A discussion of distance education outlines its development, identifies its characteristics, and analyzes three existing program types and the needs they serve. The Irish National Distance Education Centre, which uses a cooperative approach with several institutions, is presented in greater detail. (MSE)

A recent Supreme Court ruling that Mississippi's colleges are segregated and should consider mergers of predominantly white and historically black colleges has put pressure on black college alumni groups to help keep their institutions alive as an educational option. The Black College Alumni Leadership Consortium is establishing a political action…

The article reports on initial efforts of a consortium of 19 dental schools to cooperate in developing clinical databases and associated hardware and software. The article lists initial members, committee members, and follow-up activities, working toward development of databases on patient history, oral status, diagnosis, treatment evaluation,…

Describes the Minnesota Tech Prep Consortia Evaluation System, which collects outcomes data on enrollment, retention, related job placement, higher education, dropouts, and diplomas/degrees awarded. Explains outcome measures, database development, data collection and analysis methods, and remaining challenges. (SK)

Discusses the following indicators for measuring success in mainstreaming distance education in higher education: integration, resulting in funding and credit for off-campus students; course ownership, providing legal protection for faculty; product differentiation among institutions in course offerings, quality, and flexibility; flexible time…

Discusses work of the Educational Enterprise Zone, a consortium of educational providers who create programming for all levels of classrooms to be delivered via videoconferencing. Topics include the variety of teachers and learners in the community, facilitating access to technology, and enhanced learning through collaboration with community…

Provides a summary of the characteristics of effective college consortia, and describes a national study of two-year and four-year college consortia and partnerships in the United States. Discusses the nine most popular types of partnerships, including articulation agreements and distance education programs with other institutions, and offers…

Discusses the technological advances attained by the International Consortium for Alternative Academic Publication (ACAAP) aimed at reforming the scholarly communication system and providing an alternative to high-priced commercial publishing. Describes the eXtended markup language, based on SGML and HTML, that provides indexing and…

Describes how the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges (Pennsylvania), a regional consortium of six private colleges and universities, in experimenting with video conferencing and other online forms of technology-based collaboration, developed into the 101-member Community of Agile Partners in Education. This organization, by being…

Reviews the resources available through the Virtual Library of Virginia (VIVA) Web site, a consortium of the libraries of the 39 state-assisted colleges and universities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. States that VIVA provides, in an equitable, cooperative, and cost-effective manner, enhanced access to library and information for these higher…

This study conducted at the State University of New York at Albany compares methods of providing access to diverse points of view as represented by journals indexed in "Alternative Press Index." Examines local subscriptions, resource-sharing consortia that include expedited interlibrary loan systems, and four electronic full-text…

Twelve rural North Carolina colleges facing decisions regarding campus technology investments chose to form a technology alliance to share information, identify critical needs, rethink budget development and funding formulas at local and state levels, leverage resources, and cooperate in new ventures. Includes recommendations for other colleges…

Discusses the role of consortia in academic libraries, specifically the Illinois Digital Academic Library (IDAL), and describes a study conducted by the IDAL that investigated issues surrounding full text database research including stability of content, vendor communication, embargo periods, publisher concerns, quality of content, linking and…

Lists networks, consortia, and other cooperative library organizations; national library and information-industry associations in the U.S. and Canada; state, provincial, and regional library associations and agencies; state school library media associations; international library associations; and foreign library associations. (LRW)

The Greater Flint Educational Consortium on Writing Improvement, comprising local high school teachers and area college writing instructors, has worked for several years to improve the transition students make from their high school to college writing experiences. The focus of the most recent consortium was on writing support services. This…