Roles:

Being a nonprofit corporation and a consortium of public educational colleges and universities, ADEC embraces a philosophy of providing quality credit and non-credit distance educational opportunities to the most people at an appropriate cost and in the most user-friendly way possible.

Distance education is the primary goal of ADEC. To adequately reach this objective, all members of the consortium must contribute to an environment of teamwork, cooperation, collaboration, openness, reciprocity, honesty, and integrity with one another and ADEC administration. ADEC member institutions also should be supportive of ADEC's collaborative work with other national or international organizations involved with distance education.

Mutual respect for the differing roles played must be honored and appreciated. Member institutions are sometimes thrust into competitive positions for funding, programming, visibility, and audiences. There should be respect for strong programs but also nurturing for those which need assistance.

ADEC, its member institutions, faculty, and staff in distance education activities are pioneering both technology and presentational formats. Innovators and risk-takers should be given wider latitude in evaluations and criticisms so creativity, innovation, and participation are not impeded. Open and honest feedback is needed, but it should be offered in a professional rather than demoralizing ways.

Member institutions are at different times a provider (producer) of information as well as the receiver (customer) of ADEC activities. Being aware of these two major roles and that objectives are different for each role should help the organization be more understanding of issues, concerns, or problems that arise when member institutions are either originators or recipients of programs.

Agreements:

To avoid confusion and disagreements, joint efforts between or among various institutions in the production of distance educational products should be in writing and agreed to by all parties. Roles and responsibilities for both the "lead" institution and those which are collaborating should be explicit as well as ADEC consortium responsibilities.

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The strength of ADEC as a professional consortium is embraced through effective collaboration among its member institutions. To that end, ADEC members strive to:

• collectively share responsibilities for conducting the affairs of the consortium
• cooperate and communicate among themselves in developing and approaching external funding sources
• encourage collaborative entrepreneurial activities among ADEC members for the benefit of both the consortium and individual member institutions
• remain customer-driven in providing and utilizing educational programming
• resolve issues positively and directly
• embrace diversity by observing in philosophy and practice equal opportunity for all regardless of race, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, gender, age, disability, or Vietnam-era status

Legal Matters:

Common courtesy and common sense dictate that permission be sought when an institution uses a purchased or non-purchased distance education product from another. Furthermore, it is not ethical to sell or resell portions of or complete products from other institutions without permission from the originating source.

Federal copyright statutes and the rules and regulations surrounding intellectual property of our respective state governments and universities must be observed. As a matter of general principle, copyright for most books, papers, artistic works, etc. belong to the individual authors (creators), but this does not usually extend to material produced as an integral part of employment or job responsibilities. When university facilities and equipment are used to produce materials that will be owned by the author or creator, permission to do so should have been obtained from appropriate administrators. All materials written or produced are generally the property of the university and cannot be construed to be the sole property of the faculty or staff person unless prior arrangements or understandings are agreed to by appropriate administration and legal counsel.

To not jeopardize the non-profit corporation status of A-DEC and to preserve the unbiased, objective reputation of the land grant system, television commercials for such commercial products or services should not be used in programming. Appropriate acknowledgements and credits, as traditionally used by public television, are recommended.

Use of Logo:

When originating any form of distance education offerings for use beyond the local member institution on the ADEC system, member institutions should use the official ADEC logo. Institutional logos or marks may accompany the ADEC logo.