Issue link: https://resource.opensesame.com/i/1474251
Geography matters Donald H Taylor, Global Sentiment Survey 2022 08 Location, location, location The single table on page 06 is the aggregate view from 112 countries. Behind the single table of results are more than 3,500 individual opinions. Occasionally, these views are consistent, but usually they vary widely. The graphic below shows voting from four regions that account for over 70% of the survey results. There is a tight consensus on Reskilling/upskilling, but a wider spread for Collaborative/social learning and even more so for Personalization/adaptive delivery. Why the variation? Put simply: every region, every country is unique. South Africa voted strongly for Mobile learning, because it is widely used in a large country that is leap- frogging the physical infrastructure of landlines used elsewhere. Support may be consistent over time or swayed by local events. Sweden, which in the past has voted very strongly for Collaborative/social learning, this year swung spectacularly behind Reskilling/upskilling, almost certainly because of the publication in late 2021 of a widely popular- ised book, Upskill Och Reskill, by Pär Lager. 1. Reskilling/upskilling 2. Collaborative/social learning 3. Personalization/adaptive delivery 4. Coaching/ mentoring 5. Learning analytics 7. Micro learning 4.0% 6.0% 8.0% 10.0% 12.0% Europe UK Africa This chart shows the votes for the four major regions, accounting for 72% of the overall vote: Europe (n=935), UK (n=776), North America (n=407) and Africa (n=405). Most obviously, it shows the near unanimity around the impor- tance of Reskilling/upskilling, but notice the very broad range of opinion on Personalization/adaptive delivery, with Africa rating it at just 5.3% against North America's enthusiastic 10.4%. This is not the only option where the two regions differ strongly. North America and Africa are at opposite end of vote distribution on options #2, #3, #5 and #7. In trying to understand these variations, it is tempting to turn to theories of cultural differences. Geert Hofstede and others have explored where countries lie on a spectrum between individualism and collectivism. Do such cultural differences account for North America's consistent support for personalisation over collaboration? It seems unlikely. According to Hofstede, Great Britain (the UK minus North- ern Ireland) is very nearly as individualistic as the USA, and yet the UK regularly votes more strongly for Collabora- tive/social learning (10.8% this year) than for Personaliza- tion/adaptive delivery (8.5%). Voting patterns at country level are often remarkably consistent. Ireland favours Coaching/ mentoring, placing it #2 in the past two years, and #3 this year. New Zealand has an enduring affection for Micro learning, ranking it in the top three for each of the past five years apart from 2021. Whatever numbers may be shown in the main table of global results, there will always be fascinating local differ- ences in the choice of technologies and methodologies. Votes for key options, by largest regions N. America