1. 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

2. Tim Friesner and Mike Hart – November 2003

3. 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

4. Tim Friesner and Mike Hart – November 2003

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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