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Best Practices for Culturally Responsive Online Instruction
Amy Mazur
The George Washington University
Washington, DC
amazur@gwu.edu
Tara Courchaine
The George Washington University,
Washington, DC
taratez@gwu.edu
Abstract: Culturally responsive online
instruction should be designed with a framework
that supports students’ cultural and linguistic
differences by providing differentiated
instructional opportunities that reflects students'
strengths, rather than their deficits. This paper
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addresses the role of the instructor in
implementing best practices for online
communication within a culturally responsive
instructional framework. After exploring current
research on the impact that culture has on
communication in online learning environments,
will make recommendations based on a replicable
online model that is currently in place at The
George Washington University.
Introduction
The role of the instructor is critical in terms of both
communication and instruction in evaluating the success of
online distance programs. One of the first and most important
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steps to creating a positive environment for communication is
finding competent and experienced instructors to support the
development and facilitation of a successful online program
(Santovec, 2004). Instructors are responsible for developing
courses, planning content, building communication and
collaboration, providing feedback and assessing learners. They
are also responsible for making sure learners have the supports
they need to navigate the online environment, including
understanding outlines, lectures, discussions, course rubrics and
participation expectations. Programs should be designed to
facilitate learning using a culturally responsive framework, in
order to support instructors in developing positive relationships
with students and creating an inclusive instructional
environment (Moore & Neal, 2007). This paper will address the
role of the instructor in facilitating effective communication
practices as a part of a culturally responsive instructional
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framework. In order to meet this goal, several terms will first be
defined: cultural responsiveness, asynchronous online learning
and communication. Once these have been defined the authors
will review current literature to identify best practices for
implementing culturally responsive online teaching practices,
identify the ways in which those practice have been incorporated
into the GWU bilingual special education distance model and
make recommendations for improved online communication and
instruction.
Cultural responsiveness can be defined as "a set of attitudes,
behaviors, and policies that integrates knowledge about groups
of people into practices and standards to enhance the quality of
services to all cultural groups being served." (Moore & Neal,
2007). It begins with the instructor’s understanding of his/her
personal culture, expectations and biases and the ability to
respond to the cultural, linguistic, social, emotional and
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educational needs of his/her students and is essential in
providing successful online instruction.
Asynchronous online learning refers to the interface and
model though which courses are offered. Asynchronous means
that courses are not offered in real time. A student may respond
at a time that is convenient for them rather than a scheduled
predetermined time. (Requirements such as, “Respond to two
colleagues’ postings before next Tuesday,” are examples of
asynchronous discussion procedures.) Online learning means
that students are participating in coursework in a virtual learning
environment. Students do not meet in a traditional classroom for
instruction, but participate using a web-based interface.
Universities use a variety of platforms to support online
learning; one technology to support this would be Blackboard.
Other content management systems such as WebCT, Moodle,
and even social networking sites such as Facebook are used for
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online instruction. Asynchronous learning can be beneficial to
students because it offers flexibility in responding, and allows
them to process information on their schedule taking as much
time as they need. However, it also has the potential to increase
miscommunication due to delayed feedback or cultural
misunderstandings.
Communication, for the purposes of online instruction, can
be defined as the way in which the instructor conveys ideas to
students and the way in which students convey ideas to each
other or to the instructor. Communication could be achieved
through the phone, email, chat, asynchronous online discussions
using the course discussion board, lectures or other materials
posted by the instructor. For our purposes we will primarily
focus the communication that occurs in the online discussion
board. In online courses students are often expected to
participate in weekly discussions by posting responses to
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questions and responding to the posts of other learners. They are
required to post within course timelines, but are not required to
be online at the same time.
The understanding each of these definitions above play a
critical role in examining best practices for culturally responsive
instruction.
Culturally Responsive Instruction
The success of a culturally responsive learning environment
relies on the cultural competence of the instructor and the
framework provided for communication. (Cartledge & Kourea
2008). Instructors need to recognize their personal beliefs and
biases, in order to respond to their students in a culturally
responsive manner. What instructors know and what they think
they know about different cultures has the potential to affect
their teaching (Cartledge and Kourea 2008). Without culturally
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responsive instruction, learning tools (i.e., books, teaching
methods, and activities) may be selected that are incompatible
with and in the worst scenarios, marginalize the students'
cultural experiences. When students feel marginalized they may
feel a dissonance that affects their ability to learn and succeed
academically.
