ADEC: ADVANCING THE LEARNING SOCIETY
INTRODUCTION
ADEC, the American Distance Education Consortium, is an international consortium of educational institutions and organizations providing economical distance education programs and services via the latest and most appropriate information technologies.
ADEC members serve clientele with academic, research, extension and public service programs. By virtue of its vision and mission, ADEC accelerates the ability of its members to become fully engaged institutions and members of the learning society.
THE ADEC VISION: REDEFINING HIGHER EDUCATION
ADEC is an international leader in providing and creating access to learner-centered distance education.
ADEC members embrace the role of the public universities as outlined by Morrill Act author Justin Morrill to extend the riches of science for the benefit of all through public university service to communities and the nation. Morrill's vision created a system of "people's" universities that transcends class lines and provides educational opportunities to everyone, not just the elite. ADEC members have at the forefront of their agenda the need to redefine and reinvent themselves in the ethic of serving on-campus students, lifelong learners, communities, and states. ADEC members are engaged in a new learning society model that epitomizes a university without walls that is open, accessible, and flexible for accommodating today's needs. The model features instructional delivery and/or access anywhere, anytime, and to virtually anyone who seeks it.
The ADEC model examines the student experience and provides continued access to high-quality, affordable education; ADEC members immerse themselves in meaningful dialog with their communities, including meeting international and national as well as state demands; members will respond to the needs of American public schools; ADEC members embrace a culture that places equal emphasis on excellence in teaching and service as well as research. As members of a learning society, ADEC members are fully engaged to better serve their communities, however those communities may be defined.
THE ENGAGED UNIVERSITY: CORNERSTONE STRENGTHS
ADEC's philosophy and framework accelerates the implementation of the learning society model. As a consortium of land-grant and state universities and colleges, ADEC directly assists its members to become fully engaged institutions. ADEC and its members can measure collective and individual institutional success in engagement by seven cornerstone strengths, as follows:
2. provides widest possible access and opportunity;
3. provides an education of value;
4. contains costs;
5. is accountable to communities served;
6. meets new needs through distance learning and extended hours;
7. is flexible and responsive to changing community needs and demands.
ADEC MISSION: GUIDING PRINCIPLES
ADEC members develop and provide responsive, high-quality, economical distance education programs and services to diverse audiences. Primary emphasis is placed on educational and informational programs and services related to food and agriculture; nutrition and health; environment and natural resources; community and economic development; and children, youth, and families.
ADEC members offer programs and services in the land-grant philosophy through emerging network technologies that create access to quality distance learning opportunities. The consortium draws upon the best and most effective subject matter specialists and information resources to share knowledge and content with learners. ADEC programming is offered locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally and is characterized by the following guiding principles:
Principle: Distance learning designs consider context, needs, content, strategies, outcomes and environment.
2. Support the needs of learners.
Principle: Distance learning opportunities are effectively and flexibly supported.
3. Develop and maintain the technological and human infrastructure.
Principle: The provider of distance learning opportunities has both a technology plan and a human infrastructure.
4. Sustain administrative and organizational commitment.
Principle: Distance education initiatives are sustained by an administrative commitment to quality distance education.
ADEC CORE VALUES
ADEC members advance the core values of learning-system excellence and access, diversity, accountability, globalization, and public awareness.
Excellence is the quality standard for all ADEC programs. Through diversity, ADEC members ensure gender, racial, cultural and social balance. Diversity enhances
perspective, ensures quality, and maintains strength from which meaningful change can occur. Diversity is central to the ADEC commitment to excellence.
ADEC members are responsive and accountable to the communities, students, and audiences served. In building world-class programs, ADEC members are committed to expanding efforts to articulate policies and programs relevant to improving the quality of life for all people.
ADEC members develop world-class programs that meet global needs. The global marketplace dictates that ADEC members develop and foster world-wide perspectives on issues and events.
ADEC members expand the public awareness of programs and benefits. The members put faces on their programs; create consistent images and project identities; and connect that identity to programs that serve people. Moreover, ADEC members communicate the importance to the people and industries they serve. ADEC members understand and fulfill clientele preferences, and help build public and private commitment for support.
ADEC'S STRATEGIC PLAN: THE COLLABORATORY CONCEPT
ADEC assumes a central mission for advancing the learning society by helping member institutions become fully engaged with their communities, however they may be defined. That mission is purposely addressed through major ADEC priorities including advancing the "collaboratory" educational model, broadening the focus of the Consortium to include total resources of member institutions, and leveraging the Consortium for generating major new resources.
Collaboratories are highly interactive environments made up of people, hardware, connectivity and software-driven tools that engage people in intensive ways in the created learning environment. The "collaboratory" enables, harnesses, and empowers visionary thinking about education and technology. Collaboratories provide the means for meeting the needs of member institutions and enhance the engagement with communities of interest, however they may be defined. Inherent in the collaboratory concept is that of a think tank for such issues as leadership development, pedagogy, enhancing learner access, and improved accountability to communities.
