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Education Technology Consortium: Academic and Technocrat Collaboration
8/12/2002
Imagine a scenario where faculty members could directly influence building a platform that delivered online courses to students and where they were not intimidated by technology, but living the mantra they most frequently utter: “Technology is merely the means for delivering online courses. It should not be an obstacle to teaching the course.”
That scenario has become a working principle of the Education Technology Consortium, which for the past five years has been an incubator for educational technology produced with the active guidance of power users in the academic commuinity.
The consortium began as a partnership of community colleges in southeastern Pennsylvania, Delaware, and southern New Jersey for the purpose of broadcasting video courses over WHYY, the local PBS affiliate. Gradually, four-year colleges and universities joined the group, partly to tap into the course delivery services and partly to capitalize on the educational technology being developed within the group.
The catalyst for product development was a partnership between the consortium and WebStudy Inc., a local software developer that produced a course management system platform. Through their association with the consortium, the members gained both an entree into the online world and a series of enhancements to the platform as they became available.
The new consortium clicked. From its inception, WebStudy was positioned as an “application service provider.” Incorporated into its mission was a philosophy of support and platform enhancement that includes provider input at every stage. One of the most basic illustrations of this approach were monthly user meetings attended by both distance learning administrators and faculty of colleges within the consortium. At the meetings, hosted by Curt Corbi, WebStudy’s chief technology officer, college officials were invited to offer suggestions to enhance the platform and were kept apprised of the results of the beta testing of previous recommendations.
With the collaboration of faculty members, administrators, and Web developers, WebStudy was able to avoid a “one size fits all” approach to product development. In addition, other projects and enhancements grew from the user meetings, including faculty initiatives to publish training materials in print and CD formats for both faculty and student users.
Beta testing is spread among the consortium members to give as many colleges as possible a sense of platform ownership. Through this process, the latest version of WebStudy (Version 5.1) contains 31 new features, all of which were originally suggested by consortium members. Areas of the platform upgraded through this process include the e-mail system, the grade book, and the testing, calendar, and assignment page features.
In an interview, Corbi described the relationship between WebStudy and the colleges: “WebStudy’s evolution from its inaugural release in 1996 to the current release has been heavily influenced by frequent, well-orchestrated interaction and feedback from the consortium of colleges and universities using it. Monthly meetings attended by academia, WebStudy, and WHYY…produce a ‘secret sauce’ that brings product loyalty to a new level.
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