Culturally responsive teaching should provide the
framework necessary to help teachers build positive
relationships with students and to help them use instructional
strategies that encourage the inclusion of students' cultures and
linguistic differences instead of considering deficits that can
interfere with learning (Moore & Neal 2007). Within the courses
students should be actively participating, interacting and
communicating with peers and their instructor to develop a
learning community.
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Smith and Ayers (2006) make a number of recommendations
for creating a culturally responsive online learning environment.
First, coursework should be student centered in order to help
them construct knowledge and develop multiple perspectives
provided by listening and responding to the feedback provided
by other learners. Textbooks should not be required in all
aspects of instruction; instead, students should identify links and
resources that are appropriate and increase learning (Smith &
Ayers 2006). For example, the instructor may use the text to
help students build foundations and background, but then
provide or ask the students to provide additional resources or
supports to extend learning. These materials will be more
valuable because they are culturally rich and intrinsically
important to the students who find them (Smith & Ayers 2006.)
Based on the findings above, a culturally responsive model
should encourage student interaction with each other and with
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their instructor, and materials should be developed to reflect a
variety of cultural values and styles (Smith & Ayres 2006). This
should include responsiveness to various communication and
learning styles.
For online courses to be culturally responsive, instructors
must be not only culturally competent themselves, but must also
be able to teach cultural competence to learners so that they are
able to build an environment of respect and understanding.
Instructors need to model cultural competence for their students
and provide opportunities for culturally responsive learning to
occur. The asynchronous format of many online programs limits
the instructor’s ability to react and mediate as s/he would in a
traditional classroom setting, so s/he must do more than post
culturally responsive lectures and resources (Picciano, 2002).
The instructor must also be able to facilitate communication that
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leads to the construction of knowledge and skills that students
can apply in other settings.
Brown (2007) cited several research articles that indicated
that in order to be culturally responsive, educators must design
instruction in a way that is responsive to students’ beliefs and
experiences. Gay (2002) agrees that cultural responsiveness is
critical, but that respect and appreciation of culture alone does
not create a true culturally responsive classroom. In order for
instructors to be effective when working with culturally and
linguistically diverse students it is essential to implement the
following five components of culturally responsive instruction
which are; developing a culturally diverse knowledge base,
designing culturally relevant curricula, demonstrating cultural
caring an build a community of learning, building effective
cross-cultural communication and delivering culturally
responsive instruction.
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Instructors need to have both the knowledge and a working
understanding of the cultures they are encountering in their
classrooms. Culture can affect both the students’ and the
instructor’s cultural, linguistic, social, emotional and educational
responses to learning. The relationship between a student and a
teacher is “dialectical, situational, culturally embedded, and
mediated by perceptions, expectations, and attributions.” (Gay
2002) In summary, online programs need to build from a
culturally responsive framework based on Gay’s five
components, employ culturally responsive instructors and design
instruction to respond to the individual needs of learners.
Role of the Instructor in Providing Culturally Responsive
Instruction
As noted above, the role of the instructor is critical to the
success of culturally responsive online courses. Once the
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courses have been developed instructors need to decide the
method(s) they will use to provide instruction and the manner in
which they participate in the course. The components of their
role include course development, planning and posting content,
scaffolding communication and collaboration, providing
feedback and assessing student progress. In a 2006 study,
Dennen, Darabi, and Smith looked at the communication and
interaction between the instructor and the learner in online
courses and found that communication and instructor feedback
significantly impacted student performance. Instructors surveyed
perceived responding to student inquiries, providing extensive
feedback, providing examples, modeling communication
guidelines, and checking email as the most important aspects of
instructor-student interaction. They felt it was important to
respond to students as individuals to help them feel supported in
their learning (Dennen, Darabi & Smith 2006). This data shows
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that it is important for instructors to consider their role in their
personal communication with students as a critical component of
student success.
Given this information, it necessary to consider how the
instructor should frame their participation in the course. Swan
suggests that instructors should practice “restrained”
participation in online course. She believed that instructor
participation was more important toward the beginning of the
course when it’s necessary to provide modeling and guidelines.
She suggested participation through threaded discussion, and
though individual responses to the student either within the
online interface or through email. The instructors should be
providing support to lessen the perceived distance between the
instructor and the students. She suggests that the instructor’s role
should be to provide students with the support they need to build
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their own discussions and scaffold knowledge to build higher
level thinking skills (Instructor’s restrained participation 2004).
