Case Study in Managing a Distance Education Consortium

Abstract

This chapter describes the unique distance education consortium called CCCOnline developed by the Community Colleges of Colorado System (CC of C). CC of C is comprised of 14 Colorado Community Colleges and delivers courses, certificates and degrees to more than 250,000 students per year. The CCCOnline consortium, managed by the Colorado Electronic Community College (CECC), provides centralized management of faculty and curriculum and the consortial member colleges provide most of the student services to their students enrolled in the program. This chapter traces the organizational evolution of CCCOnline. CCCOnline was very much a “top-down” creation. It was also built very quickly. The creators of CCCOnline believed that speed was necessary to get educational offerings online and that internal relationships could be dealt with later. Neuhauser, Bender, and Stromberg (2000) echo this belief. They state that adding an e-business to traditional business creates a parallel culture. Furthermore, they believe that, at present, many consumers seem to accept that new products will have a few bugs and that the key is to figure out how to deliver speed and quality over the long run.