Education is a fundamental human right, yet much of the world's population lives with poor literacy. Due to rapidly growing technology and internet usage, open educational resources (OER) are increasingly being used to help transcend barriers to literacy while also aiding in educational attainment. With tremendous developments in ICTs, the education system of today has been enriched by various OERs. The optimal utilization of opportunities provided by the technological developments presents a profound challenge for education systems and has serious implications involving cost, access, equity, pedagogy, and quality. Challenges and Opportunities of Open Educational Resources Management is an essential research publication that explores access to information and societal and economic hurdles that contribute to informational inaccessibility. Highlighting topics such as e-resources, digital libraries, and information management, this book is ideal for librarians, academicians, computer scientists, researchers, policymakers, and students. Moreover, the book will provide insights and support executives concerned with the management of expertise, knowledge, information, and organizational development in different types of work communities and environments.

For many of us, the drive to affect positive change--however vague or idiosyncratic our sense of this might be--has guided our work in higher education. We champion the pursuit of a college degree because few endeavors can match it in terms of advancing a person's economic mobility (Chetty, Friedman, Saez, Turner, and Yagan; 2017). Despite recent debates about the value of a college degree (Pew Research Center, 2017), the opportunities and financial stability awarded to those with college degrees remain apparent when they are compared to peers who have only graduated high school (Pew Research Center, 2014). And while more Americans have a college degree than ever before (Ryan and Bauman, 2016), access to a formal, post-secondary education continues to be elusive for some. Indeed, over the last ten years, analysts have projected that the cost of attending college would keep 2.4 million low-to-moderate income, college-qualified high school graduates from completing a college degree (Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, 2006). During that same period, college students in the United States saw expenses related to tuition and fees increase by 63 percent, school housing costs (excluding board) increase by 51 percent, textbook prices increase by 88 percent (Bureau of Labor, 2016). Because few students can afford a college education by salary alone, 44.2 million Americans have sought financial aid via student loans. As a result, total student loan debt is now topping $1.45 trillion in the United States (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 2017), and student loan delinquency rates are averaging 11.2 percent (Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 2017). The burden of a student's financial decisions extends beyond the mere individual: society will inevitably carry the weight of this debt for years to come.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution has disrupted businesses worldwide through the introduction of highly automated processes. This disruption has affected the way in which companies conduct business, impacting everything from managerial styles to resource allocations to necessary new skillsets. As the business world continues to change and evolve, it is imperative that business education strategies are continuously revised and updated in order to adequately prepare students who will be entering the workforce as future entrepreneurs, executives, and marketers, among other careers. The Research Anthology on Business and Technical Education in the Information Era is a vital reference source that examines the latest scholarly material on pedagogical approaches in finance, management, marketing, international business, and other fields. It also explores the implementation of curriculum development and instructional design strategies for technical education. Highlighting a range of topics such as business process management, skill development, and educational models, this multi-volume book is ideally designed for business managers, business and technical educators, entrepreneurs, academicians, upper-level students, and researchers.

As schools continue to explore the transition from traditional education to teaching and learning online, new instructional design frameworks are needed that can support with the development of e-learning content. The e-learning frameworks examined within this book have eight dimensions: (1) institutional, (2) pedagogical, (3) technological, (4) interface design, (5) evaluation, (6) management, (7) resource support, and (8) ethical. Each of these dimensions contains a group of concerns or issues that need to be examined to assess and develop an institutions e-capability in order to introduce the best e-learning practices. Challenges and Opportunities for the Global Implementation of E-Learning Frameworks presents global perspectives on the latest best practices and success stories of institutions that were able to effectively implement e-learning frameworks. An e-learning framework is used as a guide to examine e-learning practices in countries around the globe to reflect on opportunities and challenges for implementing quality learning. In this book, therefore, tips for success factors and issues relevant to failures will be presented along with an analysis of similarities and differences between several countries and educational lessons. While highlighting topics such as course design and development, ICT use in the classroom, and e-learning for different subjects, this book is ideal for university leaders, practitioners in e-learning, continuing education institutions, government agencies, course developers, in-service and preservice teachers, administrators, practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students seeking knowledge on how e-learning frameworks are being implemented across the globe.

Education in the Global South faces several key interrelated challenges, for which Open Educational Resources (OER) are seen to be part of the solution. These challenges include: unequal access to education; variable quality of educational resources, teaching, and student performance; and increasing cost and concern about the sustainability of education. The Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) project seeks to build on and contribute to the body of research on how OER can help to improve access, enhance quality and reduce the cost of education in the Global South. This volume examines aspects of educator and student adoption of OER and engagement in Open Educational Practices (OEP) in secondary and tertiary education as well as teacher professional development in 21 countries in South America, Sub-Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia. The ROER4D studies and syntheses presented here aim to help inform Open Education advocacy, policy, practice and research in developing countries.