Collaborative Associate of Arts Degrees

Collaboration In thought a good idea Every one wants to be invited to the dance. Sharing sounds good. In deed – HARD Few compatible infrastructure and components. State funding formula is a barrier

Models for Comparison Models: Single Institution Cooperative Degree Collaborative Degree Comparison: Integrate courses and degree structure Administrative focus Technical focus Some implications

Integrate structure - courses and degrees Single Institution: None Cooperative Degree: Use existing courses on- line – Try to coordinate those mutually transferable and develop those needed by all – Each institution maintains separate AA degree structure – Each institution remains a separate home institution

Integration of courses and degree structure Collaborative Degree: Use existing courses on- line – Coordinate those mutually transferable and develop those needed by all – Shared content – Integrate AA degree requirements to meet a common denominator status – Each institution remains a separate “home” institution – other institutions have a “host” institution role (yet defined).

Administrative Focus Single Institution: None Cooperative Degree: Course transfer and develop shared courses. Collaborative Degree: Course transfer, develop shared courses – Develop integrated/shared student services.

Technical Focus Single Institution: None Cooperative Degree: CAS participation with updated course transfer information Collaborative Degree: CAS participation with updated course transfer information – Can share student financial aid, admissions, and registration information. Also integrated academic/career advising.

Some Implications Single Institution: Institution solely responsible for initiating, implementing, and maintaining on-line AA Degree. Cooperative Degree: Institutions share courses and costs of an on-line AA degree – Degree transfer paths for 2-to-4 year institutions are established – possible review of requirements for amount of courses acceptable for transfer and residence.

Some Implications Collaborative Degree: Institutions share courses and costs of an on-line AA degree – degree transfer paths for 2-to-4 year institutions are established – possible review of requirements for amount of courses acceptable for transfer and residence – costs of coordinating integrated student services

Lessons Learned Bottom Up and Top-Down Combined Focus on student issues Reduce Barriers Bureaucracy Territory Hierarchy Waiting for technology

Back to the Future We were slightly ahead of our time. Why? Transition to more costly for multimedia enriched courses. Too costly for institutions’ to mount degrees/certificates alone Improve services to students Improve cooperation and sharing

Kate Carey George Steele Copyright Kate Carey and George Steele, This work is the intellectual property of the authors. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the authors. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the authors.