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.

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.

This book highlights the emergence of the virtual university to fit the needs of the global information society.

Based on material gathered from research around the world, this book describes how a global university could function in the future and presents a paradigm from which it might be constructed.

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.

It is likely that you have heard about "virtual universities." It is just as likely that you may have an opinion about them. But what do we really know?This volume presents research-based information about virtual universities useful to other virtual institutions, and indicates lessons for traditional institutions to be drawn from the experiences of VUs. VUs have become an accepted part of the higher education landscape and have made online learning and online ways of doing business more acceptable among all higher education institutions. Chapters discuss: Background: What the States Created New Definitions for New Higher Education Institutions Lessons Learned from WashingtonOnline University System of Georgia's eCore: Virtual General Education Western Governors University: Creating the First Virtual University A Comparative Case Study of State-Level Virtual Universities On the Edge of Innovation: Transition and Transformation in Statewide Administrative Models for Online Learning A Review of the Short Life of the U.S. Open University The Funding of Virtual Universities Academic Advising in a Virtual University What to Expact from a Virtual University What We Need to Know About Virtual Universities This volume is an excellent guide for higher education professionals working with a Virtual University. It is the 146th volume of the Jossey-Bass quarterly report series New Directions for Higher Education. Addressed to presidents, vice presidents, deans, and other higher education decision makers on all kinds of campuses, New Directions for Higher Education provides timely information and authoritative advice about major issues and administrative problems confronting every institution.