Capturing definitions for a sustainable distance education ecosystem through an online Delphi study

Abstract

In broadest terms, ecology is the scientific study of interactions among organisms and their environment, and ecosystem defines a community of living organisms in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment interacting as a system. At present, both terms are references of many studies including education; various authors and studies investigating distance education with an ecological perspective refer to the ecosystem concept as frameworks for defining the operational components and processes. Among all these contributions, the concept of "waste," one of the key concerns of sustainability, seems to be vaguely discussed. Having this as a standpoint, an online Delphi study was carried out in a research project at Anadolu University, Turkey, aiming to define a sustainable distance education ecosystem including the explanation of "waste" with reference to ecosystem definitions. The study was processed online and is explained by both presenting the results and discussing the benefits and also difficulties encountered