Leadership of shared spaces in online learning communities

Good leadership is important for the creation of effective online communities that foster trust and a positive collaborative ethos in the shared spaces of online learning communities. Leadership is amongst the most 'researched' of social sciences subjects: thousands of leadership models, theories and practices exist, but there is a significant lack of literature, theory and empirical evidence on leadership in online environments. Despite the rapid expansion of global social networking and online learning, involving millions of daily interactions, little research exists on leadership of online learning communities as a variant of virtual environments. This article considers the existing literature on leadership of online learning communities and, in critically analysing the relative lack of research in this, proposes that collaborative leadership in both conceptual and technological systems design is appropriate to encourage creativity in the shared spaces of online learning communities, basing its theoretical reflections on several years of empirical work. Copyright © 2011 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.