The collaboratory concept also embraces environments that enhance learning. It analyzes the multiple ways in which learning occurs and the different ways in which different people learn, emphasizes essential faculty-student interactions, integrates new technologies fully into the student learning process, and enhances student learning through peer interaction.
ADEC successes include collaborative research, education and sharing with such tools as modular teaching and learning. ADEC has articulated the IDEAL principles of distance education which form the ADEC framework for the transformation of the existing higher education environment into a new learning society that will be global, span K-12 learning and involve a far greater range of learning enterprise. The ADEC IDEAL principles, together with the current learning effectiveness focus (with NSF support), help position the organization as both a "collaboratory" and a "collaboratory" creator. ADEC members will continue to engage communities of interest and place the learner as the apex of its mission and goals regardless of the mode of education, formal or informal. ADEC has embraced five major strategic collaboratories as follows:
1. Think Tank
Through a Think Tank Collaboratory, ADEC allows the consortium to harness the creative thinking of the specific segments of the membership for the benefit of all the members. It is a process that prevents reinventing and duplication of effort by member institutions. It provides tangible value that can be directly associated with ADEC membership. The geopolitical scope of the ADEC Think Tank is as broad and diverse as the issues available for review and analysis whether they are local, national or global, and as wide as the impact of distributed learning and information technology worldwide. More importantly, the scope of the ADEC Think Tank includes multiple communities of interest.
Think Tank Process
The process has the potential for review of several issues at any one time. It will allow for significant member involvement and will draw from those who may not now be completely engaged in ADEC consortium activity. It also provides a significant resource of new information focused on current or future issues. It reinforces ADEC's position as a leader in creative thinking about technology and education. The ADEC Think Tank development process identifies, prioritizes, discovers and analyzes issues. It also develops recommendations for plans of action by the Collaboratory and/or the ADEC Consortium.
Role in the Learning Society and Deliverables
The ADEC Think Tank Collaboratory is a source of creative thinking and clearly stated vision. In the current competitive environment, the Think Tank addresses rapidly evolving issues in ways that provide immediate value to members and corporate partners and vision to increase successes. As such, the Think Tank output helps institutions, schools, departments, and individual faculty more effectively participate in the learning society. Anticipating issues and offering solutions and scenarios in a systematic fashion allows the ADEC Think Tank to offer immediate and ongoing value through effective analysis that supports efforts to stay competitive in the new knowledge marketplace.
Partnerships
The ADEC Think Tank offers significant opportunities for expanding ADEC corporate partnerships and for ADEC involvement throughout the land-grant universities with other public and private colleges/universities, as well as K-12 schools involved in technology-mediated learning.
2. Technological Research and Development
Through a Technology R&D Collaboratory, ADEC will develop and deliver quality distance education by improving the learning experience and increasing access to educational opportunities. The Technological Research and Development Collaboratory supports all ADEC collaboratories. It will tailor core collaboratory software and interfaces to the needs of the individual working groups. All collaboratories will be network accessible, foster and promote organizational thinking, planning, learning and sharing of ideas and information. The ADEC Collaboratories must be scalable and provide opportunities for exploring issues, sharing data, linking to relevant resources and effectively communicating findings, recommendations, and directions. In addition to development of the core collaboratory environments, the Technology R&D Collaboratory will study new and changing technologies for possible application to the distance learning programs of the consortium, its members and partners. ADEC is an Internet2 affiliate and NSF Advanced Networking grantee. This collaboratory will conduct quality, cost, access and learning effectiveness trials and disseminate results.
Deliverables
Deliverables include developing and hosting Internet-based applications intended to support the work of ADEC and its members; to investigate, evaluate and share information pertaining to the use of new technologies to enhance learning; and use technologies to reduce barriers related to accessing educational programs.
3. Distance Education Policy
Through a Distance Education Policy Collaboratory, ADEC advances system-wide policy standards that address infrastructure-building and consortial sharing for sustainable distance education systems. Standard acceptable distance education policies broaden the ADEC membership base while balancing historical mission areas with inclusion of new partners. The Distance Education Policy Collaboratory positions distance education as central to the university mission.
Role in the Learning Society and Deliverables
Within this environment, ADEC establishes guiding principles for distance education policy. Each member of ADEC has unique legislative, political, and internal organizational systems. Therefore, policies will vary according to region, state, mission, constituencies, etc. The guiding principles concept provides a common platform for assisting distance education professionals in making decisions regarding policies that fit their individual situations. The Collaboratory offers a broad perspective for policies related to membership including studies of existing distance education policies addressing major decisions in selected areas. It also provides a set of guiding principles on distance education policy to assist administrators and faculty in developing policies that will fit their unique needs.
4. Professional Development/Capacity Building
Through the Professional Development/Capacity Building Collaboratory, ADEC links to its successful IDEAL program. This collaboratory offers member support with professional development as the resource base. Resources include people, hardware, and infrastructure.
Scope of Partnerships
The scope is both internal and external. Most activity will be conducted on a regional or national arena, but deliverables have global implications. Workshops, seminars, and individual or group mentoring will be available to ADEC members and partners alike.
