has identified five dimensions related to

culture that have the potential to impact students’ participation

and learning within online coursework: power distance index,

individualism vs. collectivism, masculinity vs. femininity,

uncertainty avoidance and long-term vs. short term goals. Power

distance refers to expectations of how the less powerful

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members of a society believe that power should be distributed.

In societies with a low power distance there is an effort made to

minimize inequalities and lessen the power distance and in

societies with high power distance, individuals look to those

with power to make decisions, and inequalities are considered

more acceptable (Hofstede 1991). By applying principles of

power distance, instructors can frame online communication

within the context of culture by understanding how different

students may respond to communication and discussion

requirements.

In 2007, Wang also examined power distance index (PDI) of

students from the US, China and South Korea to determine

learners’ perceptions of their online learning experiences. She

noted that China and South Korea have high context cultures,

collectivistic cultures, and cultures with a high acceptance of

unequal distribution of power. The United States, on the other

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hand, has a low context culture, an individualistic culture and a

low cultural acceptance of an uneven distribution of power. She

found that all students learned better when they were engaged in

learning and were actively participating in online learning

activities but goes on to note that culture impacted both their

online presences and their perceptions of the course (Wang

2007). Wang (2007) found that students participated in online

discussions because it was a part of the course requirement or to

find help and support in completing assignments. The American

students also participated in online communication to feel a

connection with other students within the course. The overall

“complaints” about asynchronous communication were that they

were attached to grades, were frustrating due to unresolved

arguments and lack of student involvement and were

inconvenient. In general, American students felt at ease with

online communication and viewed their instructor as more of an

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equal. Overall, they felt comfortable approaching their instructor

for help and asking question for clarification. Asian students,

who do not tend to speak in traditional classrooms, felt “lost”

when expected to speak online. They felt unsure about the rules,

rituals and expectations of online communication. They did not

feel as comfortable approaching their instructor and viewed their

instructor in a role of authority, rather than as an equal (Wang,

2007). In conclusion, Wang suggested that in order to promote

online communication, instructors need to present themselves as

equals in order to lessen the perceived power distance. They also

need to be supportive of students online discussion needs and

help students build relationships with each other in order to

facilitate learning.

Findings show that, while student engagement is critical to

course success, discussion requirements can be frustrating for

students from varying cultural backgrounds. The instructor can

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apply these findings by differentiating instruction to provide

students with various ways to participate and respond within the

course. At the beginning of the course, the instructor can use the

discussion board as a “safe place” for students to introduce

themselves and share their backgrounds. It also may be a good

place for them to share their communication expectations. While

it may not be possible for the instructor to eliminate the grading

requirement tied to discussions s/he can use a rubric that shares

expectations and scaffolds student responses. S/he can also give

the students ownership of discussion facilitation, reducing the

“power” of the instructor and placing the onus for learning on

the student. Finally, instructors can use the discussion board as a

place for students to ask questions and receive clarification on

assignments. This can help to make the discussion board a place

of support and community building. It is suggested that these

strategies will provide a communication model that can used

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successfully for all students and help to mitigate some of the

PDI issues for students from places where there is a high

acceptance for unequal distribution of power.

In conclusion, both communication and instruction are critical

factors in asynchronous online instruction and both of these

factors are mediated by the role of the instructor. When the

instructor is able to design both of these pieces using a culturally

competent framework students have the potential to be more

successful and there are fewer opportunities for

miscommunication. As Swan (2004) notes, perhaps one of the

best models involves the instructor scaffolding his/her role, by

providing more models and supports at the beginning of the

semester and lessening these supports as the students understand

and are successfully responding to course expectations. Ideally,

as the instructor guides the students towards a more student

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centered model she will be able to reduce the issues of power

distance by presenting herself as an equal.

As the instructor designs instruction s/he should also use a

student centered model which focuses on student construction of

knowledge and ownership of learning. The instructor may want

to provide the students with opportunities to select and share

their own resources and materials and to facilitate their own

learning. By providing students with these experiences the

instructor is giving students opportunities to construct and share

knowledge from their individual cultural perspectives. It is

important that the instructor takes the time to reexamine and

reevaluate his/her own values and beliefs in order to better

respond to the needs of the students and also be willing to adapt

instruction when something is not working.

