ABSTRACT
Online distance learning (ODL) has become a global phenomenon transcending national, political, and geographical boundaries challenging distance educators to reexamine notions of teaching and learning and issues of culture inherent in cross-border delivery of online courses and programs. Rogers, Graham, and Mayes (2007) note that the sheer amount of learning content being developed in the West (defi ned for this chapter as Eurocentric, North American, Australasian) and exported via the Internet to other countries highlights the crucial need to explore questions of culture more thoroughly in our online course designs to provide a more equitable learning experience for all. Global universities are faced with the choice between continuing to expect all students to adjust to traditional English-Western academic values and uses of language, or changing their processes to accommodate others (Pincas, 2001).
