Online learning has been hailed as a huge step forward for education. Academia is increasingly offering Internet-based distance courses because they allow "anywhere, anytime" learning and access to a wider pool of students. Firms and organizations like it for training employees because it permits consistency and repeatability in training delivery. K-12 educators endorse it because it teaches children important technology skills that they will need in their advanced education process and in their careers. The fact that online learning and distance education can impose its authors' goals, perspectives, and standards on a receiving culture (Gunawardena & McIsaac, 2004, p. 388) is very rarely cited in the literature. Understanding whether and how learners' cultural characteristics may interact with a major delivery method such as online learning makes possible the exploration and creation of alternative means of supporting learners in the construction of knowledge. Not doing so may well condemn groups other than the course implementer's or author's to decreased motivation and thus higher attrition, reducing some learners' chances of benefiting equally from a digital learning environment.