Higher education is changing - in scope, style, technology, and objectives. This book looks at the impact of information technologies on higher education and the reorganization of universities in more managerial and business directions. The book combines empirical and analytical chapters from scholars on both sides of the Atlantic.

A discussion of the increased accessibility to the Internet and how this has lead to a variety of resources being used for learning. Case studies and examples show the benefits of using the Internet as part of resource-based learning.

Since the first works on Higher Education Administration in the 1970s no comprehensive work in terms of purpose and scope of Higher Education has been published. There have been important changes in people’s aspirations vis-à-vis higher education globally. In parallel, the higher education systems, worldwide, have been undergoing constant transformation in response to these aspirations. From governments, employers and prospective students and their parents, the stakeholders in higher education system are now extremely varied paying close attention to the various aspects of higher education - from infrastructure, on-campus safety and security to administration, faculty and curricula. The present series attempts to take into account the issues of importance to all the stakeholders. Hence the series not only pays attention to the purpose and outcomes of higher education but also the economics surrounding higher education vis a vis marketization. The nitty gritty of running and maintaining a university infrastructure, impact of globalization and internationalization on delivery and demand of higher education, the commoditization of research, and changing paradigms of teaching and learning fall within the purview of the series. The increasing competition from other entities to provide degrees, certificates or other forms of credentials makes it important to have a work that brings all of the elements together to see how they actually interact and inter-relate from a systems perspective. The present series attempts to comprehensively attend to these issues and provide a complete reference resource to all those involved and interested in setting up of a Higher Education institution and its administration.

Executive Editor: Mihai Jalobeanu, National Research and Development Institute for Isotopic and Molecular Technology, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. This book aims to bring together the work of a number of online learning specialists from around the world, to offer the reader a global view of current and recent research and practice in electronic learning from a variety of disciplines and contexts. Some of the chapter authors indicate the likely directions e-learning may be headed in the next few years. In addition, this book is aimed at informing all those working within online learning and distance education of best practice. The content of this book will be of particular interest to university academics, researchers, college educators, K-12 teachers, education administrators and distance education students. It will also be useful as a text for those studying the management and delivery of distance education and e-learning, and indeed will be of interest to those working in all areas of education. The core of our book, the section entitled Projects and Tools, consists of research reports originally presented at the Romanian Internet Learning Workshop (RILW), an annual international conference series held in Romania between 1997 and 2001, and described in the first chapter of the volume. These projects focus on the development of instructional concepts and tools for technology-based learning environments encompassing diverse fields and disciplines from Educational Science through Intercultural Education and Foreign Languages to Beam Physics.

This unique and comprehensive overview of open and distance education is written by one of the best known names in the field. It integrates historical, contemporary and future aspects of distance education. Packed with international case studies, it goes beyond looking at the methods and technology of distance education, giving Otto Peters' renowned visions on the sociological and social impacts of distance education. Now published in paperback for the first time, this new edition includes a new section on virtual universities. A major contribution to thinking on open and distance education, this new edition will reach an even wider audience.

The rapidly growing demand for online courses and supporting technology has resulted in a plethora of structural and functional changes and challenges for universities and colleges. These changes have led many distance education providers to recognize the value of understanding the fundamental concepts of both e-learning and knowledge management (K