Summary Notes on "Motherhood and Apple Pie," by C. A. Twigg, The Learning MarketSpace, 1 July 2002 (to subscribe to The Learning MarketSpace, send an email message (with subject line left blank) to listproc@lists.rpi.edu. In the body of the message, type SUB LFORUM-L). 

Summarized by J. T. P. Yao, 8/10/02 

"In the last issue of The Learning MarketSpace, we had begun to examine ways that small colleges can use IT to achieve some of the advantages enjoyed by large institutions. … Indeed, many believe that collaboration is one area where small institutions differ from other higher education institutions in that more complex and robust collaborations may be an imperative rather than an option. … Yet while the benefits of inter-institutional collaboration are often noted, the number of small institutions that are actually engaged in continuing academic collaboration is few and the number engaged in large-scale collaboration is non-existent. The difficulties lie in several areas. …" 

"One of the few efforts having successfully resolved many of these issues is being conducted by the fifteen institutions that make up the Associated Colleges of the South (ACS). With support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, these institutions have collaboratively developed a Virtual Classics Department to enable students to take courses that the colleges would not be able to offer on their own. … It is not clear how the collaboration will be sustained beyond the grant period. While there is a great deal of interest in collaboration among small institutions, there are precious few examples of those that are sustained in the absence of grant funds. … Trust is an important part of establishing a successful collaboration, and it is often difficult to sustain trust among competitors." 

"Even though everyone talks about collaboration, an alternative approach being tried by North Central College (NCC) may be both easier to implement and far more cost-effective. … To broaden the range of elective options available at the graduate level, NCC is partnering with Cardean University to offer courses online. … Cardean offers courses in leadership and management, e-commerce, marketing, finance, accounting, and business communication. The academic areas of the partnership between NCC and Cardean are Business Communications (two one-credit courses), Internet Marketing (three one-credit courses), and Internet User Experience (three one-credit courses). … Students cross-register with Cardean and then transfer the credits to NCC. … By importing courses from Cardean, NCC has enlarged the selection of courses available to its students and rounded out the curriculum at the graduate level. … Cardean, meanwhile, is able to spread the costs of development and deliver over multiple institutions. While NCC students pay tuition directly to Cardean, a variety of more productive arrangements are possible. …" 

Most institutions seem to prefer collaboration to importing, despite the fact that most collaboration attempts fail. … Collaboration is higher education's motherhood and apple pie. When it comes to adding breadth to the small-college curriculum, however, collaboration leaves a lot to be desired, especially when other arrangements are now possible"  

 [Readers who are interested in this article are encouraged to read the original paper in its entirety. Other summary notes on faculty reward systems are available on the Internet at http://lohman.tamu.edu under the heading "Summaries of Papers ..."]

Return to the Lohman homepage