Diversify Content and Structure to Create Global eLearning

Translating training content into employees’ nativelanguages is not sufficient to ensure that employees around the world canaccess and understand it; global eLearning must be free of cultural artifactsand assumptions as well. This can be a challenge, since many people are unawareof how cultural beliefs and traits that they’ve absorbed throughout their livesaffect their instructional approach or content.

To be truly diverse, eLearning must reflect many layers of difference: language,gender, nationality, culture, and experience. When preparing eLearning targeting a global audience, whether it’s virtual training, an asynchronouscourse, or mobile learning, instructors can take specific steps to avoid misunderstandingsand to ensure that the eLearning is accessible to a broad, diverse audience.Some of these steps are outlined here.

Scheduling considerations

Scheduling virtual sessions for a global audience can seem likean impossible task. With multiple time zones to consider, finding an hour wheneveryone is available is the first hurdle. Don’t forget to check holidaycalendars and typical workweek schedules.

While much of Europe and North America follows a Monday-to-Fridayworkweek, weekends in Asia and the Middle East might fall on different days.Some Muslim-majority countries, as well as Israel, observe the weekend onFriday and Saturday; others have a Thursday-Friday weekend.

Holiday calendars vary around the world, too. Christian holidaysare often official holidays in North and South America and Europe, but membersof other faiths and cultures, for example Muslim, Jewish, and Chinese, followdifferent holiday calendars. Non-Western countries using different calendarsare likely to have different days off from work.

Once the virtual session is on the calendar, it’s time toplan the presentation.

Presenting to a linguistically diverse audience

The good news is that preparing to present a virtualclassroom session to learners who are scattered widely and speak multiplelanguages is similar, in many ways, to preparing any learner-centered content.

Presenters should focus on using simple language—plain English—and they should make an effort to speak slowly and clearly. Thisdoes not mean skipping complex topics or speaking as if addressingchildren. Presenters should not over-enunciate or speak loudly; these do not helppeople understand and can offend learners. However, presenters should use unambiguouslanguage and short sentences. Presenters also should avoid using idiomaticexpressions, proverbs, and cultural references—and if one slips in, they shouldbe prepared to explain it.

Course content should be free of metaphors and jargon, yetit must use appropriate vocabulary for the audience. In some professionalsettings, this might mean choosing complex terms that are commonly used, andlikely to be familiar to the audience, over simpler terms that require aconvoluted explanation. Familiarity with learners’ level of expertise and knowledgeof the topic area is essential.

Presenters should pause periodically during the presentation—andany time they instruct learners to complete a task—to check for understanding. It’simportant to ask if there are questions and encourage learners to use the chatfeature to ask for clarification; some learners might be hesitant to speak upunless specifically invited to do so. Keep in mind that learners who arenon-native English speakers might be mentally translating everything thepresenter says. This is exhausting, so presenters should provide breaks to letthe learners catch up.

Presenters need patience and a willingness to repeatmaterial or try a different way of explaining it. Misunderstanding amonglearners is not a sign of lack of intelligence or professional skill; it’s farmore likely the result of a language barrier or cultural differences that impedeunderstanding.

Culturally diverse visual design

An eLearning or virtual presentation that incorporatesgraphics and photos might need to be reviewed for diversity—which means doingmore than simply ensuring that photosinclude people of different genders and ethnicities, though that is one placeto start.

When presenting to a multinational audience, instructorsshould learn about important symbols and the meanings associated with variouscolors in the cultures of the target learner population—and adjust graphics andcolor schemes where appropriate. If teaching to students whose native languageis written from right to left or vertically, instructors might need to change thelayout of screens or slides.

Presenters might swap out photos or graphical depictions ofpeople, as well as other cultural artifacts, based on the cultural values ofthe targeted learners. Are people depicted as dressed modestly andprofessionally—with these terms defined as appropriate for the audience? Whatare cultural norms around gender roles and age, and how might these be depictedin the content?

While a presenter might choose to use photos or examplesthat reinforce corporate values that differ from local norms— showing women inleadership positions, for example, in a country where this is unusual—thisshould be a conscious choice implemented with care, not an error based on lackof knowledge or forethought. The only way to ensure that this is the case isfor the presenter to become familiar with learners’ local cultures.

Cultural differences relevant to learning

Cultures vary in multiple dimensions that affect the way instructorsshould present content and structure activities and exercises. Three key areasthat InSyncTraining explored in arecent workshop, Mastering Cultural Dynamics, are:

• Egalitarian vs. status-focused
• Task-oriented vs. relationship-oriented
• Risk-taking vs. seeking certainty

Each of these areas is a continuum, and cultures—as well asindividuals within a culture—land at different points along the continuum.

In an egalitarian culture, employees might be accustomed tohaving their voices heard. These employees also might be willing to challengethe boss if they disagree; whereas in a status-focused culture, the authorityof a boss, and sometimes of any older person, is respected and those inauthority are treated deferentially.

These differences might affect how willing learners are tospeak up in group brainstorming sessions if individuals of different ranks arepresent. If a presenter divides a virtual group into small “breakout” groups towork on a task, or even to discuss ideas, that presenter should be aware of thestatus issue. One suggestion, if the learners include members of a morestatus-focused culture, is to group individuals of the same rank rather thanform mixed manager-employee groups. Another possibility is separating the managerand employee groups for all training and instruction. “Silent brainstorming”—wherelearners write down ideas and the presenter reads them aloud anonymously—workswell with mixed-status groups, as this approach permits lower-statusindividuals to speak up without disrespecting their bosses.

In a task-oriented culture, people are likely to be focusedon a goal or schedule. They might take “working lunches” and be more willing tointerrupt a meeting or conversation to request information that they need tocontinue with a task. At the other end of the spectrum, in a highlyrelationship-focused culture, people might spend long meal breaks talking aboutnon-work topics and socialize extensively with colleagues and theirfamilies. In a relationship-focused culture, a person might be hired orpromoted based on personal connections and relationships, whereas in atask-oriented culture, these decisions are ostensibly based on performance.

The way a presenter introduces and structures a virtualclass session might vary based on whether the majority of learners are from oneor the other end of the task–relationship continuum. To build trust amongrelationship-focused learners, a presenter might use the webcam to introduceherself and share some personal information, then ask participants to introducethemselves and share their role, where they’re from, or some other detail.Task-focused learners might consider that a waste of time. In addition, task-focusedlearners are likely to become impatient with small-group discussions oractivities, favoring individual assignments. On the other hand, instructors ofrelationship-focused learners who assign individual activities might besurprised to find that learners pair up or form small groups to complete thetasks.

Whether a culture—or individual—favors risk-taking orcertainty affects how managers make decisions, as well as how individualsapproach learning. In a risk-taking culture, learners training to use a newsoftware tool might jump in and click on menus and buttons, trying everythingout. A classroom full of “certainty” learners will want to read the manual orlisten to complete instructions from the presenter before trying anything. Therisk-vs.-certainty mix of learners should also influence the way a presentergives instructions to learners. According to the InSyncTraining presentation,learners in Middle Eastern and European countries tend to expect more specificinstructions and stated goals than US-based learners.