Culturally inclusive learning for Indigenous students in a Learning Management System (LMS)

A Learning Management System (LMS) such as Blackboard, Moodle and Web City has been utilised for enhancing the quality of learning and teaching in Australian universities. Yet there are no specific university policies and guidelines addressing the digital divide in the use of an LMS. In particular, Indigenous cultural values are rarely considered in LMS based learning design. As a result, the equity gap in terms of the quality of learning opportunities for Indigenous students remains unidentified. In this context, the project was aimed at identifying cultural needs of Indigenous students in the online learning environment and articulating culturally inclusive learning for Indigenous students in an LMS. Based on the literature review in the fields of culturally inclusive learning, online and blended learning, and Aboriginal pedagogies, we created a conceptual framework for culturally inclusive learning with four dimensions: communication, collaboration, community, and interculturality that was used in the following three stages: policy and guideline review, quantitative data analysis, and qualitative data analysis.