mcm301 2nd assg solution

Join our group for further help
Join FaceBook Group

Importance of Online Education in the Current Era

Higher education is undergoing an explosive period of transformation that embraces the
digital age. From tablets to smart phones to wikis and blogs, today's digital environment
makes communication, collaboration and information sharing easier than ever before.
Teaching and learning now occurs on a multi-dimensional level that involves both personal instruction
and cutting-edge online technologies. This paradigm shift has made advanced education considerably
more accessible to current and potential students, driving increased demand for online learning
opportunities.

Statistics show that higher education institutions are striving to meet this demand. The 2010
Sloan Survey of Online Learning revealed that enrollment rose by almost one million students
from a year earlier, and that nearly 30 percent of all college and university students now take
at least one course online. Online learning offers students easier access to education, as well
as a more personalized, flexible, and customized learning experience, which explains its
increasing popularity among a cross section of students including working professionals
interested in lifelong learning.
Along with the benefits, the phenomenal growth of online learning also presents an
uncharted set of challenges for academic institutions, most of which are much more familiar
with the traditional classroom setting. Additionally, it has spurred a new set of demands and
expectations from a range of stakeholders including students, instructors, regulatory
institutions and advocacy groups. Given these new challenges, several factors are proving to
be instrumental in shaping the way higher education institutions implement and improve
upon the state of online learning.
Academic accountability and transparency are two of the largest catalysts in the
transformation of online learning in higher education.
As more individuals enroll in online courses, certificate and degree programs, the need for a
universal standard of quality is escalating in importance. Currently, online programs must
adhere to specific standards, yet the level of academic rigor and quality offered may differ
from one school to another or one instructor to the next. Seeking consistency and excellence
government institutions, advocacy groups and students are calling for greater accountability
measures.
The mounting focus on accountability and transparency will naturally drive improved course
and content quality—a factor that is of ultimate importance to every institution.
But what will actually facilitate this overall improvement? Many experts agree academic
analytics and assessment solutions that are built into online learning environments,
particularly learning management systems, will serve as valuable tools when it comes to
assessing and amplifying course and content quality.
Technology is transforming education and its impact just continues to grow. By creating and
embracing a solid framework for online learning and employing cutting-edge learning
management systems, higher education institutions are in a position to significantly improve
student outcomes today and into the future.

Give one example of interpersonal communication in

cultural context that how variation in culture leads to

misunderstanding.

 

Answer
Intercultural communication is a form of communication that aims to share information
across different cultures and social groups. It is used to describe the wide range of
communication processes and problems that naturally appear within an organization or social
context made up of individuals from different religious, social, ethnic, and educational
backgrounds. Intercultural communication is sometimes used synonymously with crosscultural
communication. In this sense it seeks to understand how people from different
countries and cultures act, communicate and perceive the world around them. Many people
in intercultural business communication argue that culture determines how individuals
encode messages, what medium they choose for transmitting them, and the way messages
are interpreted

Example

The difference in communication styles influenced by culture is recognized as one major cause
for misunderstanding in intercultural communication. Anthropologist Hall (1976) proposed
the concept of High Context (HC) and Low Context (LC) communication. In HC societies, most
of the information is either in the physical context or initialized in the person, while very little
is in the coded, explicit, transmitted part of the message. While in LC societies, the mass of
information is vested in the explicated code. This concept has been borrowed by numerous
studies to explain the misunderstandings or miscommunications in intercultural
communication