In 1998 the Department of Marketing at The Aarhus School of Business together with five other European universities2 participated in an EU supported project with the aim of teaching Cross-Cultural marketing in a virtual cross cultural learning environment.

The basic idea behind the project was that the learning of Cross-cultural marketing could benefit by the construction of a virtual environment in which students and teachers from different cultures could exchange experiences. At the outset of the project it was also recognised, however, that the inherent characteristics of the subject of Cross-Cultural Marketing, potentially represented an obstacle to the success of the programme.

The virtual environment consisted of an electronic classroom containing course description, information on Open Distance Learning (ODL), lectures, groups, plenum discussion, informal meeting place, and library. The teaching was conducted by the Marketing Department at the Aarhus School of Business. The ten lectures consisted of Power Point slides and cases. We intended the learning process to be a combination of self-study (bibliography and lectures) and exchange of views in groups and plenum. Twice a week the tutor was on-line for discussion and questions.

At the end of the project a questionnaire was distributed to all students. The most important finding was that students with previous experience in group based teaching gained the most from the project. Among the respondents there was also a broad consensus as to the question whether an introductory face-to-face meeting of students and tutors, at one or more occasions, would have improved the quality of the teaching programme. Other important findings from the survey will be presented at the Cross Cultural Marketing conference in Cancun.

Presentation of the Virtual Student Mobility Project

The Virtual Student Mobility (VSM) programme[iii] is an EU (SOKRATES) supported pilot project which had a two-year duration - from 1996 to 1998. Lancaster University operated as both overall co-ordinator and as partner in the project and the other partners were respectively the University of Porto, Luiss University Rome, Athens University of Economics and Business, Groupe ESC Lyon, and The Aarhus School of Business.

The overall intention of the VSM project was to provide the non-mobile EU students with the opportunity to become virtually mobile by creating six cross-cultural virtual learning environments on the Internet which the students from the participating universities could attend[iv]. The one semester modules were all on economics and business from various perspectives, but they were taught differently in different EU cultures so that students may be exposed to up to six different European cultures. They were all at master level and the students were able to obtain ECTS credits just like in any other exchange programme. The teaching materials and resources (e.g. lecture input, reading lists, case-studies, tutorials, questions, etc.) were provided on-line, and even tests and examinations were made available via the Internet. The communication in the modules was intended to be based on dialogues amongst students and tutors via the use of computer-conferencing (Lotus Notes). The underlying assumption of using computer conferencing was that it has the potential of producing open communities, not just regarding access, but in the sense of open-ended interpretation, active communication, negotiation, and communicative action.

Another aim of the project was to evaluate the organisational obstacles to using its approach to ODL and how they may be overcome. The cross-cultural elements of the programme worked at two levels: The contact between tutors and students took place in the virtual settings and the project management also had a conference on the Internet dedicated to co-ordinating activities, evaluation of student and staff experience, planning of workshops, etc. The students never met, whereas the project management held three workshops during the project.

Presentation of Cross Cultural Marketing as Open Distance Learning

The intentions of the Aarhus module "Cross Cultural Marketing" were among other things to:

· Provide the students with an understanding of the problem-solving process of international marketing by looking at marketing from a cross-cultural perspective.

· To make the students familiar with topics like cross-cultural consumer behaviour and market research, international marketing strategies, company and culture, international product policy and distribution, cross-cultural communication and advertising, and international relations and negotiations.

· To make the students work together in cross-cultural groups thus exchanging ideas and opinions on marketing based on their national backgrounds.

· The assessment was intended to be based upon weekly responses on the web, coursework assessment (in groups) and a final individual report.

The virtual environment consisted of an electronic classroom containing course description, information on Open Distance Learning (ODL), lectures, groups, plenum discussion, informal meeting place, and library. In the pedagogical design we wanted to encourage two-way communication by including discussion forums and the student café.

The module received 23 applications; 18 from Athens, 4 from Lancaster, and 1 from Lyon. The uneven distribution of students had serious implications for the original intention of cross-cultural collaboration and exchange of experiences. The module ended up by consisting of Athens students only and the activity in the discussion forums on the Internet was scarce. Many students selected the module because of the cross-cultural elements and thus ironically they dropped out of the course due to lack of cross-cultural co-operation. These phenomena are owing to both pedagogical and organisational aspects which will be discussed in detail below. The remaining students (Greek) were individualists who did not show any interest in group work, therefore the group assessment part had to be left out of the evaluation. The student drop-out number was generally high, but the students who passed the exam managed very well.