Instructor’s Role in Facilitating Communication
The communication models that exist within online learning,
especially asynchronous online learning programs, can lead to
misunderstandings and misinformation that would not occur in a
typical classroom (Picciano 2002). As noted above, when
students respond asynchronously, they do not receive immediate
feedback because other learners are not required to be online at
the same time. When designing online coursework the instructor
needs to acknowledge that the students’ success in an online
course is dependent on their sense of “presence” within the
course. This idea of ‘presence’, while it is applicable to both
online learning and face-to-face learning, is not a universally
understood concept. Rather, the idea of “presence” is one which
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is culturally mediated and which can vary according to an
individual’s expectations and beliefs regarding issues such as
communication, appropriate learning behaviors, and interaction
with the instructor, as each of these has the capacity to impact
the quality of a student’s experience in a class and to impact the
way in which he or she relates to others who may be “present.”
For example, the instructor’s and students’ expectations may be
different in terms of course requirements and “presence”. As
you will see below, different cultures value the role and
expectations of communication differently. An instructor from a
culture that values student participation and feedback may
require a student to share their own perspective and critical
feedback the group in order to get an “A” in the course. A
student may not be comfortable participating or providing that
feedback because, within their culture, it is disrespectful or
inappropriate. The cultural responsiveness on the part of the
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instructor can help to mitigate these factors to improve student
success.
Clearly, several different factors may play into whether a
student feels ‘present’ , but one of those issues is based on
instructors understanding of culture and how communication is
framed in order to respond to cultural differences. One of the
primary factors that may impact the instructor’s role in online
communication can be indentified by examining Hofstede’s
theory of power distance index and its potential impact on
student participation and learning in online coursework.
Hofstede (1991) has identified five dimensions related to
culture that have the potential to impact students’ participation
and learning within online coursework: power distance index,
individualism vs. collectivism, masculinity vs. femininity,
uncertainty avoidance and long-term vs. short term goals. Power
distance refers to expectations of how the less powerful
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members of a society believe that power should be distributed.
In societies with a low power distance there is an effort made to
minimize inequalities and lessen the power distance and in
societies with high power distance, individuals look to those
with power to make decisions, and inequalities are considered
more acceptable (Hofstede 1991). By applying principles of
power distance, instructors can frame online communication
within the context of culture by understanding how different
students may respond to communication and discussion
requirements.
In 2007, Wang also examined power distance index (PDI) of
students from the US, China and South Korea to determine
learners’ perceptions of their online learning experiences. She
noted that China and South Korea have high context cultures,
collectivistic cultures, and cultures with a high acceptance of
unequal distribution of power. The United States, on the other
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hand, has a low context culture, an individualistic culture and a
low cultural acceptance of an uneven distribution of power. She
found that all students learned better when they were engaged in
learning and were actively participating in online learning
activities but goes on to note that culture impacted both their
online presences and their perceptions of the course (Wang
2007). Wang (2007) found that students participated in online
discussions because it was a part of the course requirement or to
find help and support in completing assignments. The American
students also participated in online communication to feel a
connection with other students within the course. The overall
“complaints” about asynchronous communication were that they
were attached to grades, were frustrating due to unresolved
arguments and lack of student involvement and were
inconvenient. In general, American students felt at ease with
online communication and viewed their instructor as more of an
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equal. Overall, they felt comfortable approaching their instructor
for help and asking question for clarification. Asian students,
who do not tend to speak in traditional classrooms, felt “lost”
when expected to speak online. They felt unsure about the rules,
rituals and expectations of online communication. They did not
feel as comfortable approaching their instructor and viewed their
instructor in a role of authority, rather than as an equal (Wang,
2007). In conclusion, Wang suggested that in order to promote
online communication, instructors need to present themselves as
equals in order to lessen the perceived power distance. They also
need to be supportive of students online discussion needs and
help students build relationships with each other in order to
facilitate learning.
Findings show that, while student engagement is critical to
course success, discussion requirements can be frustrating for
students from varying cultural backgrounds. The instructor can
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apply these findings by differentiating instruction to provide
students with various ways to participate and respond within the
course. At the beginning of the course, the instructor can use the
discussion board as a “safe place” for students to introduce
themselves and share their backgrounds. It also may be a good
place for them to share their communication expectations. While
it may not be possible for the instructor to eliminate the grading
requirement tied to discussions s/he can use a rubric that shares
expectations and scaffolds student responses. S/he can also give
the students ownership of discussion facilitation, reducing the
“power” of the instructor and placing the onus for learning on
the student. Finally, instructors can use the discussion board as a
place for students to ask questions and receive clarification on
assignments. This can help to make the discussion board a place
of support and community building. It is suggested that these
strategies will provide a communication model that can used
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successfully for all students and help to mitigate some of the
PDI issues for students from places where there is a high
acceptance for unequal distribution of power.
