4.5: Other Paradigms of Diversity

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In the design of online learning environment it is not only the diversity among people which is of utmost importance it is also the diversity among available resources and technologies, subject area, methods of assessment, and capabilities of both faculty and students to handle the technologies and their expectations from each other and from the course (Bhattacharya and Jorgensen, 2006).

In reality all the parameters or aspects of diversity are intermingled and intertwined with each other. The ideas or solutions can not be presented as stand-alone to address a single aspect of diversity; they are as complex and interlinked as a kaleidoscope, with the pieces connected to all the other pieces and to the whole. They interact with one another, and in that interaction change the dynamics. Make one small twist on the kaleidoscope, and the pieces shift into another pattern (Thomas and Woodruff, 1999). Therefore knowledge about diversity and the related issues are useful for developing online learning environments, but are not enough to design courses which will suit individual needs, expectations, interests, and so on. There are definitely no simple solutions or ideal conditions for designing online courses to address the issues of diversity.

In the following section we have identified some of the design principles for creating online learning environments to cater to diversity and discussed some of the innovations we have tried in this regard. Our motto is to “address diversity through variety”.