Connectivism is the philosophy of education for the digital age, making Vygotsky’s concept of zone of proximal development (ZPD) more flexible. Stretching it to include learning that lies outside the learner, in social networks and technological tools. It has replaced passive teaching methodologies with more active ones, including student-centered learning, the co-creation of knowledge, and peer review assessment strategies. Subsequently, the virtual communities of practices are considered an important medium for generation and dissemination of soft or tacit knowledge. The objective of this scopic review was to explore the cultural factors which hamper the growth of a ‘virtual community of practice’ of any organization. This scopic review was done using Arksey and O’ Malley framework. This framework is comprised of following five steps: (1) identification of the research question, (2) identifying pertinent studies, (3) study selection, (4) charting the data, (5) organizing, summarizing, and reporting the results. This research was conducted in ERIC, Pub med, Psycinfo and Cochrane library. A total of 31,000 records were acknowledged. After data characterization of full text articles, four themes emerged from the articles which fulfilled the criteria of inclusion: Individualism vs. collectivism, power distance, in group vs. out group orientation, cultural values and language barrier. Cultural factors like difference in time zone, working in a complex learning environment, missing organized guidance and the social presence of facilitators were also identified as minor aspects impeding the growth of virtual community of practice. The research reported five major cultural elements which have influenced the virtual community of practice, that is, collectivism versus individualism, power distance in society language and geographical barriers, cultural values and in group versus out group orientation. Competitiveness and job security related fears are further influential barriers in the knowledge sharing across different cultures.
Manzoor et al. (Sat,) studied this question.