Culture Considerations for a Diverse Audience

Culture, which can be defined as the sum total of a society’s evolving attitudinal and behavioral learning, is one of the dominant influences on the design, implementation, and acceptance of learning.

Think about this:

• Some of us are open to learning in the online mode while many are not.
• Some of us accept computer games as a normal game activity for a kid or a teenager while others don’t.
• Some of us don’t find it unnatural that a woman may be in a position of power in an organization; however, some do.

Examples abound and it is not necessary to cite them all to bring home the fact that there are many thoughts and reactions, and also beliefs and attitudes that we have formed by being part of a culture. In India, a country that is modern in its cities and traditional in its towns; culture sprays upon us a fascinating rainbow of colors. In the same house, tradition and modernism coexist…and often they coexist in harmony. This harmony is a result of an internal persuasion that we experience through our traditional upbringing. We don’t argue with our elders, even when we don’t agree with their ideas. We let it be…we want to see our families smile…we avoid confrontation!

However, the story changes when we move out of our homes. We don’t mind the confrontation; we are not emotionally attached! This is the issue. Outside our homes, we are the consumers, the customers, or the audience…and we are all different. Our country is as culturally diverse as it is practically possible. Our differences are then further detailed by our particular familial values.

An instructional designer thus is the person on whose frail yet steady shoulders lies the responsibility of catering to a diverse audience that may, on the first glance, seem to be quite homogeneous!

Let us take a quick look at the different parameters of eLearning content that may be affected by this profusion of culture. The diversity of culture most certainly impacts the selection of:

1. The learning medium used
2. The examples used
3. The storylines used
4. The language/tone used
5. The characters used

1. The Learning Medium Used:
When your audience is a mix of individuals from different cultural backgrounds, determine whether the medium selected by you will be acceptable to them. I’ve often come across individuals who wish to learn instructional design for eLearning content development, but who are scared of enrolling in an online course. This example uproots the basic assumption that all educated people who reside in big cities and have been using Internet for a long-long time, would be comfortable with an online course.

It is easy to see that this fear is an outcome of the guru-shishya culture. The need of a guru is felt deeply, and for many it is difficult to imagine a remote guru. This is, of course, one of the many cultural parameters that impact the choice of the learning medium.

2. The Examples Used:
The examples that we use in our content should be created keeping the audience’s culture in mind. While dealing with a diverse audience, we have two options:

1. Create a course that has generic examples or no examples. (You are right! There are some courses that provide you an explanation of the concept, without supporting it with examples.)
2. Create a course with a lot of different examples that represent most of the dominant cultures. This requires us to carefully consider the different content areas in a course, determine which culture/sub-culture should the corresponding example be drawn from.

It is quite obvious that the first method is easy to use (and hence, inexpensive – because for the second, you require an instructional designer par excellence, who is a rare and expensive asset,) but it destroys the learning experience.

3. The Storylines Used:
When we select and develop the storylines for the various role-plays and case studies, we need to be careful about the culture of our audience. A story that refers to a live-in relationship to characterize the protagonist, will probably lead to the audience losing all sympathy for the protagonist right at the beginning; if the audience comprises traditional Indians. However, this story may be extremely relevant to the metropolitan youth of today.

The scenes that we describe, the backstory that we narrate, the objects that we talk of; should be culturally feasible in that particular culture.

4. The Language/Tone Used:
The language and the tone that we use in our content are two factors that connect us with the audience. In the case of eLearning content, these are extremely important; for the hurt caused by a spoken word lessens over a period of time while that caused by a written word stays and rankles. It rankles enough to divert the audience’s attention from the content to the pain.

We should be able to see the mental image of our audience when we speak to him or her. How often have we found ourselves calling those who are our seniors by tens of years by their first names? Often, if we work in an eLearning company or a BPO in one of the big cities of India; never, if we work in a factory located in a far-flung region, un-influenced by the fast-changing metro-culture.

A semi-formal tone works best in most cases. However, the dialogs used in the different stories may not follow this.

5. The Characters Used:
One of the IDCWC Online participants used “Vadhyar” as the main character in her project. She had selected a Tamil audience for the course (school teachers.) Think how strong the cultural connect “Vadhyar” established. However, had she selected “Indian Teachers” as her audience, in addition to “Vadhyar” she may have thought of other characters too.

A Character needs to blend seamlessly with the audience’s “imagination” of the character. Let me explain. We tend to imagine the characters, as we would know them; and we end up describing them according to our understanding. However, our description may be far away from the reality. When we create content for a diverse audience and use diverse examples, stories, and characters to interest them, we need to round off the characters correctly. This cultural correctness in the characters is important as it makes the characters real to those who belong to similar culture. Our description of a Gujarati woman should be acceptable to our Gujarati audience, and so on.

We need to be extremely honest with ourselves when we review the cultural factors. Often we will come across attitudinal issues that we may ourselves face…when this happens, we often lose objectivity and tend to ignore the concerned factor, but this ignorance may spell death for a course. Often, in our attempt to treat the audience objectively, we try to neutralize the positive as well as the negative cultural characteristics, thereby creating a colorless (and effect-less) audience profile. Please remember that the audience is not a number on an excel sheet; he or she a human-being…and all human-beings have their share of talents and faults. Some of these talents and faults are cultural and we need to acknowledge them – only then will we be able to reach out of the monitors to connect with our audience.

Author: Shafali R. Anand