Handbook of Online Learning: Innovations in Higher Education and Corporate Training

`I found the book excellent and read every one of the 450 pages…. Many of the chapters reflect the Fielding Institute′s focus on human and organizational behaviour, educational leadership, and organizational management. The book will be particularly appropriate for readers from a corporate, training or business school background, though there is much for academics and online educators at all levels and subject areas to learn from this well crafted book. There are many books and articles about online learning. This is one of the better ones!′ - Robin Mason, Computers and Education Technology-mediated instruction has taken the university and the corporate sector by storm. As more instructors teach online for a dispersed learning community in both academic and business environments, there′s a need for resources that will help them adapt to this new teaching method. Educators who come out of traditional academic institutions tend to use traditional methods when offering courses online (e.g. lectures, textbooks and readings, examinations) rather than attend to small-group processes and principles of what the editors of this volume call "andragogy." This Handbook goes beyond the mechanics of how to create and direct an online learning experience to consider such a new approach to pedagogy in doing so. The editors primary purpose is to clarify the conceptual issues that underlie effective online teaching and to offer practical guidance to educators and corporate trainers who plan to teach in a virtual environment. Their central tenet is: the adoption of computer networks as the teaching vehicle of the future demands a re-examination of our core beliefs about pedagogy and how students learn. The transfer of a classroom curriculum into cyberspace is deceptively simple, but doing so without an appreciation of the nuances and implications of learning online ignores not only the potential of this medium but the inevitable realities of entering it. Rather than fear the challenges that new technology brings to systems of learning, the editors hope to help instructors embrace it by re-thinking how knowledge is acquired and how educational processes may be optimally designed in a new age of teaching and learning. Features/Benefits - Part I provides an overview and includes discussion of the unique structural aspects of the electronic learning environment, pedagogical issues, curriculum design, psychological and group dynamics, and ethical issues. - Part II examines practical issues associated with implementing courses online, both in the traditional university setting and in professionalrporate training environments. - The book draws heavily on personal case examples, many from The Fielding Graduate Institute′s 26+ years of teaching in nontraditional distributed learning environments.

Table of Contents:
PART I. Changing Philosophies and Theories of Learning 1. Overview: Changing Universities and Learning Environments of the Future - K.E. Rudestam & J. Schoenholtz-Read 2. Presence in "Teleland," - G. Fontaine 3. Critical Dialogue Online: Personas, Covenants, & Candlepower - B. Hudson 4. The Case of the Inflammatory E-Mail: Building Culture & Community in Online Academic Environments - J.J. Shapiro & S.K. Hughes 5. Uncertain Frontiers: Exploring Ethical Dimensions of Online Learning - D. Agger-Gupta PART II: Implementation Of Online Learning A. PROGRAMS/ENVIRONMENTS:UNIVERSITY 6. The Design & Delivery of Interactive Online Graduate Education - J. Stevens-Long & C. Crowell 7. Beyond the Looking Glass: What Faculty & Students Need to be Successful Online - R.M. Palloff & K.Pratt 8. The Jungle Syndrome: Some Perils & Pleasures of Learning Without Walls - B. Hudson 9. Harnessing the Power of Complexity in an Online Learning Environment - J. Beaubien 10. Leadership in Online Education: Strategies for Effective Online Administration & Governance - C.A. Olson 11. Breaking Through Zero-Sum Academics: Two Students′ Perspectives on Computer-Mediated Learning Environments - S. Hamilton & J. Zimmerman B. PROGRAMS/ENVIRONMENTS: CORPORATE 12. Synthesizing Higher Education & Corporate Learning Strategies - B. LaRue 13. Real-World Learning in the Virtual Classroom: Computer-Mediated Learning in the Corporate World - D. Smith 14.THE EXECUTIVE MASTER CLASS™: Cyberspace & the New Frontiers of Executive Education - B. LaRue & M. R. Sobol 15. Online Knowledge Communities & their Role in Organizational Learning - M.D. Neff C. COURSES 16. Designing & Using a Course in Organization Design to Facilitate Corporate Learning in the Online Environment - T.C. Gibbons & R.S. Brenowitz 17. Teaching Virtual Leadership: Using the Case Method Online - B. Mahone Brown 18. Teaching Statistics Online - P. Hodges & L. Saba 19. Healthcare Meets Technology: Web-Based Professional Training, Consultation, & Collaboration - Collaboration D.S. Janoff 20. A Virtual Knowledge Café - B. Gyllenpalm

About the Author :
Kjell Erik Rudestam is Professor of Psychology at Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, California, where he served as Associate Dean of Academic Affairs for many years. He was previously a psychology professor at York University, Toronto, and Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, after receiving his PhD in Psychology (Clinical) from the University of Oregon. He is the author of Your Statistical Consultant: Answers to Your Data Analysis Questions, 2nd edition (also with Rae R. Newton), Handbook of Online Learning, 2nd edition (with Judith Schoenholtz-Read), and eight other books, as well as numerous articles in professional journals on topics including suicide, psychotherapy, and family and organizational systems. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Division 12), a Diplomate of the American Board of Examiners in Professional Psychology (Clinical), a Diplomate of the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress, and holds an Honorary Doctorate of Science from The Professional School of Psychology. Judith Schoenholtz-Read, Ed.D., is a member of the Psychology Program at The Fielding Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, California. In 1999, she coauthored "Group Supervision Meets Technology: A Model for Computer Mediated Group Training at a Distance" (with Dean Janoff) for the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy. She is a fellow in the Canadian Group Psychotherapy Association and is Secretary of Division 49 (Group Psychology and Psychotherapy) of the American Psychological Association. Her research interests include feminist theory and practice, group psychotherapy, non-verbal methods of psychotherapy, psychotherapy integration, and narrative research methods.  

Review :
This book not only is that rare breed that addresses online learning in both higher education and corporate environments but every chapter is intriguing, informative, and accurately grounded. This book provides a comprehensive, timely, and informative look at online learning in higher education and corporate training settings. For an update on the state of e-learning in educational and training environments, simply read this book.   This book is a fascinating, comprehensive, revealing array of information about online learning. It is full of practical applications and significant implications for a future where online learning will play an increasingly larger role. It is essential for any library keeping up on online learning innovations.   I have been involved in e-education and training for forty years. This book provides astute, fresh insights, thoroughly explored, about what drives e-learning, and its diversity in distance education and corporate training. Every education and business leader must be thinking about the learning transformation taking place. This book is a must for every library as a collection of readings explaining best practices and blueprints for developing 21st century education and corporate training. The Fielding Institute authors apply an impressive wealth of organizational management theory and experience in their analyses of computer-mediated teaching and learning. The result is an enjoyable-to-read, fresh and lively book, delivering an abundance of ideas about how to establish a supportive learning environment, design a well structured course and manage electronically mediated dialog, -- in other words, how to successfully facilitate learning in the new context of on-line distance education.  "Business and Learning have enjoyed a symbiotic relationship in our culture. The pace of change, however, has created separation between these two vital elements. The "Handbook of Online Learning" showcases the latest thinking and applications in learning delivery, and offers real promise that the gap is being bridged."   "The authors of this book are all experienced distance educators who know what the issues are: How are people engaged in teaching and learning at a distance "present" to one another? How do you create a community in the class? How can a teacher deal with an obstreperous student? What are the teaching/learning environments in universities and corporations as they affect distance education? The essays in this book inhabit the border where the idea of distance education meets the reality. They give practical advice and provide examples informed by both theory and experience."