Exchange Grad Program Tuition Waivers: Policy, Guidelines, Course Registration Form - Western Canadian "Deans' Agreement"

"reciprocal enrichment of graduate programs":  
tuition waivers for grad & undergrad credit courses that are "an integral part of the applicant's graduate degree program" for "visiting students" who are "paying normal required tuition fees to their home institution."  See links, excerpts below for more details.

• Western Canadian Deans of Graduate Studies - Policy on Shared Interuniversity Graduate Programs
• Guidelines for the Distance Delivery of Graduate Programs
• Authorization & Course Registration Form
• Western Canadian Deans' Agreement [excerpts follow]

Sharing Courses? Sharing Faculty? Really?

9/16 2pm EDT Free Online tlt.gs/frlv 

Undergrad interinstitutional courses?

• How could a few colleges or universities each benefit from collaborating to enable their own enrolled undergraduates to take some of each others' courses? 
• What could be done by each institution to encourage and enable their own students to take courses in which the lead faculty member is based on one of the other distant campuses - too distant for face-to-face meetings?
• In what ways can faculty be shared among course-sharing institutions?

FridayLive Registration Info tlt.gs/frlv

100 FRLV Sharing Courses Frugal Innovation - Google Docs:

Frugal Innovation: Colleges Share Courses? - TLT-SWG 20110811

"Are You Ready For Online Learning?" WHAT KIND? Synchronous/Asynch? Text/Voice/Video?

2 self-tests from OntarioLearn.com for prospective online students below.  
Good prep/background for our FridayLive! session this week:  Frugal Innovation:  Colleges Sharing Online Courses Sept 16, 2011 Register (FREE) to receive login information.


However, these tests would be more helpful if accompanied by better information about the kinds of online courses for which the tests have been designed.  The technology options for teaching/learning online are changing VERY FAST.  The self-tests should be introduced by explanations of how much, if at all, these courses can vary in schedule, pedagogy, media - should answer some questions like these:  

• Do these courses include synchronous options?  
• Is most interaction only via text online?  Live or recorded audio?  Video?  Are telephone conversations permitted, encouraged, or forbidden?
• Is most learning expected to be via reading printed materials?  Reading online?  Engaging in specific tasks that must be done independently?  
• How and when can students get feedback about their progress?  
• How and when are students tested or graded?
• How often and in what ways is the teacher available to respond to questions?

SELF-TESTS  DESCRIPTIONS & LINKS BELOW HERE

You don't REALLY want another collection of good stuff, do you?

How to share overabundant good teaching/learning resources? 9/9 2pm ET Online
Join us for our first free online FridayLive! session of 2011-2012. September 9 at 2pm Eastern. Working title:
“You are not alone!” and “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Finding, Browsing, and Drowning in Overabundance
Interview of Steven Bell, Associate University Librarian for Research & Instructional Services, Temple U. and ACRL vice-president/president-elect.
AND

Recap, Extension of TLT Group’s Online Symposium 2011 (4th Annual) "Frugal Innovation thru Small Group Collaboration "

Frugal Innovation: Colleges Share Courses?

Politically tolerable? Logistically feasible? Financially viable? Educationally desirable?

Sharing Courses with Other Colleges? Really? Where?

I'm looking for examples where a few colleges or universities each benefit from collaborating to enable their own enrolled undergraduates to take some of each others' courses.  Know of any?   Meanwhile...

Higher Ed Ready for Compassionate Pioneers? Sharing Instructional Resources?

Donated Corneal Transplant - 2 Stitches Showing

A "compassionate pioneer" is someone who has demonstrated commitments to BOTH exploring new educational and technological options AND helping colleagues - at least some of the time. 


Can the culture of colleges, universities, and academic disciplines support the development and use of shared instructional resources? - This still imiportant question taken from Observations Section of "A New Vision Worth Working Toward: Connected Education and Collaborative Change," Steven W. Gilbert, 2000-2006, First version published via AAHESGIT listserv January, 2000; PDF of full article

See also Exemplar:  Tom Creed,  "Many Swords, Many Stones"  


More from Observations 2000 about Compassionate Pioneers

A Course is not a Pizza

Pizza & course materials can be delivered. Courses cannot. Even online. "Delivery" denies interaction.
In a course, learners have some meaningful access to at least one faculty member and that faculty member has some meaningful access to the learners, too.
Faculty and students who are misled to believe that in most courses, access to course materials is equivalent to course participation, end up delivering and receiving a diluted education.

The MIT OpenCourseWare project, one of the first and best known sources of "open education resources" distinguishes quite clearly between course resources and courses:  "MIT OpenCourseWare is intended as a publication of MIT course materials, not as an interactive experience with MIT faculty. MIT OpenCourseWare does not offer users the opportunity for direct contact with MIT faculty. It provides the content of - but is not a substitute for - an MIT education."  More... Also see: http://ocw.mit.edu

I'll bet that most MIT faculty believe that what they are doing today in their own courses is always a step beyond what they made available yesterday on the Web – and that they are right. Further, the valuable interaction between faculty members and students that may be instigated by use of the course materials changes constantly – and what happens in and subsequent to those interactions can powerfully alter the learning of those involved. The unique human relationships that may develop among faculty and students can also be an important dimension of the experience, and one that is not captured in course materials.