Lack of shared meaning can make communication difficult for people of different cultures. Perceptions and practical experience are important influences when devising and developing online learning experiences in cross-cultural contexts. In this study, 15 educational designers studying for their Masters Degree were asked to contribute their interpretations to an ongoing study of what meaning and interpretations were generated from a series of different learning environments offered via the Web. Course materials were designed in Australia and delivered into Hong Kong, SAR, and China. Students did not always interpret the visual information in the manner expected by the original designers. This paper discusses the outcomes of the investigation relating students' perceptions of the appropriateness of the western interface design guidelines as they applied them to a number of exemplary Chinese WWW sites, highlighting the cultural differences in meaning and representation.
[Copyright of Educational Media International is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09523980210131123]

In this article, the authors investigated personal beliefs and values and opportunism variables that might contribute to the academic dishonesty of American and Hong Kong master of business administration (MBA) students. They also compared American and Hong Kong MBA students with respect to their personal beliefs and values, opportunism, and academic dishonesty variables. Results showed that American MBA students who were idealistic, theistic, intolerant, and not opportunistic were likely to behave ethically. Hong Kong MBA students who were idealistic, intolerant, positive, and not opportunistic tended to act morally. Hong Kong students tended to be less theistic, more tolerant, more detached, more negatively oriented, more relativistic, less achievement-oriented, and more humanistic-oriented than were their American counterparts.
[Copyright of Journal of Education for Business is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JOEB.82.3.146-158 ]