This book examines lifelong learning in the Information Age and the role of higher education (HE) in providing the educational services needed by lifelong learners. The following are among the topics discussed in the book's eight chapters: (1) changes in HE (repercussions of globalization in the educational sector; competition in higher learning; potential of information technology and multimedia learning); (2) emerging organizational models and players in the education services business (emerging organizational concepts; organizations in Net-based lifelong learning); (3) human learning and instruction (instruction, behavioral psychology, and cognitive constructivism; selected approaches to learning and instruction); (4) educational concepts for Net-based learning and teaching (lifelong learning considerations, asynchronous learning networks, managing lifelong learning careers, managing personalized learning experiences, migrating to competence-focused learning environments); (5) operational functions, subsystems, and roles (organizational design and business process engineering in HE, operational functions to support Net-based learning); (6) core processes in Net-based educational systems (creating and certifying competencies; specifying learning balance; co-constructivist progressive mastery learning; demonstrating achievements); (7) information systems (IS) support for Net-based education (IS functions of higher learning, groupware infrastructure, and IS functions); and (8) a case study of groupware-based asynchronous learning and teaching. Eighty-three tables/figures are included. (Contains 316 references.) (MN)