What is Education as Service

Recently the e-learning community has begun to view the e-learning environment as a self-sustaining ecosystem that provides learners with the tools and surroundings they need to achieve their learning. An e-learning ecosystem is a community where organisms interact with one another and with their physical environment. Every organism has a role to fulfil and there must be a harmonious balance between all aspects of the ecosystem in order for the organisms to flourish and evolve. An e-learning system can be considered as a service system—the application of competences for the benefit of another. What exactly are the characteristics of an e-learning ecosystem and how can e-learning professionals create such an ecosystem that provide values for the different elements of the e-learning ecosystem? This chapter shows the concepts of service ecosystems that can be used to design an effective e-learning ecosystem that will provide value to the different stakeholders involved.