Leadership in E-Learning

Leadership in e-learning refers to the role played by dominant individuals and groups in enabling maximal achievement of collective electronic learning (e-learning) goals by students in education. Leaders in e-learning accomplish this by integrating the use of educational technology into mainstream learning and teaching practices in ways that focus on pedagogic benefits for students rather than on using technology for its own sake. Leadership in e-learning differs from prior understandings of leadership in education in placing emphasis on technology-mediated collaborative learning environments that require flexible, responsive distributed leadership approaches combined with advanced group communication skills. Such approaches often require sophisticated problem-solving tactics that can handle the complexity, speed, and fluidity of new technologies and virtual teams in education, placing more emphasis on trusting interconnected relationships than on fixed hierarchical directive organizational management structures.

Although leadership in e-learning is a second-order function that supports the primary role of educational technology in learning and teaching, it is nevertheless relevant because effective leadership has a crucial impact on increasing the organizational success of pedagogical developments and outcomes supported by educational technology, particularly in an era dominated by rapid Web-enabled communications. By contrast, ineffective e-learning leadership tends to hinder and block the take-up of teaching and learning innovations using technology. This entry first defines leadership in e-learning and discusses the roles of e-learning leaders. The entry then discusses how e-learning leadership developed and gives examples of e-learning leadership.

Leadership in e-learning operates both inside and outside educational institutions, in face-to-face and virtual classrooms using electronic devices as well as online learning environments. E-learning leadership functions through formal and informal policy making, strategic planning, and implementation processes at every hierarchical level, from national policy making and institutional senior management, to local teaching, business, and community leadership.