Trends in Multicultural Learning Settings
 
 In the same way that Canada is experiencing an influx of immigrant workers coming to fill the void created by the increasing numbers of resident trades workers retiring, so too will our classes fill with those same new workers advancing their educations.  These new students will be encouraged to enroll in online learning, usually due to the same scheduling restrictions experienced by those presently involved in these online programs.

It will be up to the instructors of these programs to adapt to the diversity of students' levels of understanding when they are composing their curriculum and rubrics. This article explains one area of concern and offers suggestions as to how confusion of the students may be reduced by using a more culturally sensitive approach to communicating instructions. While the main focus of the article is in addressing the language of the course rubric, the same principles apply with the course instructional materials as well. Where students from some cultures and learning backgrounds will have a clear vision of the intent of the instructor's directions, others may struggle with those same instructions unless some form of translation or interpretive explanation is given.

This trend toward fulfilling the requirements of the culturally diverse classroom will be an ongoing one that is fed not only by the needs of new students but also by the need to keep up with the technology of the day by the instructor. This will hopefully help reduce the culture-based communication gap between instructors and their students.

Cultural Sensitivity Needed In Online Discussion Rubric Language