Research Methodology

Data on tutor and student experience was collected locally after the termination of the one semester modules and co-ordinated by Lancaster University. Furthermore, in order to assess the obstacles and the costs and benefits of the ODL projects to the participating institutions data was gathered via workshops and questionnaires.

Due to the difficulties the institutions faced regarding the recruitment of students for the project only 46 students took part in the VSM experience and completed their studies. The response rate of the student questionnaires was 37 % (17 out of 46 students), the onset of summer holidays probably influencing the number of responses[v]. Thus the results can in no way be said to be significant.

The table clearly shows that lack of sufficient information, whether supplied by the web or via the discussion conference, was the main factor contributing to the lack of learning effectiveness experienced. Therefore, apart from the technical difficulties using the Lotus Notes discussion software which will be discussed later, other interesting conclusions can be made from the survey regarding the effectiveness of the ODL learning approach in a cross-cultural setting:

· apparently, the tutors lacked the facilitation skills to make better use of the conferences.

· Apparently, the students were not properly introduced to the new way of learning and communicating, including thorough local instruction to using the Lotus Notes conferencing software.

· Apparently, different teaching/learning cultures at the different partner institutions militated against collective discussions in some cases.

As to the third point, experiences from the Aarhus vs. Athens cultural encounter e.g. showed that the Athens students were generally more individualistic making it very difficult to encourage group communication. The communication in "Cross Cultural Marketing" therefore basically consisted of individual e-mails. This was also the case in Athens' own module in which no discussion conferences existed. The Danish students therefore decided to work collectively in a very well-organised way while expressing the Know-All - attitude and the "professional accuracy" which are typical traits of the Danish national character[ix] in their communication with the Greek tutor. The Danish students managed the course very successfully due to their close co-operation.

Concludingly, the study of the students' experience of the VSM project suggests that ODL modules are a viable way to study abroad and receive academic credit. However, institutions wishing to encourage such opportunities must attend to the technical and administrative difficulties and even more importantly to the facilitative skills of the teaching staff. Institutions should not assume that a tutor skilled at face to face teaching will necessarily be able to transfer those skills to electronic media even when these offer the possibility of group discussion.

The very factors which make ODL modules effective (i.e. individuals can work at their own pace and time) mean that interaction will be at least asynchronous and disjointed and sometimes may cease inexplicably causing general consternation and anxiety amongst all would-be participants. The emotional highs and lows of this form of educational process should not be under-estimated, especially where group conferences are regarded as a major vehicle for teaching and learning. Therefore, if institutions want to make VSM a cultural as well as a distance learning experience they will have to pay more attention to the design of electronic learning environments and the facilitation skills of the tutors. However, other factors such as e.g. administrative and organisational differences among the European cultures also play a major role in the facilitation of ODL as a cross cultural learning experiment.

Results: Staff/Organisational Experience

Three main themes tended to be predominant as regards the experiences of the VSM institutions:

· Technical

· Pedagogical

· Administrative

The observations below are based upon the questionnaires (qualitative, open-ended) from Lancaster to each institution including matters such as obstacles to and costs of producing the modules, questions to tutors about positive and negative aspects of teaching in the ODL fashion compared to ordinary face-to-face lectures, and questions about the institutions' dissemination plans, etc.

Technical aspects

It is not the intention of this paper to go into details about technical matters, but instead consider the matters concerning technology which are important seen from a cross-cultural perspective. One of the ideas about the VSM project was that a common technological platform should provide a way of sharing development effort and was also the best way to ensure easy access to the various modules for staff and students in all institutions. The conferencing- and database system Lotus Notes[x] was chosen by Lancaster as the common communication platform for the project. However, it turned out that only three partners managed to make Lotus Notes work and to integrate the system into the tutoring and project management work process. Therefore the technical, organisational and educational co-operation via the Internet did not work out as originally intended and the communication with the three partners which did not use Lotus Notes had to take place by fax, telephone, and bilateral e-mail.

