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Cultural considerations in the assessment of class participation in international online courses James Paulson, PhD QUALITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION: GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES AND BEST PRACTICES Ho Chi Minh City, July 30-31, 2015

Cultural considerations in the assessment of class participation in international online courses

Outline • Introduction • Origin of the question – what motivated me to think about this • Assessment of class participation • Assessment rubrics • Uncertainty & ambiguity • Conclusions Cultural considerations in the assessment of class participation in international online courses

Introduction  Growth of online learning  Gaining legitimacy  Still small numbers of students engaging in online learning compared to face-to-face, particularly outside North America, Europe, Australia. Cultural considerations in the assessment of class participation in international online courses

Origin of the question Why investigate the assessment of class participation in online learning?  Curiosity  New to online teaching  Much experience in international education  Interest in the connection between the two Cultural considerations in the assessment of class participation in international online courses

The assessment of class participation  Relatively recent in higher education  Used in many classes as a means to instill a sense of ‘learning community’  It is difficult to assess participation  It is even more difficult to assess participation in online learning in a meaningful way. Cultural considerations in the assessment of class participation in international online courses

Assessment rubrics  My colleague Peter will discuss rubrics at length  Outlines performance necessary to attain a specific mark  Aims for transparency, objectivity, and consistency  Online learning environment is naturally suited to standard assessment rubrics Cultural considerations in the assessment of class participation in international online courses

Uncertainty & ambiguity  Tolerance of ambiguous situations varies among individuals (Clark, 2010)  Level of comfort with uncertainty is different between cultures (Hofstede, 1980)  Low uncertainty avoidance index: USA, Canada, UK, Australia  High uncertainty avoidance index: Japan, China, Korea, Latin America, Middle East, Vietnam Cultural considerations in the assessment of class participation in international online courses

Conclusions  Apply principles of ambiguity tolerance and uncertainty avoidance to rubrics assessing online class participation  Reduction of communicative uncertainty will help to ensure a more equable learning environment for all students whatever their national origin  Future research suggestions Cultural considerations in the assessment of class participation in international online courses

Thank you Full paper: Paulson, J. (2015). Cultural considerations in the assessment of class participation in international online courses. Proceedings of the International Conference, Quality In Higher Education: Global Perspectives and Best Practices , Ho Chi Minh City, July 30-31, 2015 James Paulson, PhD jamesnpaulson@gmail.com Cultural considerations in the assessment of class participation in international online courses

Cultural considerations in the assessment of class participation in international online courses