Leading the e-Learning Transformation of Higher Education : Meeting the Challenges of Technology and Distance Education

Published in Association with eLearning has entered the mainstream of higher education as an agent of strategic change. This transformation requires eLearning leaders to develop the skills to innovate successfully at a time of heightened competition and rapid technological change.In this environment eLearning leaders must act within their institutions as much more than technology managers and assume the prime role of helping their institutions understand the opportunities that eLearning presents for faculty, for students, and for client organizations in the community. They need to prepare to participate in policy development around these opportunities. They must understand the multiple dimensions of practice in the field―operations, administration, and working within the complex culture of a higher education institution―while also functioning as scholars of the field who can bring the best ideas from other institutions to help shape policy around eLearning.The second edition builds on the success of the first edition and presents both the collective expertise of veterans who have pioneered the field for 20 years, and of a rising generation of eLearning leaders that are transforming online programs at their own institutions, to address these challenges.This edition has been updated and expanded to reflect the increasing complexity of the field with seven new chapters and the revision of eight chapters that appeared in the first edition. New and updated topics include:·The evolving role of the chief online learning officer·Issues of diversity as more women and minorities enter leadership roles in the field·The increasing role of learning analytics and data-based decisions·The potential tensions involved in cohort-based versus individualized instruction·The increasing need for faculty professional development·The affordances of cloud computing, adaptive learning, artificial intelligence, the internet of things, and mobile learning to the field·The open educational resources movement and the implications for institutional policy and practice·The challenges of an increasingly complex competitive environment·AccessibilityThere are few comparable positions in higher education than that of eLearning leaders who work across multiple academic and support units and whose work fundamentally affects the institution as a whole. This volume is written for them.

Dr. Gary E. Miller is Executive Director Emeritus of the Penn State World Campus. Prior to his retirement, he served as Associate Vice President for Outreach and Executive Director of Continuing and Distance Education at Penn State and was the founding Executive Director of the Penn State World Campus, the University’s online distance education program. He earlier served as Executive Director of the International University Consortium and Associate Vice President at the University of Maryland University College. He holds a D.Ed. in Higher Education Administration from Penn State. He is the author of The Meaning of General Education (Teachers College Press, 1988) and a co-author of Leading the E-Learning Transformation of Higher Education (Stylus Press, 2013) and numerous journal articles and book chapters on distance education and the undergraduate curriculum. In March 2004, he was inducted into the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame. He has been recognized with the 2004 Wedemeyer Award from the University of Wisconsin and The American Journal of Distance Education, the 2007 Irving Award from the American Distance Education Consortium, the 2008 Distinguished Service Award from the National University Telecommunications Network, and the 2009 Prize of Excellence from the International Council for Open and Distance Education for his contributions to the field. In 2010, he was named an inaugural Fellow of the Online Learning Consortium.

Kathleen S. Ives, D.M. has worked in the non-profit, higher education, workforce development and corporate arenas. She currently serves as Senior Vice President, Engagement for University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA). Additionally she serves as Senior Staff member for the National Laboratory for Education Transformation (NLET) as well as Director of Higher Education Transformation; Strategic Advisor for Packback, an AI-powered education technology company; Senior Advisor/Senior Instructional Designer for Hillstock and Associates, an e-learning consulting firm. She also holds the position of Senior Affiliate Faculty at Wentworth Institute of Technology. Ives is co-editor and chapter author of the recent book Leading the eLearning Transformation of Higher Education: Leadership Strategies for the Next Generation and a chapter author for the book Learning at the Speed of Light: How Education Got to Now among other articles and publications. Previously as CEO of the Online Learning Consortium’s (OLC), she led OLC to become a self-sustaining member association. She has degrees in communication, communication management, and organizational leadership from the University of California at Davis, the University of Southern California, Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism, and the University of Phoenix-Online, respectively.

Michael G. Moore is known in academic circles for his leadership in promoting the scholarship of distance education and online learning. He published his first statement of theory about distance education in 1972, and has achieved a number of "firsts" in this field.While teaching the first graduate course in this subject at University of Wisconsin in the mid 70's, he was contributory to founding the national annual conference there. Appointed to The Pennsylvania State University in 1986, he founded the first American journal (American Journal of Distance Education) and established the first sequence of taught graduate courses, including the first such courses taught online. Moore has served on the editorial boards of all the main journals of distance education, and about a hundred publications include the books, Contemporary Issues in American Distance Education (Pergamon Press, 1990), Distance Education: a Systems View, co-authored with G. Kearsley (Wadsworth Publishers, Third Edition, 2011 in press), published in Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Portugese, and the Handbook of Distance Education (Third Edition 2012).