The VSM partners basically faced the same technical problems which had to be overcome:

· The main reason for the disinclination to use Lotus Notes was that the programme required a substantial amount of system administrator support which was felt to be particularly cumbersome and expensive by the countries of the "less-favoured" regions of the EU. Instead they made use of existing systems.

· The unexpected amount of e- mail inquiries from students about technical and administrative matters concerning partners' courses reduced the time left for cross-cultural co-operation via Lotus Notes.

· Generally, the amount of support, be it technical, administrative, or pedagogical, was under-estimated by most partners.

Pedagogical aspects

The VSM institutions and the involved tutors were asked to

evaluate the pros and cons of teaching modules in a cross-

cultural context through the Internet.Many aspects were

mentioned and there was generally widespread consensus

among the institutions on the following statements:

Pros J

· Flexibility and independency of time and place.

· Lecture material and discussions of it by lecturer and students traceable also after the termination of the courses. Thus the working/learning process can be studied.

· Students are forced to become more active in the learning process, that is IF they participate as they should (…)

· Pedagogical challenge. You need to consider your planning, structure and contents of your module in a new light and reconsider things you take for granted.

· Greater understanding of the potential and drawbacks of electronic teaching.

· Transparency: All members of the group can see all the work.

· Time to consider questions and answers beforehand.

· Contact with VSM colleagues at partner institutions.

· The ease of distributing electronic teaching materials.

· As a tutor you are able to get a closer contact with the individual student than in big lecture halls. You can easily discover who is active and who is not by the students' written responses in the conferences.

· All partners gained considerably technical and pedagogical experience in designing and developing an electronic learning environment. - These experiences have been employed in present ODL projects at The Aarhus School of Business.

Cons L

· It can be very difficult to motivate students who have not seen each other to work together electronically. Furthermore, in the VSM case you are faced with cultural and geographical boundaries as well.

· No immediate reaction from students.

· The amount of time spent developing and running an ODL module: Unless the study of ODL is in the tutor's area of research interest there is little incentive to spend time in this way.

· Lack of face-to-face contact between lecturer and student.

· Lack of student participation and lack of understanding/information about the reason for the silence.

· As a tutor you will need to spend more time preparing for an ODL course than for at traditional module. You need to include a lot more explanations since you cannot get the students' immediate reactions (This can be an advantage as well).

· Very resource intensive - at least if you have to respond to every comment from every student which was often the case because students tended to interact with the tutor only.

Teaching modules in the ODL fashion surely implies a considerable amount of time-place flexibility. Other interesting aspects not attempted in the VSM project could be to promote a close co-operation with enterprises and universities throughout the world by "exchanging" well-known professors and business people thus expanding the individual institution's supply of modules.

However, as the VSM experiences have shown it is very important to be aware that ODL is resource intensive because it requires a substantial amount of technical support and time and energy for pedagogical innovation. ODL in cross-cultural settings requires another pedagogical approach than those employed by most VSM tutors, namely an approach which focuses on making the students feel at home and at ease in the technological environment and preferably making them work together in cross-cultural teams. Otherwise ODL can be a very time-consuming and frustrating experience to the tutor. - To e.g. the tutors from Lancaster the ODL experience turned out to be very time-consuming because most students tended to send individual e-mails to the tutors instead of using the conferencing board. Lancaster has taught the same module as part of an international MBA in the traditional way and the experience was that there was much less student-student contact in the ODL case: 98-99 per cent of the messages were between student and tutor, whereas in the face-to-face case probably 80 per cent of the conversation is between students (e.g. in small group discussion)[xi]. Therefore it is necessary to elaborate on the pedagogical development in regards to ODL, be it case method teaching[xii] or other sorts of group-processing methods[xiii], or it could be the development of organised feed-back mechanisms, e.g. multiple choice tests. Another aspect which some of the partners focused on was face-to-face sessions for students and staff before and during an ODL course.

