Post-pandemic teaching will ask us to focus on our classroom culture and how we connect with our students. Online learning culture is a specific culture found within the academic framework of higher education. Terms such as independent learning, self-efficacy, and self-identity are frequently associated with online learning culture. These terms align with individualistic cultural norms and the struggle of ethnically diverse learners who identify with communal cultural norms to find a place. Ethnic culture influences social and learning experiences (Aronson & Laughter, 2016; Booker et al., 2016; Campbell, 2015). This article presents a model of cultural presence to be used in conjunction with the community of inquiry (CoI) framework in online spaces.
![](http://s26601.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/10.02_creating-an-academic-culture-of-working-to-live-300x144.jpg)
Creating an Academic Culture of Working to Live
I’m often asked how I succeed at managing work-life balance—or as I call it, “life-work balance”— and it stems from my childhood. My parents both worked as educators, and