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This chapter provides a view of e-learning from the perspective of ecological systems with nested levels of structure, organizing principles, and emergent properties for use in accomplishing at least three goals: to evaluate emergent patterns in the development of e-learning; to assess current threats and enablers at any level; and to plan for successful growth within determinate niches. E-learning is structured into four levels: the International/National level; the Institutional level; the Class/Community level; and the Learning Object level. Within each level, and between them, there are organizing principles of integration and differentiation contributing to their stability or decay. Those that the authors have identified include: transactional distance in delivery of learning; industrialization of learning functions; functional equivalence of learning experiences; virtualization of knowledge; technological convergence of learning media; developmental growth of learning systems; and requisite variety in learning strategies. For administrators, practitioners, and faculty whose institutions have an identity within the ecology, the authors introduce the GEMS process to better control the Goals, Engagement, Management and Support of system elements between and across their levels of e-learning structures. Both the broad ecological view upon e-learning -and the specific tools of GEMS useful within it- are applied to existing structures in e-learning, such as open courseware and course management systems, and to e-learning innovations, such as mobile learning, meta-worlds, and virtual gaming.

This paper presents the Process Improvement Request System initiated at SUNY Empire State College as a case study for institutional change management. Through this system, employees can submit suggestions for improving any kind of institutional processes at the college using an Information Technology “ticketing” system like the one used for technical issues. These communications are addressed, tracked, and stored by the Process Improvement Committee which includes representatives from all areas of the college. The Process Improvement Request System addresses many critical goals including 1) the storage of process issues, concerns, and suggestions; 2) a mechanism for addressing these; 3) open access to all employees (and to students through employee representatives) to submit ideas; 4) the ability to make suggestions about all levels of process issues, from college wide to personnel specific; 5) anonymity for making a request when desired; and 6) a feedback loop about the effectiveness of new processes. In this paper, the essential aspects of this project are discussed and analyzed. The paper also enables readers to ascertain the viability of such a project at their campuses and invites them to reach out to the authors if they have questions about doing so.

Teachers teach to the level of their ability: novices can teach students to be novices: experts can teach students to be experts. Using the Buddhist Eightfold Path as a model, this chapter explores the expert/novice paradigm as a framework for e-learning, particularly as offered through instructional design that can both scaffold novice instructors to teach to a higher level of learning, and also support experts to help students reach higher goals. Three facets of the teaching/learning dialogue are explored: expertise in a domain of knowledge (teacher), expertise in acquiring deep knowledge in a new domain through learning (learner), and expertise in the instructor/learner learning interface (instructional designer). Expert and novice teaching and learning and their relationship through instructional designers will be discussed.