Furthermore, various psychological factors could be prohibitive for the discussions in the web conferences. It can be very daunting to students to introduce themselves in disembodied cyber-space, in a foreign language in a chat-room like space, to a group of people who might have an influence upon how well or badly he or she is seen to handle the learning process over the next few months or so. Given this starting point, and given that the teacher is bereft of the usual cues that allow him or her to read the audience's emotional state in a face-to-face lecture, there is the potential for things to go wrong. In order to prevent things from going wrong from the very start one might contemplate designing into the course features such as assessed presentations or group projects or assessing individual contributions to collective discussion in the web conferencing. Another alternative might be the inclusion of a section describing the learning ethos aimed at by the course in the introductory materials, emphasising the necessity of participation. Other options might include an element of team teaching, so that there are more teachers than one participating in conferences and role-modelling the kinds of dialogue possible, especially in the early stages. Team teaching could include more than one teacher working together at the host university or it could involve the participation of teachers from the sending university alongside their students. Some sort of tutor co-operation regarding ODL could prove to be very fruitful, since the very social and cultural dimension which VSM aspires to can be most difficult to handle in cyber-space, calling on all of the teacher's powers of communication, interpersonal and intercultural understanding.

Administrative aspects

Concerning the administrative process the partners generally came to the conclusion that it required much more time and co-operation than originally expected. First and foremost it is vital that the planning and co-ordination of the modules start very early in the process in order to consider matters such as the starting dates of courses and the length of semesters and holidays which varied considerably in the six countries making it difficult to co-ordinate the student applications and to co-operate on ad hoc problems.

Another matter which turned out to be important in the VSM context was the distribution of students which was very uneven among the countries. It might be beneficial to agree on a maximum number of students from the same country for a particular module in order to avoid the problems the Aarhus module experienced by the overwhelming representation of Greek students. It might also be relevant to agree on a minimum number of students for a module.

The level of information given to students from the individual institutions concerning introduction to ODL study, conferencing system, technical matters, etc. also turned out to be vital for the success of the programme. It is thus very important that the institutions make an effort to introduce the students to the new way of studying and to advise them to form groups if possible in an introductory session before semester start. Here they must also be equipped with a list of fellow students and tutors, preferably with photographs.

All institutions involved in the VSM project gained a lot of experience in the potential and drawbacks of electronic teaching and co-operation. The ability to exchange students virtually and the possibility of using technology in teaching as probed by the VSM project are two matters which have important implications for all institutions. However, as the VSM project showed, virtual settings require close co-operation and co-ordination and hard work both pedagogically, technically and administratively. Generally, commitment in the electronic management conference proved to be more difficult to achieve than at face-to-face meetings. Experience showed that the level of activity and commitment in the management conference on the Internet increased considerably before and immediately after a face-to-face seminar after which it tended to diminish. Therefore, the cost of workshops will be necessary in future ODL projects since they have proved to be vital in making partners stick to deadlines and commit themselves to the project.

The VSM project involved approximately 65 students and staff. The implications of the ODL virtual exchange on a mass- scale need yet to be addressed and analysed.

The Conditions for Successful Application of ODL in Inter-university Settings

The section below considers ODL from the broad range of perspectives touched upon in this paper. It is important to stress the fact that the conditions for successful application of ODL in an international environment presuppose local support as previously mentioned. The following points are based upon the VSM experiences, but would probably also be applicable to other cross-cultural ODL projects.

· It is important that there is agreement in the planning of the programme on ECTS principles, transcripts of records, course duration, and preferably on semester start- and end dates, holidays, etc.

· It is advisable to agree on a common language for the courses and international communication.

· Experiences from the VSM project showed that the uneven distribution of students was problematic for the intentions of cross-cultural co-operation. Therefore it would be advisable to agree on a maximum number of students from the same country for at course. A minimum number as regards students for at module would also be relevant.

· Concerning the recruitment of students it is important to increase the marketing efforts of ODL projects compared to traditional courses.

· Agreement upon using existing web servers in the institutions will prove to be more fruitful than to implement a new server platform as done in the VSM case. The implementation of a new server for a single development project is not likely to succeed in most cases.

· Local institutional support and finance is necessary: technical and administrative, but not the least on management level. Otherwise the necessary time for pedagogical development will not be allocated.

· Recognition of ODL teaching and research by local departmental work allocation systems.

References

1. Askegaard, Søren, Martine Cardel Gertsen, Tage Koed Madsen, (1995), "Danish Cultural Barriers and their Importance to Firms", Working Papers in Marketing, no. 3/August, 1-23.

2. Bang, Jørgen, Hans-Peter Baumeister, Peter Floor, Kevin Wilson, (1999), "Virtual Seminars in European Studies: A Model for Collaborative Learning" paper delivered at The 19^th. World Conference on Open Learning and Distance Education, Vienna, June 20-24.

