Andrea Hall
Designing online learning environments for local contexts as exemplified in the Sultanate of Oman
THESIS DOWNLOAD:
Abstract
Online
learning has a significant role in teaching and learning as it can be
used to address the issues of quality and access to learning in higher
education. However, for online learning to provide an effective
solution, it needs to be designed to meet the learning needs of the
students. This is particularly important for the Sultanate of Oman, the
focus of this study.There is little in the literature on how people in
this culture learn, how they learn online, and how learning may be
designed in a culturally-suitable manner. This is the problem
investigated in the research: if culture does impact learning, how can
learning be designed in a way that considers cultural values, and
enables a successful learning experience? This thesis describes the
development and refinement of design principles as an effective means to
design culturally appropriate learning environments for higher
education in the Sultanate of Oman.
A
design-based research approach was selected for this study, as it can
be used to develop a design solution that has been tested and refined in
a genuine learning context, thus making the solution more useable and
robust. This approach begins with the identification of the teaching and
learning problem, then the proposal of a draft design solution from a
literature review. This is followed with iterative testing in a genuine
context, so that the theory is informed and modified in the learning
environment. The final stage is the production of refined design
guidelines and a modified learning environment that is specific for the
context where it was tested. This solution was tested iteratively in a
context in the Sultanate of Oman, using a case study strategy, during
two three month online professional development courses for university
faculty.
It
was found that the refined guidelines developed in this research were
consistent with, and extended, the existing models they built upon. They
were also able to apply cultural preferences to the design of the
learning environment which became increasingly suitable for learners
from an Oman cultural background.
Publications
Hall, A. & Herrington, J. (2010). The development of social presence in online Arabic learning communities. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 26(7), 1012-1027.
Hall, A. (2006). Who’s learning? Responding to the needs of a culturally diverse world of online learners. In L. Markauskaite, P. Goodyear, & P. Reimann (Eds.), Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Conference of the ASCILITE Conference, (pp. 293-302). Sydney: ascilite
world. Educational Technology Magazine, 50(3), 18-21.
Hall,
A.. & Sandell, L. (2010). Designing e-learning language courses in
the Omani context. In Al Mahrooqi, R. & Tuzlukova, V. (Eds), The Omani ELT Symphony: Maintaining Linguistic and Socio-Cultural Equilibrium (p 435-454).