« ABOUT WCET
History
WHAT IS WCET AND WHERE DID IT COME FROM? A BRIEF HISTORY OF WCET
Sally M. Johnstone
Executive Director, WCET
September 2004
In 1989, the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE), located in Boulder, Colorado, founded the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET) as a resource for the fifteen western states. At the first annual meeting of WCET, delegates from outside the WICHE states petitioned to join. The original membership agreed. By 2004, WCET had over 250 members representing 45 states and seven countries. WCET had become an international, member-driven service agency.
WCET's initial mission was to assist the western states and their higher education institutions integrate telecommunications technology into their academic services. Early projects included brokering electronic degree and certificate programs between states. By 1995, WCET had brokered six degree and certificate programs in the areas of health, library science, information technology, environmental engineering, and space studies.
In the early 1990's, WCET also worked to make the state regulatory structure easier to navigate for pioneering colleges and universities willing to offer distance learning outside their own states. In 1996, the Western Governors Association (WGA), led by Governors Mike Leavitt from Utah and Roy Romer from Colorado, wanted to create a new type of learning opportunity for people in the western states that would grant certifications based on outcomes, focus on state workforce needs, and use new technologies. The two Governors worked with WCET staff, WGA staff and staff from the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS) to create the Western Governors University (WGU). By 1999, WGU had its own staff and was on the road to becoming an accredited, degree-granting institution.
In the process of easing state regulatory restrictions for distance learning programs, WCET staff discovered the dominant role that regional accrediting associations played in state regulations and began working with the regional accreditors. Concurrently, during the formation of WGU, the regional accrediting associations began working more closely together, forming the Council of Regional Accrediting Commissions (C-RAC) to address common issues. One issue C-RAC took on was the creation of common principles upon which they could base their standards for distance learning programs. C-RAC turned to WCET for assistance in this endeavor. WCET staff revised and updated the Principles of Good Practice for Electronically Offered Degree and Certificate Programs, originally developed for the states, for C-RAC. WCET staff also worked with the staffs of the regional accrediting associations to interpret the Principles. By 2001, the Commissions of all the regional accrediting associations had adopted this revised set of principles to assess distance learning programs.
Emphasis on good practice led WCET to broaden their scope to focus on students, and the services and information they needed to be successful in distance learning programs. With the help of funding from the U.S. Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE), WCET surveyed colleges and universities to find good examples of on-line student services. Taking this further, WCET managed a project funded by U.S. Department of Education's Learning Anytime, Anyplace Program (LAAP) to assist institutions as they completely re-worked their services to students to take full advantage of the Web. The models that the WCET team put together are currently being used to help universities, colleges, and statewide systems improve their web-based services to students.
While engaged in this work, WCET staff realized that students also needed to be better informed as they chose a distance learning provider. WCET staff decided to work with a commercial publisher, Prentice Hall, to get information directly to student consumers. This resulted in the 1999 publication of The Distance Learner's Guide, a book written by eLearning experts within the WCET membership and published by Prentice Hall. The second edition offers a considerable amount of information useful for the successful distance learner, including assistance in assessing his or her readiness for distance learning, knowing the questions to ask of a potential provider, and figuring out his or her equipment needs.
During its first decade, WCET evolved into a true service organization, taking on projects no single institution or even a single state could tackle on its own. WCET members identified issues of import to the distance learning community; WCET staff created projects from these issues and secured external funding. One such project was the Technology Costing Methodology (TCM), which was funded by FIPSE and the Andrew Mellon Foundation. Highly valuable to institutional planners, TCM created a consistent set of metrics that can be applied across departments within an institution, or across institutions in a state, to allow the real costs of a particular academic model to be known. For the TCM project, WCET partnered with NCHEMS whose president, Dennis Jones, designed the framework for the costing model.
With funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, WCET staff began work with Bruce Landon, the creator of Landon-line housed at Douglas College in British Columbia, Canada, in the development of EduTools (www.EduTools.info). EduTools is a decision site on the Web with independent information and reviews of course management software products, student support services, and institutional policy issues that allows people to compare products on a common set of features, stepping the user through a rational decision-making process. By 2004, the site had become a worldwide resource, with translations in several languages and linked by sites in countries around the globe. In line with WCET's open access philosophy, the TCM framework, case studies, and interactive tabulator, as well as the tools on the EduTools site, are all available on-line for anyone to use without any charges.
Another part of WCET's expanding list of services was direct assistance to campuses and state higher education systems on a wide variety of topics relating to the integration of technology into academic activities both on and off campus. WCET staff and members worked on technology planning projects, auditing web-based student support services, professional development of campus leaders, developing new e-learning programs, evaluating programs and projects, as well as educating state and federal legislators. WCET staff also assisted with the academic management of the eArmy University. In addition, the staff mentored a new organization developed to assist virtual high schools with research and policy information, the North American Council for Online Learning (www.NACOL.org). It was financially supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the William and Melinda Gates Foundation.
In 2002 WCET staff took a leadership role in the international movement for Open Educational Resources. Staff worked with the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to introduce universities around the world to MIT's OpenCourseWare project, Creative Commons, Rice University's Connexions project, EduTools, and Carnegie Mellon's Open Learning Initiative. Just a few years later, open educational resources began developing in the Indian Ocean region, China, and other areas around the world.
The original vision of the people at WICHE to create an organization that could serve as a catalyst for greater use of technology in higher education in western states blossomed into a world-wide resource. WCET's annual conference held each fall attracts hundreds of higher education leaders to learn from one another and to discuss solutions to problems they are facing. The original mission of WCET to share intellectual and electronic resources throughout higher education continues to expand. WCET's resources can be found at www.wcet.info.
