Managing the Ecology and Sustainability of Online Learning Environments

Abstract

The future of online learning may be more than technology integration or increasing demands; it has to be humane and sustainable. Project management aiming to provide better online learning environments has to integrate sustainability into its vision and action in order not to burden future generations with careless creations of products or processes. This integration can be achieved by treating nature as a model and mentor and ecology provides the framework for this treatment. The first step towards realizing humane and sustainable online learning environments is to define the online learning ecosystem based on the characteristics of natural ecosystems; the external inputs, producers, consumers, decomposers, organic, and inorganic compounds. Once this ecosystem is defined, the managerial vision and strategies based on ecosystem management principles can be formed. Sustainability studies provide the necessary roadmap for these principles. The objective of sustainability is to be considerate in the usage of resources, not to deplete them and damage the environment with the products and production processes. Management attitudes incorporating these principles would facilitate the growth of humane and sustainable online learning ecosystems which would cultivate efficient learning experiences and their renewal within local, regional, and global resources.