Analysis of the cultural factors affecting the proper design of website and electronic courseware for e-Learning in ASEAN

This study is to understand perspectives of administrators and instructors in higher educational institutes on cultural factors which affect website and electronic courseware for e-Learning in ASEAN. It used an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) to find underlying cultural factors affecting the design of website and electronic courseware for e-Learning in ASEAN. Based on the factors identified, the proposed model of website and electronic courseware for e-Learning in ASEAN along with the prototype were presented at the end. The research procedures included two major steps. Step 1 is based on the review of related literature and the data collection from the survey concerning cultural factors affecting website and electronic courseware. In step 2, experts' interviews were conducted to obtain their opinions concerning the proposed factors, along with discussion about readiness of Thai e-Leaning in higher education so as to become part of the ASEAN Community in 2015, and the model of website and electronic courseware for e-Learning in ASEAN were presented. The results of this study were the report of the cultural factors affecting the proper design of website and electronic courseware for e-Learning in ASEAN, the proposed model, and the prototype of website and electronic courseware for e-Learning in ASEAN assimilating all the related cultural factors exquisitely. Introduction Background and the purpose of the research Thailand Cyber University (TCU), the Office of Higher Education Commission, has initiated e-Learning Professional Program with the purpose of developing educational persons in distance learning since 2005. TCU, cooperating with faculty members from both domestic and international universities, has delivered the program online via Learning Management System (LMS) since 2007. Students enrolling in the program included lecturers and master degree and doctoral degree students majored in Education. E-Learning Professional Program is divided into three tracks: Certificate in e-Learning Teacher, Certificate in e-Learning Courseware Developer, and Certificate in e-Learning Project Management. The program has been successfully implemented with 444 students. Analysis of the cultural factors affecting the proper design of website and electronic courseware for e-Learning in ASEAN 88 In order to prepare Thailand’s higher education e-Learning for ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), to be a part of ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) in 2015, and to be in accordance with 2012 OHEC strategy in developing and enhancing knowledge and providing education with modern technology to reach international standard, TCU saw the necessity to conduct research on Analysis of the Cultural Factors Affecting the Proper Design of Website and Electronic Courseware for e-Learning in ASEAN. The result of the research will be used to develop the current knowledge and applied to e-Learning Professional Program. Also, it will be a guideline in e-Learning in ASEAN context for educational institutes and lecturers. Thus the purpose of the research is to analyse cultural factors of the proper design of website and electronic courseware for e-Learning in ASEAN. From the research result, the proper design of website and electronic courseware for higher e-Learning in ASEAN will be proposed and the result will be implemented in the current activities. Research methodology The research procedures included two major steps. Step 1 is based on the review of related literature and the data collection from the survey concerning cultural factors affecting website and electronic courseware. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was used to explore the possible underlying factors. In step 2, experts’ interviews were conducted in order to gain their opinions concerning the proposed factors, along with discussion about readiness of Thai e-Leaning in higher education so as to become part of the ASEAN Community in 2015, and the model and the prototype were presented. The research methodology comprised three phases. Phase 1 Study, analyse and synthesise basic information, using an Exploratory Factor Analysis method, on cultural factors of the proper design of website and electronic courseware for e-Learning in ASEAN, emphasising higher educational institutes. It was done by analysing and synthesising at least 50 documents and researches on cultural factors of the proper design of website and electronic courseware for e-Learning in ASEAN during the last 10 years. Literature review was analysed and variables were screened. The information then was generated into a survey. Phase 2 Study of expert opinions on culture factors of the website and electronic courseware that are proper for e-Learning in ASEAN to exchange knowledge and experience and prepare Thailand’s higher education e-Learning to enter AEC with instructors in e-Learning Professional Program. The data was collected from the survey. The respondents had at least one year’s experience in e-Learning. Samples were taken from about 100 participants who attended the International e-Learning Conference: Smart Innovations in Education & Life Long Learning on 14 and 15 June 2012 organised by TCU. The data obtained from the survey was analysed using the Factor Analysis method. VOL. 8, NO. 2, SEPTEMBER 2013, 87  101


