Sociocultural dimensions of e-learning in emerging nations

The economic and sociocultural dimensions of e-learning are sometimes ignored in system and policy implementation in emerging nations. Many learning objects, systems, and courses (i.e. MOOCs) originate in Western developed nations and are presented in English, thus contain explicit and implicit cultural bias. Based on the author´s experience in using cross-cultural e-learning systems in the emerging nation of Qatar and a relevant literature review, this contribution outlines sociocultural aspects of national and multinational online learning (with a focus on the Arabic-speaking nations) that must be considered for successful implementation.