The first four liberal arts colleges to join the massive open online course provider edX are forming a consortium to improve teaching both online and on campus.
Administrators, faculty members and staffers from the four colleges -- Colgate University, Davidson College, Hamilton College and Wellesley College -- met at Davidson’s campus in North Carolina in February to discuss a potential consortium. At a follow-up meeting Monday at Wellesley, a women’s college in Massachusetts, the colleges signed a memorandum of understanding forming the as yet unnamed consortium, laying the groundwork for closer collaboration between the liberal arts colleges.
Two schools of thought emerged from the February meeting, said Patrick Sellers, vice president for strategic partnerships and professor of political science at Davidson. The colleges could choose an "incremental" approach, identifying faculty members at the institutions whose interests overlapped and let them explore potential partnerships, or go "bold," creating new courses that would enroll students at all four colleges taught by teams of faculty members.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/05/13/four-liberal-arts-colleges-early-mooc-scene-form-online-education-consortium