“COOPERATIVE ON-LINE PROGRAMS: WHAT’S

WITH ALL THE RULES?”

Ed MillerOklahoma State

University

Who are your students?

4-year students Graduate students Working professionals

BusinessesEducation/government

Internationals

Student’s objectives Outstanding

courses/professors. Personal growth. Degrees and certificates. Continuing education. Emerging disciplines. Employer requirements.

University objectives

Income opportunities. Stretching faculty resources. Emerging fields of study. Best experts across institutions. Maintaining low enrollment

programs. Interdisciplinary programs.

Where do issues arrise?

Within and among institutional administrations.

Those associated with academics.

Institutional issues.

Engaging the chief financial officers. In-state/out-of-state tuition. Revenues and actual program costs. Where does the money go? Who will manage the program? Student records. Faculty compensation.

Curricular issues

Course exchanges. Degrees and certificates. Curricular design. Quality of instruction. Faculty status. Reviews and assessment.

What’s with the rules?

Legal requirements. Financial arrangements. Exchanging student records. Equity in compensation. Conflict resolution. Timely communications. Course, program and instructor

assessment. Faculty appointments in T,R,& E.

Successful collaboration

Need for the program / steady demand.

Strength in multi-institution cooperation.

Enthusiastic leadership. Supportive faculty colleagues. Progressive administrations. Selecting good partners.

Partner selection

Eager faculty and administrators. Commitment to outreach education. Existing connections. Similar institutional characteristics. Complementary faculty:

Expertise. Philosophy. Workloads. Abilities.

Alliance management

Initial work starts at the faculty level. Third party management often follows. KSU Institute for Academic Alliances:

Great Plains IDEA consortium.Ag IDEA consortium.Others.

Credits

Anderson, Moxley, Maes and Reinert. Kansas State Institute for Academic Alliances.

Multi-institutional Academic Programs: Deal Makers and Dealbreakers. Continuing Higher Education Review, Vol. 72, 2008.

Institute for Academic Alliances. Occasional Papers. Moxleys Maxims:

Consortium Financial Matters. Developing Institutional Support. Alliance Leadership.