Business and Management UNIVERSITY COLLEGE CHICHESTER Business and Management Free e-learning for the Greater China Region: a cultural analysis of the Marketing Teacher experience. ECEL 2003 – November 6th 2003 Tim Friesner University College Chichester Professor Mike Hart King Alfred’s College, Winchester Tim Friesner and Mike Hart – November 2003

Tim Friesner and Mike Hart – November 2003

www.marketingteacher.com created in 2000 Contains 20 short lessons on common marketing topics and other resources 700,000 annual visitors (5,000,000 hits per annum) All FREE How can the underpinning idea of free e-learning be applied to non-Western cultures? Tim Friesner and Mike Hart – November 2003

Tim Friesner and Mike Hart – November 2003

Objectives To apply cultural models and frameworks to free e-learning for the Greater china Region To anticipate the challenges for free e-learning for the Greater China Region Tim Friesner and Mike Hart – November 2003

Cultures Religion Values and Attitudes Language Aesthetics Education Law and Politics Social organisation Technology and Material Culture A Cultural Framework – Terpstra and Sarathy (2000) Tim Friesner and Mike Hart – November 2003

Language Religion Values and attitudes Aesthetics 1.3 billion Mandarin Chinese speakers. More than 200 other languages and dialects in use Religion Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism Values and attitudes The Chinese strongly respect good education and degrees (Oh 1991) Aesthetics Cross-cultural differences between Western designed websites and Chinese developed sites (Hedberg and Brown 2002) Tim Friesner and Mike Hart – November 2003

Technology and material cultures Law and politics Censorship and copyright Technology and material cultures Filtering systems are becoming more refined (Zittrain and Edelman 2003) Education Learning is an active process and teaching materials should be lively (Liu, Lin and Wang 2002) Social organisation ‘Individuals’ - Learning styles and preferences of e-learners need to be taken into account (Liu, Lin and Wang 2002) Tim Friesner and Mike Hart – November 2003

The challenges for free e-learning: Web design – GCR is made up of diverse cultures Once website is meets needs, diffusion is quick Chinese learner feels subservient to teacher. What if no physical teacher exists? Direct word-for-word translations are not suitable Be careful not to contravene religious beliefs Education is highly regarded Use GCR images and brands as cases/examples Government is controlling Have a strategy for filtering Tim Friesner and Mike Hart – November 2003