ABSTRACT
This chapter offers practical guidance for designing culturally inclusive wisdom communities. It presents design techniques for the seven WisCom components: wisdom community, communication, technology, co-mentoring, learner support, the collaborative inquiry cycle, and transformative learning. When approaching online design with cultural inclusivity in mind, designers often wonder whether the learning experience should be designed without context clues for a global audience, or whether it should carry the flavor of the local culture and context. The chapter provides guidance for conceptualizing course structure and interface design using a learning management system (LMS) or a combination of freely accessible online tools. Designers and facilitators should clearly indicate formats and technologies that will be used to facilitate communication in the online class. The chapter illustrates examples of WisCom designs in two different LMSs, Blackboard Learn and Moodle; and in two different cultural contexts, the United States and Sri Lanka.
