Thot Cursus - Interactive MOOCs and the culture of differences by Lifeonlinesphere

Interactive MOOCs and the culture of differences

Experience gained from coordinating a Mooc

by Virginie Guignard Legros

MOOCs are meeting places for learners from different backgrounds, cultures, contexts and mother tongues.

Sometimes people bump into each other on forums, doing exercises or projects together, and other times they don't interact at all.To explain these different attitudes, two essential points can be taken into account.The first relates to the structure of the MOOC and its objectives.The second has to do with the student, his or her background, context and cultural attitude.

AMOOC or “Massive Open Online Course” is a virtual connection space for hundreds or even thousands of people across the planet.To understand the logic behind it, we can distinguish several variations:

- the formative MOOC: this is the classic MOOC, a virtual clone of the university classroom, with a discussion forum. It's called xMOOC

- Informative MOOCs:These don't train you in how to think, how to do or how to behave. It provides often essential information on a specific subject. It doesn't yet have an acronym. We'll call it infMOOC

- The connectivist MOOC: this is an atypical MOOC that aims to enrich learning and knowledge bases by the learners themselves. It's called cMOOC

- The MOOC lab: this is a course within a MOOC that enables students to form teams to respond to an exercise or project. We can call the concept labMOOC while we wait for an official acronym.

- The iMOOC: Inquiry-based Learning is based on an investigative, problem-solving approach, the results of which are added to the existing database. Then there are other typologies, which are variations on other criteria, such as SPOCs (“Small Private Online Course”) aimed at private groups, or COOCs (“Corporate Open Online Course”) created by or for private companies.

The most interactive of these is the community-based cMOOC. Runners-up are LabMOOC and team-based iMOOC.Third is xMOOC, and the least collaborative is infMOOC.

Of course, there are mixed MOOC formulas whose rankings should be put into perspective, depending on the motivation of their management team to make them interactive.This collaboration is often visible through emulation or forums. Some teams know how to keep a forum going, while others don't.This fact can blur the vision of things and make MOOC structures sometimes more convivial and collaborative and others less lively than they usually are.

Thus, in xMOOCs, LabMOOCs, iMOOCs and cMOOCs, interactions are also more or less extensive, depending on the user-learners, who often come from different backgrounds.They may have different mother tongues, but most of the time they use a common learning language with different fluidities, without this having any real impact on their relationships.

The problem with French in French-speakingAfrica, for example, is that in someAfrican countries, French remains the language of reference, while in others it's the language to forget, depending on ethnicity and local history.This can have an impact on the choice of MOOCs, not that there is a plethora of them in local languages, but this state of affairs benefits English-speaking MOOCs, which are then preferred.

The greatest obstacle to collaboration is mainly linked to cultural and contextual differences.

For example, the rhythms of life: a multicultural team made up of WestAfricans and Swiss, their very different time management can generate misunderstandings.Apart from the time zone difference, cultural differences in punctuality can lead to serious misunderstandings, and even conflicts.

For example, someAfricans are punctual to the hour, whereas the Swiss are punctual to the minute. There can also be misunderstandings due to attitudes: Westerners naturally look each other in the eye, while others don't even look people in the eye.The former will interpret this attitude as evasion or disgust, whereas it's often nothing more than a mark of respect.

Chinese and Westerners can also have misunderstandings when it comes to expressions of respect. The Chinese use the concept of copying as a sign of respect, or to show that they have understood a concept in the classic Chinese student-teacher relationship.This can create disruption, in this case not between students, but between the student and the teaching team.

Imagine a student who, in his final exercise, repeats whole sections of your course, while you ask him to create something other than a transcription of the teaching itself, and even when you use software to spot plagiarism.This situation reflects a clash of cultures, as well as of teaching habits in both directions. Certain contexts can also be dissonant or unsuitable for group work. Project teams may lose team members, for example, through ignorance of their religious habits.The most classic case is the scheduling of meetings at times incompatible with Ramadan. We can also raise the issue of technical and economic contexts. Some people cannot afford to have a permanent Internet connection.There can be many reasons for this.They may use the network outside working hours, either in a cybercafé, or at work during limited hours, or for a few hours a week because of the high cost of telecommunications.

There are still many inequalities in access to the Internet. Connections are sometimes random, and the network can fluctuate. Not all countries have identical coverage. It's even worth noting that connections with France are sometimes not as good as those with certain emerging countries. Students regularly cross the border into a neighboring country to connect to their courses.Amore dramatic and courageous case in point is that of a student whose Internet connections were cut off during a war situation, and who crossed the border several times a week to attend his team training.

It's worth noting that nationals of countries less open than others to other cultures, to diversity and to foreigners, find it harder as individuals to integrate into teams. Not because they don't have the ability to do so, but rather because they're not used to being different, and don't know the keys to understanding other cultures.Tolerance of foreignness and difference is a life skill in its own right.

Mixed teams are an asset for MOOC supervisors only if they are well understood by all. It can be useful to have a specialist in cultural diversity on your team, to prevent situations of misunderstanding and to open everyone's eyes to knowledge about others.

Author: Virginie Guignard Legros