Expectations - of life, work, education, and so forth - are rooted in cultural values. As a result, access to an engagement with online learning is a culture-bound experience.Cases on Cultural Implications and Considerations in Online Learning illustrates ways in which to reach and engage learners across cultures by using online learning that accommodates cultural differences and preferences. This casebook helps online educators understand what cultural expectations their students have before they create online programs and tailor their instructional designs for multicultural and international learners.

E-learning is a cultural artifact and thus, is embedded with the cultural preferences, learning styles, and values of the designing culture, usually western. Yet, the largest and fastest growing groups of learners are in eastern cultures. Cultural differences should not create barriers to learning, understanding, skill development, or the time and effort it takes to acquire them. Cases on Globalized and Culturally Appropriate E-Learning: Challenges and Solutions offers a multitude of cases illustrating the different challenges faced when offering e-learning to learners of other cultures and, most importantly, how they were resolved. This cutting-edge publication shares contemporary knowledge on how to adapt or develop e-learning that promotes equitable learning outcomes for targeted learners by addressing interdependent disciplines. It is a must-have reference source for organizations with an outsourced workforce, global trainers, educators, and faculty, instructional designers and e-learning developers, translation and localization experts, international development agencies, open courseware advocates, and promoters of reusable learning objects.

Accelerated globalization challenges educators to provide culturally accessible learning to countries other than their own. However, to do so, we must investigate the differences that may affect the achievement of equitable learning outcomes. Translation is a logical first step. Localization - a process in which symbols, images, etc. are changed to those recognized by the targeted learners - is also an effective adaptation. However, in education, we inadvertently imbed our deeply rooted, culturally diverse values into our approaches to learning and teaching. In this book, we explore the existence of cultural dimensions in elearning, a favored tool for global education. We examine whether such differences, between learners in the United States and India, affect learning outcomes and whether learners have different perceptions of, and preferences for, elearning. Subsequently, we propose the Cultural Adaptation Process (CAP). The CAP Model provides a framework with which online instructors and instructional designers can identify any needs for cultural adaptation - aligned with course content, media, and instructional approaches - within the constraints of their resources.