An exploration of the stakeholders in Taiwan’s e-Learning ecosystem
Applying the concept of innovation ecosystem to identify 7 main stakeholders in Taiwan's digital learning context.
This is the extended content of my poster presentation at the 29th JURE 2025 Pre-Conference in Graz, Austria.
Chiang, Y.-C. (2025 August 23-24). An exploration of the stakeholders in Taiwan’s e-Learning ecosystem. [Poster session]. The 29th JURE 2025 Pre-Conference. Graz, Austria.
Introduction
In recent years, e-learning, or digital learning, has emerged as one of the most critical components of the educational landscape around the world. Most of the previous studies in Taiwan focused on isolated aspects such as the learning outcomes, policy initiatives, tools adoption, etc.
There is a notable gap in the literature that fails to picture the e-learning landscape from a macro perspective, where all stakeholders and their interactions are viewed as part of a larger, interconnected system.
Inspired by the concept of “innovation ecosystem”, this study aims to identify the stakeholders in Taiwan’s e-learning context. The result is expected to provide a foundation of a clear overview to the policymakers or future studies in this area.
Literature Review
What is an Innovation Ecosystem?
The innovation ecosystem can be defined as a set of actors, activities, and artifacts that are constantly evolving, as well as the relevant institutions and relationships that are important for the innovation performance (Granstrand & Holgersson, 2020).
The idea of the innovation ecosystem has been applied to the education context. Hannon et al. (2019) dived deeply into nine local cases around the world, providing empirical evidence of how learning ecosystems can benefit learners.
What does it look like in e-learning context?
While the field started to implement e-learning strategies in early 2000s, scholars had already discussed the future direction of e-learning and outlined the ecosystem picture (Uden et al., 2007). Decades after, more studies have been conducted to understand how the e-learning ecosystem works.
van de Heyde & Siebrits (2019) constructed a five-layer EeL model in higher education from a biotic point of view. The food chain consists of Learning Management System, Primary Producers, Primary Consumers, Secondary Consumers, Tertiary Consumers, and the Society.
de Souza Rodrigues et al. (2020) identified ten major factors that play significant roles in the e-learning ecosystem that would impact the stakeholders within.
Applying the Quadruple Helix model as a multi-stakeholder approach
The Quadruple Helix model states that a (eco)system consists of four major sectors - The academia field, the industry, the government, and the public society (Carayannis & Campbell, 2009). This serves as an umbrella for this study to analyze the identified subjects in the ecosystem.
Research Method
This study applies a qualitative research approach with the content analysis method. At this preliminary stage of research, we applied the grey literature approach for data collection. We search for related stakeholders by looking at open sources in the local context including:
Journal articles regarding e-learning tools and policies.
Hsueh (2019) proposed a practical strategy to conduct differentiated instruction with a online learning platform.
Public awards of e-learning initiatives and resources.
A educational media in Taiwan has a subsidy “EDU-Inno Hub” which hosts an educational innovation award every year. They selects a hundred of innovated practices in education field. The latest award can be found here.
Government policies and contract records.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Education has a one-stop website for the “Digital Learning Enhancement Plan”.
Taoyuan City had a government contract with a online learning software company as a part of their Digital Leaning Enhancement Plan.
Industry or news reports.
After collecting the data, the study applies the Quadruple Helix Model to conduct content analysis. A second layer of stakeholder types were identified under the original four sectors. Exact codes were informed by previous e-learning ecosystem literatures.
Results
After the initial research, the study has identified seven stakeholders in Taiwan's e-learning ecosystem. The following summary provides a condensed explanation of each role.
Policymakers - The administrators in the public sector who form the guidelines and determine the direction of e-learning development. In the Taiwan context, the Ministry of Education has a dedicated department handling this area.
Pioneer teachers - To help front-line teachers adopt the idea of e-learning more easily, local governments in many cities have built groups of pioneer teachers to work in this area. These teachers act as bridges between policymakers and school teachers. They pass their knowledge and experience to in-service teachers to yield success in e-learning.
