Online learning: Cross‐cultural development in time poor environments

Faced with a unique problem of providing cross‐cultural awareness training on a continuing basis, Griffith University, located in Brisbane, Queensland developed an innovative program to meet the challenges it faced. A key strategy in the University's Indigenous Recruitment Strategy was to establish a cross‐cultural awareness program sensitising university staff to employment matters affecting indigenous Australians. The reality of developing, implementing and sustaining such a program meant that factors that operate in any large organisation, particularly where flexibility in releasing staff to participate in staff development programs is limited, were particularly problematic. The end product, “Please Explain: Indirect Discrimination in the Workplace”, has translated the concepts of cross‐cultural awareness, traditionally expressed through verbal means, into a staff development resource accessible in multiple formats: print, online, video and audio. The project is an excellent example of how unique solutions can be found to tackle seemingly insurmountable problems, and of how the completely different arenas of information communication technology, staff development, cross‐cultural awareness and anti‐discrimination training can come together in synergistic reality.