Dimensions of Culturally Sensitive Factors in the Design and Development of Learning Objects

Abstract: Open educational resources (OERs) are designed to be globally reusable. Yet comparatively little attention has been given to the cultural issues. This paper addresses the issue of culturally sensitive factors that may influence the design of reusable learning objects. These influences are often subtle and hard to manage. The paper proposes a structured approach to explore and organise the culturally sensitive factors that are likely to be encountered in terms of four major dimensions. These dimensions serve to articulate and classify the large and diverse literature on cultural differences into a manageable format. This provides a basis to address the cross-cultural issues during the process of the design and development of open educational resources (OERs).