In conclusion, both communication and instruction are critical
factors in asynchronous online instruction and both of these
factors are mediated by the role of the instructor. When the
instructor is able to design both of these pieces using a culturally
competent framework students have the potential to be more
successful and there are fewer opportunities for
miscommunication. As Swan (2004) notes, perhaps one of the
best models involves the instructor scaffolding his/her role, by
providing more models and supports at the beginning of the
semester and lessening these supports as the students understand
and are successfully responding to course expectations. Ideally,
as the instructor guides the students towards a more student
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centered model she will be able to reduce the issues of power
distance by presenting herself as an equal.
As the instructor designs instruction s/he should also use a
student centered model which focuses on student construction of
knowledge and ownership of learning. The instructor may want
to provide the students with opportunities to select and share
their own resources and materials and to facilitate their own
learning. By providing students with these experiences the
instructor is giving students opportunities to construct and share
knowledge from their individual cultural perspectives. It is
important that the instructor takes the time to reexamine and
reevaluate his/her own values and beliefs in order to better
respond to the needs of the students and also be willing to adapt
instruction when something is not working.
Current Model
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The goal of the George Washington University’s bilingual
special education online distance program is to provide teachers,
though a culturally responsive framework, with resources
necessary to meet the needs of culturally and linguistically
diverse learners within their classrooms. The online program
necessitates meeting the needs of distance learning students
from various cultural and linguistic backgrounds including
students who are second language learners. Students participate
in the online coursework asynchronously using Blackboard.
The cohort includes general educators, special educators,
reading teachers, ESOL teachers and administrators.
Within the courses, the primary role of the instructor is to
facilitate student learning and engagement throughout each 12
week course. The instructors are responsible for selecting the
primary text/s for the course and for providing supplementary
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readings and resources. Additionally, the instructors post the
weekly outline, including weekly assignments, upcoming
projects, notes and other supplementary resources including
Point Presentations and/or videos. The instructor selects the
discussion questions/ topics for each week and participates, with
the students, in the weekly discussions. Finally, the instructor is
responsible for grading which include projects and papers, as
well as weekly discussions.
Student responsibilities include weekly engagement in
discussions that meet the requirements detailed in the discussion
rubric. This includes posting an initial discussion response and
then responding to at least two other students during the week.
Students are expected to include examples and/ or references to
research in their discussion posts so that we can see that students
are using higher order thinking skills and are attempting to tie
theory to practice. When the instructors engage, they attempt to
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present themselves as equals while, at the same time, serving as
a facilitator and model for effective communication. We have
found that it is effective when the instructor uses the beginning
of the semester to serve as a model for communication and then
once students are aware of expectations and are participating
appropriately to take on a more restrained role in the
discussions.
In order to create discussion threads that challenge students to
respond using higher order thinking skills and to engage with
peers the students were assigned to small groups of six. We
found that when students attempted to engage in large group
discussions that threads were not well developed and the
students were overwhelmed with the number of responses they
had to read and respond to resulting in numerous, but often
superficial, responses. The small group set up made responding
more manageable for both the students and the instructor even
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though the instructor was responsible for participating in all
groups. One way to modify this even further would be to pair
students from different cultures and have them facilitate the
discussion for their group each week further reducing the power
distance index between the instructor and the students.
Efforts are made throughout the program to encourage the
students to reflect on their perceptions, prior knowledge and
experiences. At the beginning of the course, all participants
introduce themselves and are asked to share information about
their background and experiences in order to help the
participants put a story and a culture to each name and have
some context for interpreting and understanding others’
responses. Each week students are asked to continue to use
personal examples and experiences to help build on course
topics. Students are also asked to share information from their
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own cultures and from the cultures of their students in order to
make information more relevant and meaningful.
Materials and resources are chosen for classes based on
students’ cultural backgrounds as well as the intent of the
course. Although textbooks are used in the majority of our
courses, readings are supplemented by links, resources and
articles suggested by both the instructors and the students
reflecting their own learning traditions. Courses currently offer a
range of projects and assignments that give students
opportunities to express knowledge in a variety of ways and to
continuously tie theory to practice.
One of the ways the program has been most successful in
developing better communication and more student centered
learning is by giving students regular opportunities to make
meaning from the information provided. It could be argued that
we are still employing a hierarchical system by having the
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instructor provide a majority of the resources and lectures.