Current Model

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The goal of the George Washington University’s bilingual

special education online distance program is to provide teachers,

though a culturally responsive framework, with resources

necessary to meet the needs of culturally and linguistically

diverse learners within their classrooms. The online program

necessitates meeting the needs of distance learning students

from various cultural and linguistic backgrounds including

students who are second language learners. Students participate

in the online coursework asynchronously using Blackboard.

The cohort includes general educators, special educators,

reading teachers, ESOL teachers and administrators.

Within the courses, the primary role of the instructor is to

facilitate student learning and engagement throughout each 12

week course. The instructors are responsible for selecting the

primary text/s for the course and for providing supplementary

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readings and resources. Additionally, the instructors post the

weekly outline, including weekly assignments, upcoming

projects, notes and other supplementary resources including

Point Presentations and/or videos. The instructor selects the

discussion questions/ topics for each week and participates, with

the students, in the weekly discussions. Finally, the instructor is

responsible for grading which include projects and papers, as

well as weekly discussions.

Student responsibilities include weekly engagement in

discussions that meet the requirements detailed in the discussion

rubric. This includes posting an initial discussion response and

then responding to at least two other students during the week.

Students are expected to include examples and/ or references to

research in their discussion posts so that we can see that students

are using higher order thinking skills and are attempting to tie

theory to practice. When the instructors engage, they attempt to

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present themselves as equals while, at the same time, serving as

a facilitator and model for effective communication. We have

found that it is effective when the instructor uses the beginning

of the semester to serve as a model for communication and then

once students are aware of expectations and are participating

appropriately to take on a more restrained role in the

discussions.

In order to create discussion threads that challenge students to

respond using higher order thinking skills and to engage with

peers the students were assigned to small groups of six. We

found that when students attempted to engage in large group

discussions that threads were not well developed and the

students were overwhelmed with the number of responses they

had to read and respond to resulting in numerous, but often

superficial, responses. The small group set up made responding

more manageable for both the students and the instructor even

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though the instructor was responsible for participating in all

groups. One way to modify this even further would be to pair

students from different cultures and have them facilitate the

discussion for their group each week further reducing the power

distance index between the instructor and the students.

Efforts are made throughout the program to encourage the

students to reflect on their perceptions, prior knowledge and

experiences. At the beginning of the course, all participants

introduce themselves and are asked to share information about

their background and experiences in order to help the

participants put a story and a culture to each name and have

some context for interpreting and understanding others’

responses. Each week students are asked to continue to use

personal examples and experiences to help build on course

topics. Students are also asked to share information from their

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own cultures and from the cultures of their students in order to

make information more relevant and meaningful.

Materials and resources are chosen for classes based on

students’ cultural backgrounds as well as the intent of the

course. Although textbooks are used in the majority of our

courses, readings are supplemented by links, resources and

articles suggested by both the instructors and the students

reflecting their own learning traditions. Courses currently offer a

range of projects and assignments that give students

opportunities to express knowledge in a variety of ways and to

continuously tie theory to practice.

One of the ways the program has been most successful in

developing better communication and more student centered

learning is by giving students regular opportunities to make

meaning from the information provided. It could be argued that

we are still employing a hierarchical system by having the

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instructor provide a majority of the resources and lectures.

However, students have the chance to engage in student-led

discussions and to create major term projects which allow them

to synthesize learning on their own terms as the semester

continues. In this way, instructor-led discussions can act as

springboards from which students begin to build their own

knowledge and understanding by engaging in conversations with

other participants in the course. Encouraging instructors to

participate as collaborators, rather than evaluators, helps to

reduce the power distance and gives student opportunities to

develop their own perceptions. By valuing student responses, we

hope to enhance their feeling of “online presence”.

Recommendations and Conclusions

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Recommendations are made based on both the research and

the authors’ experiences in working with instructors to facilitate

communication within a culturally responsive framework.

Asynchronous online coursework is most effective when the

instructor is aware of his/her own cultural beliefs and biases.