3. Bourne, John R., Eric McMaster, Jennifer Rieger, and J. Olin Campbell, (1997), "Paradigms for On-Line Learning: A Case Study in the Design and Implementation of an Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALN) Course", JALN, 1 (2), 38-56.

4. Corey, E. Raymond, (1998), "Case Method Teaching", Harvard Business School, November 6, 1-15.

5. Graebner, Celia, Philippa Levy, (1999), "Managing Flexibility in Networked Professional Development", paper delivered at The 19^th. World Conference on Open Learning and Distance Education, Vienna, June 20-24.

6. Henze, N., W. Nejd, (1998), "A Web-based learning environment: applying constructivist teaching concepts in virtual learning environments", The Virtual Campus - trends for higher education and training, Chapman & Hall, London, 63-78.

7. Hietala, P., T. Niemirepo and S. Ovaska, (1998), "Using the World Wide Web to promote educational discussion on university level courses", The Virtual Campus - trends for higher education and training, Chapman & Hall, London, 169-184.

8. Hvam, Keld, "Pædagogiske overvejelser i elektronisk fjernundervisning", (1996), Voksenpædagogisk tidsskrift, 1, 18-23.

9. Lewis, R., C. Vizcarro, (1998), "Collaboration between universities and enterprises in the knowledge age", The Virtual Campus - trends for higher education and training, Chapman & Hall, London, 115-129.

10. Peters, Otto, (1999), "The University of the Future - Pedagogical Perspectives", paper delivered at The 19^th. World Conference on Open Learning and Distance Education, Vienna, June 20-24.

11. Paulsen, Morten Flate, (1997), "Elektronisk kommunikation (CMC) pædagogik og metoder", on-line reference: http://home.nettskolen.nki.no/~morten/artikler/cmcdansk.htm, 1-19,

12. Robinson, Bernadette, (1998), "Research and pragmatism in learner support", Open and Distance Learning Today, ed. By Fred Lockwood, Routledge, 221-231.

13. Trefftz H., C. Correa, M.A. Conzález, G. Imbeau, J. Restrepo, M.I. Vélez and C. Trefftz, (1998), "Distance education and distributed virtual environments", The Virtual Campus - trends for higher education and training, Chapman & Hall, London, 184-191.

14. Viéville C. and A. Derycke, (1998), "Self organised group activities supported by asynchronous structured conversations", The Virtual Campus - trends for higher education and training, Chapman & Hall, London, 191-207.

15. Wagner, Ellen D., Barbara L. McCombs, (1995), "Learner Centered Psychological Principles in Practice: Design for Distance Education", Educational Technology/March-April, 32-35.

16. Wegerif, Rupert, (1998), "The Social Dimension of Asynchronous Learning Networks", JALN, 2 (1), 34-49.

17. Wild, M., L. Henderson, (1998), Cultural contextualisation of learning with the World Wide Web, The Virtual Campus - trends for higher education and training, Chapman & Hall, London, 129-144.

	Aarhus	Athens	Lancast.	Lyon	LUISS	Porto	Total
I was able to study at my own pace	3	-	3	1	-	1	8
I was able to study when it suited me	2	-	4	1	-	2	9
The courses contained all the information I needed	-	-	3	-	-	3	6
I like sharing information in the discussion conferences	1	-	1	-	-	1	3
The discussion conferences gave me the info. I needed	-	-	2	-	-	1	3

	Aarhus	Athens	Lancaster	Lyon	LUISS	Porto	Total
It was hard to find enough time to participate adequately	1	-	3	-	-	-	4
I felt isolated	1	-	-	1	-	-	2
I needed more support and encouragement to learn efficiently	-	4	1	1	-	2	8
The course did not include the information I needed	1	4	-	1	-	1	7
The discussion conference did not give me the info. I needed	1	4	2	1	-	-	8

Presentation of the Virtual Student Mobility Project

Presentation of Cross Cultural Marketing as Open Distance Learning

Research Methodology

Results: Student Experience

Students sent out/received

Student gratification

Table 3. Which of the following aspects made this an effective learning experience for you? Indicate all aspects you felt had an influence:

ODL as a learning experience