Mississippi's community and junior colleges comprise the nation's oldest two-year system. Throughout history, Mississippi has prided itself on bridging the gap between dreams and reality through increased access to higher education. In the early 1990s, through advancements made possible through telecommunications systems, educators and leaders…

Over the past decade, online courses and entire online degree programs have been made available, serving millions of students in higher education. These online courses largely have been designed and taught using the theoretical concepts and practical strategies of Asynchronous Learning Networks (ALN). During 2003-04, approximately two million…

People do not want to know the history, minutiae of policy, or operations, or even the political intrigues of a virtual consortium. People want to know if the consortium has value, whether it can help them, and if it is a threat. In this article, the author focuses on the operating principles and policies that have proven successful in the…

The first part of this report is an evaluation of the Washington State Community College Telecourse Consortium's initial project, the offering of "The Age of Uncertainty" for credit at seven colleges during fall quarter 1977. Responses to evaluation questionnaires from six instructors and 72 students indicated that enrollments were…

While most community and technical colleges individually offer courses by distance learning, they are increasingly challenged to provide the full range of instructional and student support services needed for expanding distance education programs. To address this issue, Washington and Oregon community and technical colleges formed distance…

Started in 1997, Washington Online Virtual Campus (WAOL) consists of a consortium of 34 community colleges around Washington State to provide asynchronous online learning. WAOL bears many of the features of a loosely coupled organization with its geographically dispersed frontline instructors, fragmented external environment, modularity of courses…

This report describes and evaluates the activities undertaken by the Washington Center for the Improvement of the Quality of Undergraduate Education between 1986 and 1988. The goal of the Center is to improve undergraduate education through five central activities: (1) assisting participating two- and four-year colleges in the establishment of…

This compilation of materials represents the major activities of the Washington Center for the Improvement of the Quality of Undergraduate Education between 1985 and 1988. The volume includes: (1) a proposal to the Ford Foundation for funding to promote collaborative projects between two- and four-year colleges related to faculty development,…