Background and the purpose of the research
Thailand Cyber University (TCU), the Office of Higher Education Commission, has initiated e-Learning Professional Program with the purpose of developing educational persons in distance learning since 2005. TCU, cooperating with faculty members from both domestic and international universities, has delivered the program online via Learning Management System (LMS) since 2007. Students enrolling in the program included lecturers and master degree and doctoral degree students majored in Education. E-Learning Professional Program is divided into three tracks: Certificate in e-Learning Teacher, Certificate in e-Learning Courseware Developer, and Certificate in e-Learning Project Management. The program has been successfully implemented with 444 students.
In order to prepare Thailand's higher education e-Learning for ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), to be a part of ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) in 2015, and to be in accordance with 2012 OHEC strategy in developing and enhancing knowledge and providing education with modern technology to reach international standard, TCU saw the necessity to conduct research on Analysis of the Cultural Factors Affecting the Proper Design of Website and Electronic Courseware for e-Learning in ASEAN. The result of the research will be used to develop the current knowledge and applied to e-Learning Professional Program. Also, it will be a guideline in e-Learning in ASEAN context for educational institutes and lecturers.
Thus the purpose of the research is to analyse cultural factors of the proper design of website and electronic courseware for e-Learning in ASEAN. From the research result, the proper design of website and electronic courseware for higher e-Learning in ASEAN will be proposed and the result will be implemented in the current activities.

Research methodology
The research procedures included two major steps.
Step 1 is based on the review of related literature and the data collection from the survey concerning cultural factors affecting website and electronic courseware. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was used to explore the possible underlying factors. In step 2, experts' interviews were conducted in order to gain their opinions concerning the proposed factors, along with discussion about readiness of Thai e-Leaning in higher education so as to become part of the ASEAN Community in 2015, and the model and the prototype were presented. The research methodology comprised three phases.

Phase 1
Study, analyse and synthesise basic information, using an Exploratory Factor Analysis method, on cultural factors of the proper design of website and electronic courseware for e-Learning in ASEAN, emphasising higher educational institutes. It was done by analysing and synthesising at least 50 documents and researches on cultural factors of the proper design of website and electronic courseware for e-Learning in ASEAN during the last 10 years. Literature review was analysed and variables were screened. The information then was generated into a survey.

Phase 2
Study of expert opinions on culture factors of the website and electronic courseware that are proper for e-Learning in ASEAN to exchange knowledge and experience and prepare Thailand's higher education e-Learning to enter AEC with instructors in e-Learning Professional Program. The data was collected from the survey. The respondents had at least one year's experience in e-Learning. Samples were taken from about 100 participants who attended the International e-Learning Conference: Smart Innovations in Education & Life Long Learning on 14 and 15 June 2012 organised by TCU. The data obtained from the survey was analysed using the Factor Analysis method.

Phase 3
Develop the prototype of website and electronic courseware for e-Learning. The quality of the prototype was tested by experts with minimum three years' experience in e-Learning and representatives from ASEAN. Lastly, the proper design of website and electronic courseware for e-Learning were presented by creating models of website and electronic courseware that are proper for e-Learning in higher education in ASEAN. The model was approved by five experts.