Hardware providers - After the Taiwan government established the policy goal that each student would have a tablet device to use in schools, it became critical to determine where the devices would come from. In the Taiwan context, the government partnered with device manufacturers to achieve this goal. On the other hand, we also see corporations stepping in to manufacture devices such as electronic whiteboards for teachers to use in teaching.
Learning tools developers - For actual learning to happen, the corresponding tools and content must emerge. We see for-profit companies, nonprofit organizations, and academic scholars working on developing quality tools and content for teachers and students to utilize.
Business sponsors - Many corporations in the business world have demonstrated their corporate social responsibility by providing financial sponsorship in this area. Either directly partnering with the public sector or supporting nonprofits largely eases the financial challenge of developing the e-learning ecosystem.
Infrastructure developers - Accessibility is the foundation for any e-learning activities to happen. This varies from the infrastructure for students in all areas to be able to access the internet, to the software systems that can be applied to the hardware and tools.
Schools - Schools are the endpoints where the eventual e-learning activities happen. On the other hand, they also serve as a critical source of providing the actual needs and feedback that accurately respond to the educational purposes of e-learning.
The study result serves as a foundation for framing the e-learning ecosystem.
First, for Taiwan itself and other countries at a similar stage in the e-learning area, the study result provides a good starting point for policymakers to view the e-learning ecosystem more holistically. For each stakeholder, they can also obtain a clearer idea of their individual roles in this field.
Second, for countries that are at an earlier stage of building the e-learning ecosystem, the study serves as a valuable examination reference for what could be the starting points or missing pieces.
Last but not least, the concept of an innovation ecosystem also emphasizes the interactions between different stakeholders. Building on the result of this study, researchers can further investigate the interactions among the identified roles. Doing so will provide an even more complete overview of the e-learning ecosystem.
Discussion & Feature Direction
To further understand the interactions and relationships among the identified stakeholders, we can apply the actor network theory (ANT). Potentially, deeper themes can be found out from this approach. For example, “pioneer teachers prefer certain types of e-learning tools” or “business sponsors focus on specific results when sponsoring the policy”.
Given that the e-learning ecosystems have been developed for a short period of time, there are ongoing, wide discussion on how to leverage the resources and put them to the right place. With the foundation of the understanding each stakeholder’s role and the interaction within the ecosystem, we can further investigate what the critical spots are.
The “System mapping” technique is an approach to systematically examine the relationship and dynamic among factors within a complex system (Barbrook-Johnson & Penn, 2022). With this approach, there’s a potential direction toward identifying the “leverage points” in the e-learning ecosystem, which can inform future policy-making and investments.
As this preliminary study serves as an attempt to examine this field with an ecosystem point of view, the current study lacks a rigorous data collection process. Further study should design a systematic data collection method to enrich the foundation and better support its results.
References
Barbrook-Johnson, P., & Penn, A. S. (2022). Systems Mapping: How to build and use causal models of systems (p. 186). Springer Nature.
Carayannis, E. G., & Campbell, D. F. (2009). 'Mode 3'and'Quadruple Helix': toward a 21st century fractal innovation ecosystem. International journal of technology management, 46(3-4), 201-234.
de Souza Rodrigues, M. A., Chimenti, P., & Nogueira, A. R. R. (2021). An exploration of eLearning adoption in the educational ecosystem. Education and Information Technologies, 26(1), 585-615.
Granstrand, O., & Holgersson, M. (2020). Innovation ecosystems: A conceptual review and a new definition. Technovation, 90, 102098.
Hannon, V., Thomas, L., Ward, S., & Beresford, T. (2019). Local learning ecosystems: emerging models. Innovation Unit.
Uden, L., Wangsa, I. T., & Damiani, E. (2007, February). The future of E-learning: E-learning ecosystem. In 2007 inaugural IEEE-IES digital ecosystems and technologies conference (pp. 113-117). IEEE.
van de Heyde, V., & Siebrits, A. (2019). The ecosystem of e-learning model for higher education. South African Journal of Science, 115(5-6), 1-6.
薛雅純（2019）。以均一教育平台實施差異化教學之實務見解。臺灣教育評論月刊，8(1)，245-248。https://www.airitilibrary.com/Article/Detail?DocID=P20130114001-201901-201901170008-201901170008-245-248