Abstract:

Online education is an alternative education methodology quite often used and differentiated from traditional one. It offers flexibility, ubiquity, process integration and high degrees of adaptation to learning requirements at different contexts. Relational coordination (RC) is a model that allows measuring and analyzing the quality of communication networks and relationships at Organizations. The intensive use of information and communication technologies in higher education online systems promotes higher degrees of coordination and integration of processes by improving the quality of the teaching-learning process at Educational Institutions. The main objective of this paper is to show the relationship between the relational coordination and the quality of online education at universities. A case study of success has been provided: Norwich University. Norwich University is positioned amongst one the best on line Universities in the world according to “Top 7 Best Online Colleges for 2010 “located at: http://www.onlinedegreereviews.org/college/page/best-online-colleges-for-2010/. A deep analysis of the organization from the RC perspective proofs that RC is key to achieve better quality and efficiency in online university education.

Keywords:

relational coordination, on-line education, Norwich University, case study methodology