Understanding Arab Students’ Behavioral Patterns in an Online Course: An Explanatory Study Based on Hofstede’s National Cultural Dimensions (original) (raw)

Online Learning in the Arab World: A Shifting Landscape

This paper presents an analysis of the engagement of learners in the Arab World with Edraak, a regional online learning platform, between 2015 and 2018. Our analysis investigates the changes in demographic characteristics of registration and engagement with online courses across the 4-year period. We also investigate correlations at the country level between engagement with online learning on Edraak and several human and technology development indices of the countries. The results show gradual but substantial shifts in demographic characteristics of engagement over the 4 year period, including noticeable drops in average registrant age and a shrinkage of the gender gaps in registration. The correlations of registration and engagement with human and technology development indices show that gender gaps in 2015 were positively correlated with the Arab countries’ gender inequality indices (GII), and that the shrinkage in gender gaps over the 4 years is negatively correlated with the GII...

Online Teaching: Model and Perspective in Arabic Class

2021

Online learning carried out in the new normal era provides opportunities for the academic community to analyze technology for learning better. This online system is implemented starting from campus introduction activities for new students, library access to lecturing activities. This research used a qualitative descriptive method of case study type, with new students of the post-graduate program of Arabic Language Education in the 2020 academic year of UIN Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang, Indonesia. The data collection techniques used observation, interviews, and online surveys, and the data were analyzed by triangulation. This research focuses on the process of campus cultural orientation for the first-year student, the implementation of post-graduate lectures, and new students' perspective on the lecture during the new normal. The results of this study indicate that the campus cultural orientation for new students in the 2020 academic year is carried out using an online system. T...

Culturally Different Learning Styles in Online Learning Environments

International Journal of Information and Communication Technology Education, 2011

The importance of individual culture depends on the characteristics of national culture and the individual’s background; within individual culture, different learning styles also exist. This paper addresses the topic of how learning style interacts with receptivity to online methods in different cultures, in this case in Nigeria. It examines and analyzes online learning environments in terms of differences in the learning styles of Nigeria university students according to their cultural backgrounds, specifically tribes, gender, and program of studies and how that can affect their online learning. The differences in tribes and learning styles affect the way the students respond to online learning. Despite the need for improvement, the future of online learning environments seems bright. The online instructor should try to offer learning activities that will appeal to the widest variety of learning styles possible. The ethnicity and cultural diversity of students needs to be considere...

Bridging the Cultural Gap of Online Learning: Implications and Strategies

Just as internet access has shifted from a 20 th century novelty to a modern-day basic utility, so has the popularity of learning a specialization online become the norm and not the exception. Despite the growing demand for providing online courses/programs on a global scale, attrition rates remain unfavorably high compared to traditional face-to-face learning. Although research related to online teaching methodology has made much progress, there remains a plethora of studies related to cultural barriers in the virtual world of learning. In this literature review of Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions Model, the implications of the framework's four indexes—power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism-collectivism, and masculinity-femininity—are considered alongside with practical strategies for overcoming teaching methodological challenges.

Instructional Needs Analysis and Cultural Values in Online Learning

International Journal of Education, 2019

From a cultural perspective, the nature of online learning is related to learners’ high individualism and low power distance between learners and instructor, which is in contradictory with Indonesian cultural values of high collectivism and high power distance. This study aimed to analyze the cultural values of Indonesian learners, identify the instructional needs that were compatible with the learning culture, and design an instructional design framework which is compatible with the learning culture of Indonesian students in general so that the learning process can be maximized. This study employed quantitative descriptive method and a questionnaire was used as the instrument to gather data from a sample taken purposively, that is students who took online learning via Integrated Online Learning System (SPOT) learning management system. The results suggested that Indonesian students exhibited high power distance, low tolerance for uncertainty and were culturally more collectivist an...