Partnerships and Collaborations

WCET’s staff participates in selected projects of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE), its parent organization, when special expertise is needed. In these instances, WICHE pays the related portion of the WCET staff costs and overhead directly and reports them in the WICHE rather than the WCET annual report.

During this year, WCET staff participated in five WICHE projects and programs: the Northwest Educational Outreach Network (NEON), the Nurse Education Exchange (NEXus) project, and the WICHE Internet Course Exchange (ICE); the Western Regional Graduate Program (WRGP) and the Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE).

Northwest Educational Outreach Network (NEON)
http://www.wiche.edu/neon/scm/

The Northwest Academic Forum (NWAF) and WICHE collaborated to create the Northwest Educational Outreach Network (NEON), which was designed to identify degree programs that are not available in every state and make these programs available through distance learning. The project was funded by a U.S. Department of Education FIPSE grant and ended in March 2006. NEON focused on activities in three fields of study: Ph.D. in nursing, supply chain management, and library certification. As the project progressed, interest grew in a fourth major initiative – a course exchange making it easier for students from one institution to enroll in courses offered at distance (see below). WCET’s Russell Poulin served as NEON codirector with WICHE’s Jere Mock. Rachel Dammann provided administrative support.

NEXus – Nursing Education Xchange
http://www.winnexus.org

As part of the work on the Nursing Ph.D. program, a new partnership with the Western Institute of Nursing (WIN) developed into the Nursing Education Xchange (NEXus) project. Colleges of nursing typically have expertise in only a few research areas, depending on the expertise of their core doctoral faculty. Prospective doctoral students are advised to find a college that best meets their research interests, but students still seek additional expertise to complete their studies. WIN and five colleges of nursing proposed a pilot partnership to lower the barriers to students who wish to enroll in courses at partner institutions. Poulin, who acted as a consultant on the project, created a review of the financial models of other institution partnerships and financial options for the participants to consider. The partnership is now finalizing interim agreements (registration procedures, common pricing, support of central administration, etc.) to be used in the fall. The courses to be offered are listed in a website developed by the WICHE Internet Course Exchange. WCET’s Sherri Artz Gilbert provided administrative support for the project.

WICHE Internet Course Exchange (WICHE ICE)
http://www.wiche-ice.org

The purpose of WICHE ICE is similar to the NEXus project’s goal of reducing the barriers faced by students registering at courses from partner institutions. Initial activities have focused on defining the services of the exchange, developing a financial model to sustain WICHE ICE, creating websites and databases to facilitate the exchange of courses, and identifying initial partners. NEXus is currently pilot testing the web resources created by WICHE ICE. WICHE submitted a FIPSE grant application in June to obtain funding for this work. It also will ask the partner institutions to pay a membership fee to participate in the first year of WICHE ICE. Poulin was a consultant and Rachel Dammann provided administrative support for this project.

Western Regional Graduate Programs
http://wrgp.wiche.edu

Western Undergraduate Exchange
http://wue.wiche.edu

For these two WICHE programs, WCET’s Tim Dammann designed and built new database-driven websites. These new sites allow WUE and WRGP institutions to submit and update their institutional profiles and provide information about academic programs participating in WICHE’s Student Exchange Programs.