However, students have the chance to engage in student-led
discussions and to create major term projects which allow them
to synthesize learning on their own terms as the semester
continues. In this way, instructor-led discussions can act as
springboards from which students begin to build their own
knowledge and understanding by engaging in conversations with
other participants in the course. Encouraging instructors to
participate as collaborators, rather than evaluators, helps to
reduce the power distance and gives student opportunities to
develop their own perceptions. By valuing student responses, we
hope to enhance their feeling of “online presence”.
Recommendations and Conclusions
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Recommendations are made based on both the research and
the authors’ experiences in working with instructors to facilitate
communication within a culturally responsive framework.
Asynchronous online coursework is most effective when the
instructor is aware of his/her own cultural beliefs and biases.
Once the instructor can respond from this perspective s/he can
implement Gay’s (2002) five components into instruction and
effectively tie theory to practice. For that reason, it is essential
that instructors engage in a period of self-reflection, either on
their own or, preferably, in a discussion with colleagues who
also teach diverse learners, in order to identify their own biases
and dialogue about best practices for involving all students.
We encourage selecting instructors who can respond to a
diverse population of learners. Instructors should be willing to
share their stories and experiences with their students and should
encourage students to do the same. This can also be done by
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providing students with opportunities to post their own articles
and resources that are reflective of their personal backgrounds,
and by providing discussion forums where students can respond
to one another’s postings and identify the ways in which those
postings may be applicable to their own experience. Second,
instructors need to be available to students on Blackboard as
well as through email. Students should be able to receive timely
responses when they have questions or concerns about a topic or
assignment. It has also been found that online office hours are
helpful because students appreciate having a set time when they
know they can reach their instructor and can ask questions in a
synchronous environment, by using the telephone, a Blackboard
chat room or email instant messaging.
Finally, we recommend looking more closely at the
instructor’s role in online discussions. Students may feel more
ownership of learning if they take turns facilitating their own
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discussions and the instructor adopts the role of a participant. In
order to do this successfully, the instructor must provide the
necessary models and supports at the beginning of the semester
so that the students are aware of and able to meet discussion
expectations. Throughout the semester the instructors should
model constructive feedback in order to lessen potential for
miscommunication. As courses progress, instructors should be
cognizant of student feedback and make course adjustments as
necessary. Many times a small change can make a significant
impact on instruction and learning.
As we have discussed a number of seemingly minor factors,
cumulatively, have a significant impact on the quality of the
students learning experiences in an online class. As described
here, the literature on best practices provides suggestions for
implementing those changes and a framework for how this
might be accomplished. As online educators continue to
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embrace changing technologies and look for new ways to
implement successful instruction, the concept of cultural
responsiveness is critically important in ensuring that online
education is able to meet the learning needs of an increasingly
diverse population of students from around the globe.
References
Brown, M. (2007). Educating All Students: Creating Culturally
Responsive Teachers, Classrooms, and Schools. Intervention in
School & Clinic, 43 (1), 57-62. R
Cartledge, G. & Kourea, L. (2008). Culturally responsive
classrooms for culturally diverse students with and at risk for
disabilities. Exceptional Children, 74 (3), 351-371.
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Cross. (1989). What is cultural competency? The Office of
Minority Health. Retrieved on September 17, 2008 from
http://www.omhrc.gov/templates/browse.aspx?lvl=2&lvlid=11
Dennen, V., Darabi, A, & Smith, L. (2007). Instructor-learner
interaction in online courses: The relative perceived importance
of particular instructor actions on performance and satisfaction.
Distance Education, 28 (1), 65-79.
Instructor's 'restrained participation' in threaded discussions
gives students’ control, ownership of learning. (2004). Online
Classroom, Retrieved June 6, 2008, from Academic Search
Premier database.
Hofstede, G. (1991) "Culture-Specific Marketing
Communications: An Analytical Approach," International
Marketing Review, 8 (2),18-30.
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Gay, G. (2002). Culturally responsive teaching in special
education for ethnically diverse students: setting the stage.
International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 15
(6), 613-629.
Moore, A. & Neal, L. (2007). Differentiating instruction through
culturally responsive teaching: Alphabet soup and the voices of
special educators. Black History Bulletin, 70 (1), 2-3.
Picciano, A.G. (2002). Beyond student perceptions: Issues of
interaction, presence and performance in an online course, 6
(1), 21-41.
Santovec, M. (2004). Strategies to ensure quality. Distance
Education Report, 8 (22), 1-4.
Smith, D & Ayers. (2006). Culturally responsive pedagogy and
online learning: Implications for the globalized community
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Recommended