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Culturally Inclusive Online Learning For Capacity Development Projects In International Contexts, Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena
Culturally Inclusive Online Learning For Capacity Development Projects In International Contexts, Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena
University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications
This paper explores cultural inclusivity in online learning design by discussing two international capacity development projects: an online tutor mentor development program in Sri Lanka and a hybrid physician assistant training program in Ghana. Inclusivity involves establishing partnerships and conducting needs assessments to maximize the capacity that already exists within a given context, and addressing cultural factors that impact online learning- — developing a learning community, negotiating identity, power, and authority, generating social presence, supporting collaboration, engaging in authentic inquiry-based learning, navigating interactions in a second language, and developing co-mentoring relationships to support learning. The paper provides a framework, WisCom …
Distributed Co-Mentoring As A Means To Develop Culturally Inclusive Online Learning Communities, Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena, Gayathri Jayatilleke, Geetha Kulasekara, Malinda Kumarasinha
Distributed Co-Mentoring As A Means To Develop Culturally Inclusive Online Learning Communities, Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena, Gayathri Jayatilleke, Geetha Kulasekara, Malinda Kumarasinha
University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications
Transformative online pedagogies call for innovative ways of conceptualizing the online environment and the student, teacher, and peer relationships. In this paper, we focus on how distributed co-mentoring can scaffold both social and knowledge building processes to develop culturally inclusive online learning communities. We critique traditional mentoring relationships, which have often sustained a biased class structure exclusive of diverse populations. We conceptualize co-mentoring drawing from the perspectives of two alternative mentoring theories: (1) feminist postmodern values that bring women and minorities into educational networks, and (2) mentoring mosaic where a diverse range of individuals of different ranks, ages, genders, ethnicities, …