Authentic e-Learning in a Multicultural Context: Virtual Benchmarking Cases from Five Countries

摘要

The implementation of authentic learning elements at education institutions in five countries, across eight online courses in total, is examined in this paper. The International Virtual Benchmarking Project (2009-2010) applied the elements of authentic learning developed by Herrington and Oliver (2000) as criteria to evaluate authenticity. Twelve teachers in four benchmarking pairs applied these elements to compare practices and identify development challenges in their online courses. The results indicate multiple roles and perspectives and scaffolding were the most strongly implemented elements. Collaborative construction of knowledge was implemented weakly. Development challenges were identified, such as the need for continuous authentic assessment. The project raised teachers' awareness of cultural background as a factor affecting views on authentic e-learning, and highlighted the need for differences in the cultural codes of e-learning to be considered when developing multicultural learning.