Results analysis
The result analysis is reported in three parts according to the research methodology as follows:

Phase 1
The researcher reviewed documents and research on culture relating to the design of website and electronic courseware that is related to cultural factors of ASEAN from 1991 -2011, with emphasis on higher educational institutes to be a framework for analysing and synthesising cultural aspects. This information was also used to develop a prototype of the proper design of website and electronic courseware for e-Learning in ASEAN that could respond to cultural differences. There were 25 documents and research on the design of website in ASEAN. They comprised seven documents and research from Thailand, four from the Philippines, four from Japan, four from Malaysia, three from Singapore, two from South Korea and one from China. (Japan, China, and South Korea were included according to ASEAN+3 collaboration). There were 25 documents and research on the design of electronic courseware in ASEAN. They comprised 10 documents and research from Thailand, two from the Philippines, six from Malaysia, two from Singapore, one from Vietnam and four from China. Accordingly, cultural factors can be divided into 10 factors: (1) Sex, (2) Religion, (3) Language, (4) History, (5) Art, (6) Aesthetics, (7) Law, (8) Politics, (9) Ethnicity and (10) Local wisdoms. The 10 cultural factors are directly related to the design, while there were also indirect factors that are related to the design of website and electronic courseware. They are (1) Multimedia design, (2) Screen design, (3) Content design and (4) Characteristics of new media.

Phase 2
The data obtained from the survey was analysed using the Factor Analysis method with the following steps. (1) Selecting factors. Because this study used a sample of 140 people, factor loading was set at .50 (Hair, 1995). (2) Selecting factors with variable (at least three questions). Since Factor 7 had only two variables (questions) that have factor loading above .50, it was not considered (as well as the later factors). (3) Factor analysis steps include (3.1) reporting the descriptive statistics of questions, (3.2) testing KMO value, (3.3) analysing Eigen/factor value, (3.4) extracting the factors, and (3.5) naming the factors as presented in the later section.

Part 1 General information of the sample
About 40 per cent of the samples worked in universities, and most of them were in the Faculty of Education/Industrial Education (27.86 per cent). The respondents included Vice Dean/ Deputy Director (7.86 per cent). Most age group was between 31-40 years (36.43 per cent) and most of them were Buddhists (93.57 per cent). The majority of the respondents graduated with a Master's Degree (57.86 per cent) and lecturers (50.71 per cent). As for working experience, most respondents had working experience less than 5 years (36.43 per cent).

Part 2 Analysis of the factors on website
Basic statistics on website: it was found that the score of 86 factors on website out of the total factors had average score of between 3.26 to 4.68 and a standard deviation between 0.51 and 1.17. Analysis of the factors on the website: the researcher used the survey to analyse factors on the website by extracting factors using Principal Component Analysis method and analysing Orthogonal Rotation by Varimax Method. The results are shown below.

Extracting factors
Extracting factors using Principal Component Analysis method obtained factors, Eigen value, Percentage of Variance, Cumulative Percentage of Variance, and Factor Loading of the survey on the website. The results of the two preliminary methods confirmed that data collected from the sample was appropriate to analyse the factors on the website.
The analysis of the communality found that the initial communality value obtained from Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method of all questions was equal to1.000 and after the extraction of the factors, was higher than 0.2. This indicated that questions were appropriate for further factor analysis.
There were 18 factors which had Eigen value higher than 1.00 which was the sum of the squares of the coefficients of each factor. Considering the 18 factors, it was found that Cumulative Percentage of Variance of the 18 factors was 75.153 of the total variance.

Axis rotation
The researcher analysed Orthogonal Rotation using the Varimax Method to make the variables associate with the factors more clearly. The details are as follows.
Out of loading factor value of 88 factors, there were 18 factors that had loading factor value higher than .50. Factors that were considered to be clear according to the criteria had to have at least three variables in one factor. There were 18 factors that had loading factor value higher than .50 after Orthogonal Rotation using Varimax Method. The example is as follows: Considering 86 variables in the survey on website, there were eight factors that had loading value higher than .50 but had variables less than 3 variables, including factors 7, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18. These were less than the criteria which was set to have no less than 3 variables in the factor. Therefore, they were removed. Then, there were 10 clear factors: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11, a total of 63 variables. The researcher analysed factors using Scree test as shown in Picture 1.