Once the instructor can respond from this perspective s/he can

implement Gay’s (2002) five components into instruction and

effectively tie theory to practice. For that reason, it is essential

that instructors engage in a period of self-reflection, either on

their own or, preferably, in a discussion with colleagues who

also teach diverse learners, in order to identify their own biases

and dialogue about best practices for involving all students.

We encourage selecting instructors who can respond to a

diverse population of learners. Instructors should be willing to

share their stories and experiences with their students and should

encourage students to do the same. This can also be done by

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providing students with opportunities to post their own articles

and resources that are reflective of their personal backgrounds,

and by providing discussion forums where students can respond

to one another’s postings and identify the ways in which those

postings may be applicable to their own experience. Second,

instructors need to be available to students on Blackboard as

well as through email. Students should be able to receive timely

responses when they have questions or concerns about a topic or

assignment. It has also been found that online office hours are

helpful because students appreciate having a set time when they

know they can reach their instructor and can ask questions in a

synchronous environment, by using the telephone, a Blackboard

chat room or email instant messaging.

Finally, we recommend looking more closely at the

instructor’s role in online discussions. Students may feel more

ownership of learning if they take turns facilitating their own

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discussions and the instructor adopts the role of a participant. In

order to do this successfully, the instructor must provide the

necessary models and supports at the beginning of the semester

so that the students are aware of and able to meet discussion

expectations. Throughout the semester the instructors should

model constructive feedback in order to lessen potential for

miscommunication. As courses progress, instructors should be

cognizant of student feedback and make course adjustments as

necessary. Many times a small change can make a significant

impact on instruction and learning.

As we have discussed a number of seemingly minor factors,

cumulatively, have a significant impact on the quality of the

students learning experiences in an online class. As described

here, the literature on best practices provides suggestions for

implementing those changes and a framework for how this

might be accomplished. As online educators continue to

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embrace changing technologies and look for new ways to

implement successful instruction, the concept of cultural

responsiveness is critically important in ensuring that online

education is able to meet the learning needs of an increasingly

diverse population of students from around the globe.

References

Brown, M. (2007). Educating All Students: Creating Culturally

Responsive Teachers, Classrooms, and Schools. Intervention in

School & Clinic, 43 (1), 57-62. R

Cartledge, G. & Kourea, L. (2008). Culturally responsive

classrooms for culturally diverse students with and at risk for

disabilities. Exceptional Children, 74 (3), 351-371.

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Cross. (1989). What is cultural competency? The Office of

Minority Health. Retrieved on September 17, 2008 from

http://www.omhrc.gov/templates/browse.aspx?lvl=2&lvlid=11

Dennen, V., Darabi, A, & Smith, L. (2007). Instructor-learner

interaction in online courses: The relative perceived importance

of particular instructor actions on performance and satisfaction.

Distance Education, 28 (1), 65-79.

Instructor's 'restrained participation' in threaded discussions

gives students’ control, ownership of learning. (2004). Online

Classroom, Retrieved June 6, 2008, from Academic Search

Premier database.

Hofstede, G. (1991) "Culture-Specific Marketing

Communications: An Analytical Approach," International

Marketing Review, 8 (2),18-30.

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Gay, G. (2002). Culturally responsive teaching in special

education for ethnically diverse students: setting the stage.

International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 15

(6), 613-629.

Moore, A. & Neal, L. (2007). Differentiating instruction through

culturally responsive teaching: Alphabet soup and the voices of

special educators. Black History Bulletin, 70 (1), 2-3.

Picciano, A.G. (2002). Beyond student perceptions: Issues of

interaction, presence and performance in an online course, 6

(1), 21-41.

Santovec, M. (2004). Strategies to ensure quality. Distance

Education Report, 8 (22), 1-4.

Smith, D & Ayers. (2006). Culturally responsive pedagogy and

online learning: Implications for the globalized community

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college. Community College Journal of Research and Practice,

30 (5/6), 401-415.

Wang, M. (2007). Designing online courses that effectively

engage learners from diverse cultural backgrounds. British

Journal of Educational Technology, 38 (2), 294-311.

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