Cultural Competency and Implicit Bias

General Information

Approved Credit Hours: 4 hours

State: New York

Course Availability: 365 days from enrollment

Course Description

Real estate is built on relationships. Every transaction involves people with different backgrounds, experiences, expectations, and perspectives. The ability to recognize and navigate those differences is an essential part of professional service and fair housing compliance.

Cultural competency and implicit bias are not abstract concepts. They influence how we communicate, how we interpret situations, and how we make decisions. This course is designed to help you examine those influences in a thoughtful, practical way.

Course Topics

This course covers the following topics:

• Unit 1: Understand what culture is and how it shapes behavior.

• Unit 2: Examine core cultural patterns that influence American values and expectations.

• Unit 3: Explore communication styles, including direct, indirect, verbal, and nonverbal communication.

• Unit 4: Identify how culture affects workplace dynamics, power, status, and decision-making.

• Unit 5: Recognize stages of cultural awareness and how attitudes toward difference evolve.

• Unit 6: Define implicit bias and understand how mental shortcuts influence judgment.

• Unit 7: Examine types of implicit bias and their impact on individuals and the real estate industry.

• Unit 8: Learn practical strategies to mitigate bias and promote fair, thoughtful decision-making.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of the course, the student will be able to:

• Define culture and explain how values and beliefs influence behavior.

• Distinguish among the three dimensions of human behavior and explain how they affect client interactions.

• Describe the process of cultural conditioning and recognize how it shapes expectations and communication.

• Compare individualism and collectivism and explain how these perspectives influence real estate decision-making.

• Identify key patterns in American cultural values using the thirteen cultural categories.

• Explain how major influences shaped American culture, including immigration history, geography, and social values.

• Apply universalism and particularism to real-life situations to predict how people may respond when rules and relationships conflict.

• Recognize common moments where diversity-related misunderstandings can happen in client interactions and choose a respectful way to respond.

• Explain how culture affects communication in cross-cultural client interactions.

• Compare direct and indirect communication styles and recognize how they can lead to misunderstanding.

• Identify key types of nonverbal communication and describe how they can change meaning across cultures.

• Distinguish between monochronic and polychronic time and explain how time expectations can impact professional relationships.

• Compare how power distance shows up in workplace relationships between managers and employees.

• Distinguish between high and low uncertainty avoidance and explain how each affects rules, risk-taking, and workplace expectations.

• Describe how status is earned or assigned in different cultures and how that can shape respect and decision-making at work.

• Explain how locus of control influences attitudes about effort, responsibility, and success in workplace and client situations.

• Describe the four levels of cultural awareness and recognize what each level can look like in real-life interactions.

• Identify the stages from ethnocentrism to ethnorelativism and explain how attitudes toward difference can change over time.

• Distinguish between common early-stage responses to difference (denial, defense, minimization) and later-stage responses like acceptance.

• Apply the seven recommendations to choose practical ways to build trust and work more effectively with diverse real estate clients.

• Define implicit bias and explain how it can influence decisions without conscious intent.

• Describe how System 1 and System 2 thinking affect snap judgments and more deliberate decision-making.

• Explain how mental shortcuts and stereotypes can shape assumptions about people in everyday situations.

• Identify common ways implicit bias can be measured, including reaction-time tests like the IAT.

• Identify common types of implicit bias and recognize what they can look like in everyday decisions.

• Explain how stereotypes can influence real estate practices such as steering and unequal treatment.

• Describe how implicit bias can lead to housing discrimination against protected classes.

• Explain the impact of implicit bias on clients, agents, and the real estate industry as a whole.

• Explain how implicit bias training builds awareness, knowledge, and skills to reduce biased decision-making.

• Describe why tools like the IAT can raise awareness but do not automatically change behavior.

• Identify practical strategies for reducing implicit bias in everyday interactions and decisions.

• Apply specific techniques such as perspective-taking to help interrupt automatic, biased reactions.

Instructor & Customer Support

For questions about the course content, please contact the Instructor.

Course Instructor: Elizabeth Tigner
Contact Information: instructor.etigner@onlineed.com
Instructor Availability: Monday-Friday, business hours, excluding holidays
Instructor Policy Response Time: within 1 business day
 
If you have questions about your account or course navigation, please contact the course provider:

OnlineEd
Phone: 1-(503)-670-9278
Email: mail@onlineed.com
Chat and additional options: https://www.onlineed.com/system/pages/contact.php

Completion & Attendance Requirements

Completion Requirements. Continuing education credit is awarded upon successful completion of all required course components and satisfaction of regulatory active time requirements.

