Published in Association with eLearning has entered the mainstream of higher educationas an agent of strategic change. Thistransformation requires eLearning leaders to develop the skills to innovatesuccessfully at a time of heightened competition and rapid technologicalchange. In this environment eLearning leaders must act withintheir institutions as much more than technology managers and assume the primerole of helping their institutions understand the opportunities that eLearningpresents for faculty, for students, and for client organizations in the community. They need to prepare to participate in policy development around theseopportunities. They must understandthe multiple dimensions of practice in the field-operations, administration,and working within the complex culture of a higher education institution-while alsofunctioning as scholars of thefield who can bring the best ideas from other institutions to help shape policyaround eLearning. The secondedition builds on the success of the first edition and presents both thecollective expertise of veterans who have pioneered the field for 20 years, andof a rising generation of eLearning leaders that are transforming onlineprograms at their own institutions, to address these challenges. This edition has been updated and expandedto reflect the increasing complexity of the field with seven new chapters andthe revision of eight chapters that appeared in the first edition. New andupdated topics include: Theevolving role of the chief online learning officer Issuesof diversity as more women and minorities enter leadership roles in the field Theincreasing role of learning analytics and data-based decisions The potential tensions involvedin cohort-based versus individualized instruction Theincreasing need for faculty professional development Theaffordances of cloud computing, adaptive learning, artificial intelligence, theinternet of things, and mobile learning to the field Theopen educational resources movement and the implications for institutionalpolicy and practice Thechallenges of an increasingly complex competitive environment AccessibilityThere are few comparablepositions in higher education than that of eLearning leaders who work acrossmultiple academic and support units and whose work fundamentally affects theinstitution as a whole. This volume iswritten for them.
