Managing for Electronic Networking

Abstract

Post-secondary educational institutions are under increasing pressure for change. Some governments want institutions to produce increased numbers of science and technology graduates for the knowledge management economy. Potential students are anxious to obtain postsecondary education in a world where credentials are considered the initial step to career success. Some pressure is for flexibility as well as access, as students find themselves unable to afford full-time school and meet additional family or professional commitments. The pressures from the corporate world are to do more with less, and to indicate increasing effectiveness and efficiency through benchmarking, performance indicators and outcome measures. Employers would like more continuing professional education opportunities for their employees, to keep their knowledge current. Educators would like to see post-secondary institutions adopt more contemporary models based on the premise of active, social and experiential learning, while those in distance education institutions recognise the need to provide feedback to students and to enhance teacher-student interactivity. Underlying all these is the expectation that information technology (IT), while the source of many of these pressures, holds the answer