As students, faculty, and professionals from China and America interact more frequently through face-to-face exchanges and through networking technologies they are more and more aware that cultural assumptions and values affect the ways they communicate and learn from each other. Unstated assumptions regarding individualism, competition, time, and authority tend to differ between American and Chinese cultures. These differences, in turn, have implications for creating effective technology -enhanced distance learning environments. Further research is needed on issues such as whether cultures that put heavy emphasis on the authority of the teacher and predispose learners towards the transmission model of learning, are less favorably disposed to existing distance learning models, and how novel models could meet these challenges.