Stay Active in the Course. The course platform electronically monitors active participation. Time tracking will pause during periods of inactivity. You may exit and return to the course at any time. Your progress will be saved.

Active Time Requirements. Per New York regulations, CE courses require a minimum participation time for course completion. If you complete the instructional material early, you must remain actively logged in until the required time has elapsed before credit can be awarded.  The state regulator recognizes a 50-minute clock hour – accounting for 10 minutes of break time every hour.

Assessments

This course includes quizzes at the end of each unit which must be completed.

There is no final exam.

Course Completion Survey

Students are encouraged to submit a survey upon completion of the course. This short survey helps us improve the course material and student experience. It is required by most regulatory agencies. Your thoughtful feedback is appreciated.

Certificates & Credit Reporting

Upon successful completion of all course requirements, a certificate of completion will be issued.  You are responsible for maintaining a copy of your certificates of completion and renewing your license with the state regulator. 

Schools do not report course completions in New York. Make sure you keep your Certificates of Completion in your records per state regulations.

Technology Requirements

Courses may be accessed from a computer, tablet, or mobile device with a stable internet connection.  We recommend the most recent browser versions.  This includes all modern browsers and operating systems including Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera, iPhone / iOS, and Android-based mobile devices, smartphones, and tablets. The course is entirely web-based and does not require any software to be downloaded or installed.  For accurate time tracking and progress recording, access courses in one browser window at a time. 

Course Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this course.

Refund & Cancellation Policy

All tuition and fees paid for the course are refundable when: (a) the course of instruction is discontinued by OnlineEd and such discontinuation has prevented a student from completing the course; or (b) the enrollment of the student was procured as a result of any misrepresentation in promotion materials of the school, or representation made by an owner or employee of the school. All refunds will be completed within 30 days after the effective date of enrollment termination. Refunds will not be given to any student after the student has successfully registered in a course or courses, as once registered, student has access to the registered courses. In hardship cases, OnlineEd may issue a refund at its sole discretion. OnlineEd does not issue retroactive partial refunds for courses that are subsequently discounted or put on sale after a student makes a purchase.

Academic Integrity and Identity Verification

Students must complete all coursework independently. OnlineEd prohibits misrepresentation of identity or allowing another individual to complete coursework on your behalf. Failure to comply with academic integrity policies may result in denial of credit.

Student Conduct Policy

Students are expected to show respect, courtesy, and consideration when interacting with school staff and students. Students are expected to conducting themselves in a professional, legal, and cooperative manner that is not disruptive, harassing, intimidating, or dangerous. Deviation from these standards may result in disciplinary action.

Non-Discrimination Policy

OnlineEd does not discriminate for admission on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, marital status, age or disability. Any person who feels they have been unlawfully discriminated against may file a complaint with the School Director, either by email (schooldirector@onlineed.com) or by postal mail (ATTN: School Director, 14355 SW Allen Blvd. Suite 240, Portland, OR 97005). If OnlineEd determines that any employee of OnlineEd has engaged in discriminatory activity, such employee shall be disciplined.

Grievance Policy

If a student has a grievance against OnlineEd, its staff or students, the aggrieved student shall contact the School Director by email or mail, stating the nature of the grievance. The School Director shall evaluate the grievance and respond to the student based upon their findings.

Policies on Cheating and Misrepresentation

Cheating on courses that supply completion certificates, designations, or official credit is not tolerated. OnlineEd is not obligated to continue to furnish credit or continued support for students caught cheating on any part of the coursework or testing.
 
Misrepresentation of personal identity is strictly forbidden for all OnlineEd courses. Falsifying personal information, forgery, and misrepresentation may result in immediate suspension. Additional actions by state and federal agencies may include loss or suspension of a license, failure to grant a license, fees, or criminal prosecution.

Publisher

This course is developed and delivered by OnlineEd, LLC.

OnlineEd, LLC
14255 SW Allen Blvd., Suite 240
Portland, OR 97005
(503) 670-9278
https://www.OnlineEd.com/
mail@OnlineEd.com

Mission Statement

To provide superior distance education that exceeds industry standards and expectations in course content and delivery methods to those who seek to enter a new profession and those engaged in a profession.