Web-Based Teaching and Learning across Culture and Age

With limited empirical research available on online teaching across cultures especially with Native and Hispanic American students, this book will present the findings of a two-year, Spencer-funded study in creating an inclusive (i.e., multicultural and intergenerational) instructional design model for online learning. The book is expected to provide the readers a field guide of teaching approach (comprising pedagogical, technical, relational and other suggestions for teaching) for inclusive e-learning, with a foundation in the research on how students from different cultures and generation groups learn online. This two-year, multi-course-site study, as a first effort to examine online college teaching and learning effective across culture and age, contributed a list of important findings on the following questions: • To what extent are online learning and interaction experiences and performances consistent across varied ethnic/cultural, and age groups and in what ways do they vary? • What online instructional contexts do students and faculty, especially non-traditional and minority students, identify as supporting learning and student success? • What are the relationships between online instructional contexts, online learning performance, and learning success of students with diverse ethnicity/culture and age background? By consolidating the findings for the aforementioned research questions, the researchers of this study have developed a data-driven online instructional design model that can work as a field guide on cross-cultural and intergenerational teaching and learning for online education practitioners.

Fengfeng Ke, Ph.D. is a faculty member in Educational Psychology and Learning Systems at the Florida State University. Her research has focused on educational technology applications for lifelong learning. Currently, she is studying digital game-based learning, computer-supported collaborative learning, and instructional multimedia. Her research has been published in refereed journals such as Educational Technology Research & Development, International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, Computers & Education, British Journal of Educational Technology, and Internet and Higher Education. Her Ph.D is in Instructional Systems from the Pennsylvania State University. Alicia Fedelina Chávez, Ph.D. is a faculty member in Educational Leadership and Organizational Learning at the University of New Mexico. She has served as a collegiate leader, student affairs professional, and faculty member in universities around the country, most recently leading a campus in Northern New Mexico and as Dean of Students at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Her Ph.D. is in Higher Education - Policy Studies from the University of Arizona, her masters is in Student Affairs/Higher Education Administration from Iowa State University, and her bachelors is in psychology from New Mexico State University. She is published in areas of developing teaching, leadership, and organizational culture for diversity in higher education.