We created a Council on Academic Management (CAM) to assist us in the conceptualization of our educational services model, to identify the highest-quality providers of online education, and to provide quality assurance on our proposed operating model. The CAM comprises key recognized leaders in online education, including directors of major consortia, academic leaders from institutions in the vanguard of distance learning, and visionaries in the development of SCORM standards. Members of the CAM, combined, represent more than 2,000 of the 3,500 colleges and universities in the United States. (Further information on the CAM is included in Tab 5: Program Management.)

The CAM has been an active partner in the development of our proposed solution, and it will continue to serve in a critical advisory role during the life of the contract by serving as a key tool for continuous improvement; by evaluating the program at regular intervals; and by recommending enhancements to standards, policies, and quality assurance procedures. In this way, the Army can be certain that as the delivery of online education matures, best practices will immediately be incorporated, whether from the experiences of eArmyU or from any other online education program. The table on the following page lists the name and affiliation of each member of the CAM.

In addition to the Board of Advisors, the PwC e-Learning Network has established a Council on Academic Management (CAM). The CAM is already operating and has provided advice and direction to the PwC e-Learning Network in developing the solution we are proposing to the Army. Upon contract award, the CAM will assist the PwC e-Learning Network in the development and monitoring of academic standards, policies, and quality assurance procedures and will assist in establishing the framework for selecting and managing education partners. The CAM will meet quarterly at local PwC facilities.

The draft charter for the CAM includes these responsibilities:

• Assist in the finalization of the academic standards and policies to govern the selection and monitoring of education partners. This shall include qualitative and quantitative measures and criteria to select education partners and to measure and assess institutional readiness.
• Assist in the review of applications of prospective education partners. Recommendations on education partners (accept, reject) will be delivered in a report under the signature of PwC and the Council on Academic Management.
• Participate in the regular performance evaluations. These evaluations shall include the following:

• Review of soldier-student support services to ensure they fully meet soldier-student needs (quarterly);
• Review of data collected from continuous evaluation of the online education program using benchmarks and metrics in order to improve its quality, relevance, and cost effectiveness, including information on "lessons learned" based on contribution of best practices by participating institutions (semi-annually);
• Review of findings from our internal performance reviews as described in our Program Quality Control including identified areas needing improvement, suggested resolution actions, and recommended enhancements (semi-annually);
• Assessment of our performance against the performance measures delineated in the QASP (semi-annually);
• Recommendations to the Government on changes to the PBWS for improving the overall quality of the online education program (semi-annually);
• Review of all online education courses to verify how effectively they produce required learning outcomes (annually); and
• Identification of best practices and lessons learned from online education programs outside of the Army (annually).

• Assist in the marketing of this program to the higher education industry generally and to institutions specifically. This shall include the publishing of materials, delivering of presentations at industry conferences, and issuing of reports (upon approval by the Army).

This committee is already operational, having participated in a series of meetings to assist in design of our solution. This committee includes an impressive array of online education leaders committed to serve on this council (see table below). Additionally, PwC will invite the Executive Director of SOC and will solicit the participation of other Army personnel as appropriate.

We will identify a second co-chair from this list upon contract award. This co-chair will also serve on the Board of Advisors, representing the Council on Academic Management in this capacity.

5.4.4.5 Marketing to the Higher Education Industry

Our Council on Academic Management (CAM) will serve a dual purpose: (1) assist in the development of standards, monitoring, and evaluation; and (2) marketing the eArmyU initiative to institutions to help expand participation in the Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges (SOC) and SOCAD generally and eArmyU specifically.

Members of our CAM, as participants in the development and implementation of eArmyU, will be given messages and releases about eArmyU and its successes to communicate to their organizations. Through those organizational publications and media, member institutions will learn about eArmyU from an academic "insider’s" perspective, and be encouraged to join SOC and to participate in SOCAD, SOC’s degree program. As the following table indicates, many of the CAM organizations already have affiliations with many colleges and universities. In fact, through our Council on Academic Management, we have direct contact with over half the colleges and universities in the United States.