The impact of culture on personalization of learning environments: some theoretical insights

Abstract

In an increasingly competitive environment, universities around the world are opening their doors for international students due to economical and legislative (e.g. Bologna Agreement) considerations. This process of Interna- tionalisation and Globalisation has made the Universities increasingly multicul- tural. There are two current trends in higher education: an increase in the use of open and personalised online learning technologies, and a significant interna- tionalisation of the student cohorts. Therefore, the barriers associated with the cultural differences in learning environments and specifically emerging learning environments (e.g. PLEs) become more and more important with the increasing globalisation of education. In this paper the authors explore the impact of vari- ous cultural aspects on learning within open and personalized learning environ- ments instigating future pedagogical and technological debate.