Picture 1 Eigen of the Factors on Website Design
The result as shown in Picture 1 found that when using Scree-test on Eigen value of the factors on website, there were 10 clear factors: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10 and 11.This was consistent with the analysis of loading factor after Orthogonal Rotation using Varimax Method.

Naming the factors
The researcher named 10 factors according to the analysis by considering the factor loading and overall statements included in the factor. The example of factor 3 is as follows. . Considering frequency, it was found that variables on ethnicity and variables on local wisdoms had the same frequency. Therefore, this factor was named "Ethnicity and local wisdoms".

Part 3 Analysis of the factors on electronic courseware
Basic statistics on electronic courseware: it was found that the score of 88 factors on electronic courseware had an average score of between 3.19 to 4.63 and a standard deviation between 0.54 to 1.19.
Analysis of the factors on electronic courseware: the researcher used the survey to analyse factors on electronic courseware by extracting factors using Principal Component Analysis method and analysing Orthogonal Rotation by Varimax Method. The results are shown below.

Extracting factors
Extracting factors using Principal Component Analysis method obtained factors, Eigen value, Percentage of Variance, Cumulative Percentage of Variance, and Factor Loading of the survey on the electronic courseware. The results of the two preliminary methods confirmed that data collected from the sample was appropriate to analyse the factors on electronic courseware.
The analysis of the communality found that the initial communality value obtained from Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method of all questions was equal to 1.000 and after the extraction of the factors was higher than 0.2. This indicated that questions were appropriate for further factor analysis.
There were 16 factors which had Eigen value higher than 1.00 which was the sum of the squares of the coefficients of each factor. Considering the 16 factors, it was found that Cumulative Percentage of Variance of the 16 factors was 75.155 of the total variance.

Axis rotation
The researcher analysed Orthogonal Rotation using Varimax Method to make the variables associate with the factors more clearly. The details are as follows.
Out of loading factor value of 88 factors, there were 16 factors that had loading factor value higher than .50. Factors that were considered to be clear according to the criteria had to have at least 3 variables in 1 factor. The details are as follows.
The result found that when using Scree-test on Eigen value of the factors on website, there were nine clear factors: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10. This was consistent with the analysis of loading factor after Orthogonal Rotation using Varimax Method.

Naming the factors
The researcher named nine factors according to the analysis by considering the factor loading and overall statements that are included in the factor. The example of factor 2 was named "History and ethnicity" since the analysis shows that there are 13 variables in Factor 2 with factor loading between .563 and .

Phase 3
Based on the result from phase 2, the prototype of website and electronic courseware for e-Learning in ASEAN were developed. The qualities of the models were examined by experts who have experiences in e-Learning for at least three years and/or representatives from ASEAN. Lastly, the proper design model of website and electronic courseware were presented and were approved by five experts. The factors and the models were presented as follows. The

Conclusion
This research shows cultural factors that affect the design of website and electronic courseware in ASEAN both directly and indirectly through three phases of research methodology. ASEAN countries will benefit from the design and developed models. Also, it can help prepare Thailand to enter ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC) in 2015 and respond to 2012 OHEC strategy in developing and enhancing knowledge and providing education with modern technology to reach international standard. However, when designing and implementing website and electronic courseware, what should be taken in consideration are the freedom of users to choose contents that reflect culture with the properness in content, context, lesson and learning management. The ASEAN community with the complement of social media and Web 3.0 technologies, i.e., ASEAN wiki, ASEAN virtual lab, and ASEAN virtual learning environment, should be taken in consideration as well as motivation, collaboration in this learning society through activity-based learning with meaningful cultural contents reflecting ASEAN identity. Also, various types of e-Learning tools towards policy making, the frameworks, as well as the contents, i.e., ASEAN OCW, ASEAN OER, should be provided in order to prepare readiness for all ASEAN member countries, and in responding to the ASEAN motto "One Vision, One Identity, One Community".
Jintavee Khlaisang (email: jintavee.m@chula.ac.th) is with the Department of Educational Technology and Communications, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.