Role in the Learning Society and Deliverables
Professional development is both education and training. It involves learning, and thinking differently about learning. This Collaboratory focuses on developing the capacity of ADEC members (including 1862, 1890, and 1994 institutions) to provide access for learners wherever they may be in terms of geography and/or the learning process. The Professional Development/ Capacity Building Collaboratory compiles lessons learned, best practices and develops an expert database of both hardware and people. It establishes a mentoring and modeling program. It draws upon existing resources, including training, decision tools, etc. It plans and arranges for the delivery of workshops, seminars, and site- or issue-specific mentoring.
5. Peer-Refereed Educational Projects
The Peer-Refereed Educational Projects Collaboratory recognizes that extension and lifelong learning educational materials, including online educational programs and modules should be subject to a rigorous, recognized system of peer review. Through the Peer-Refereed Educational Projects Collaboratory, ADEC projects its national leadership in two ways. First, the development and operation of an online system of peer review leverages ADEC's efforts and leadership in the use of technology and the operation of "virtual communities" and task groups as evidenced through The Agricultural Telecommunications online submission system. Secondly, the Collaboratory positions ADEC to offer expertise and review of pedagogy and intellectual merit either through accreditation authority and/or online learning alternatives. In addition, rigorous review will help improve recognition and reward by institutional merit systems.
Role in the Learning Society and Deliverables
The Collaboratory embraces the potential for improved recognition, enhanced professional development, and support for promotion and tenure. Technology tools will improve reviewer productivity as well as furthering the goal of excellence in distance learning. An "ADEC Seal of Approval" and the accreditation process provide added value to distance education products and services. The Collaboratory conducts conversations among members of the consortium and others to provide assessments of existing systems and tool sets such as MERLOTand ASHS HortBase and assessments of interest in ADEC national online peer-review workshops.
ADEC'S VALUE TO SOCIETY
ADEC programs address many of the most pressing societal problems throughout the world. These programs position ADEC as a true champion of the learning society. Rural revitalization and promotion of digital inclusion are specific problems being addressed by prototyping and developing wireless networking and Internet delivery in rural areas. Through a $4.04 million National Science Foundation grant, ADEC member institutions are partnering with Tachyon Corporation to provide high-speed Internet connectivity to rural and remote areas, thereby helping reduce the digital divide.
"The digital divide is about income and place. The Rural Development Centers will work with ADEC on focusing the agenda and evaluating results of the new National Science Foundation program." Cornelia Flora, Director of the North Central Rural Development Center.
"The tribal communities must end the digital divide in Indian country and work with indigenous groups around the world. ADEC has a role in this effort to get connectivity in Indian country, not to mention the historically black colleges and universities and the Hispanic communities. We need to bring the cost of education down, and ADEC has an enormously beneficial role." Tom Davis, ADEC Tribal College Representative
"ADEC is the organization that brings us to the table when we need the conversation." Sam Smith, president emeritus of Washington State University
"The historically black colleges and universities must take the lead and do for ourselves. ADEC is an important partner as we progress." Walter Hill, Tuskegee University, Dean of Agriculture, Environmental and Natural Sciences.
ADEC is a major collaborator with Internet2 and the Internet2 Technology Evaluation Center (ITEC), Norman Borlaug University, Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST), EDUCAUSE, the Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance (IDEA), International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC), The National Computational Science Alliance (NCSA), Sigma Xi, and Universidad Virtual del Sistema Technologico de Monterrey, MEXICO. ADEC also serves on the U.S. Army's Council for Academic Management (CAM) for quality improvement in the eArmyU initiative.
ADEC MEMBERS WORLDWIDE
Alabama A&M UniversityAlcorn State University
University of Arizona
University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff
Austin Learning Academy
University of California
Clemson University
Colorado State University
Cornell University
CSREES-USDA
Delaware State University
Diné College
Dull Knife Memorial College
University of Florida
Florida A&M University
Fon du Lac Tribal and Community College
Fort Valley University
University of Georgia
Haskell Indian Nations University
University of Idaho
University of Illinois
Iowa State University
Kansas State University
University of Kentucky
Kentucky State University
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Community College
Langston University
Little Priest Tribal College
Louisiana State University
University of Maryland-College Park
University of Maryland-Eastern Shore
College of the Menominee Nation
Michigan State University
University of Minnesota
Mississippi State University
University of Missouri at Columbia
Nebraska Indian Community College
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
University of Nevada-Reno
University of New Hampshire
New Mexico State University
Norman Borlaug University
North Carolina A&T State University
North Carolina State University
The Ohio State University
Oklahoma State University
Oregon State University
The Pennsylvania State University
Prairie View A&M University
Purdue University
Rutgers University
South Carolina State University
The University of Tennessee
Tennessee State University
Texas A&M University
Texas Tech University
Tuskegee University
Utah State University
West Virginia State College
West Virginia University
Washington State University
White Earth Tribal and Community College
University of Wisconsin-Extension
University of Wisconsin-Madison
October 2001