Products of Alliance Collaboration

The Western Alliance of Community College Academic Leaders has numerous current initiatives in which its academic leaders actively collaborate, so as to coalesce ideas and best practices that serve all Alliance members. These initiatives include:

• No Holding Back, a joint project between WICHE and AACRAO to develop tools to help institutions better understand the impact that the practice and policies of administrative and/or student success holds can have on student success.
• Interstate Passport®, a national program that facilitates block transfer of lower-division general education attainment based on learning outcomes rather than specific courses and credits among participating institutions in the Interstate Passport Network. Students who earn a Passport and transfer to another participating institution know in advance that they will not have to repeat learning already achieved to meet the receiving institution’s lower-division general education requirements.  The idea for this program was conceived, and continues to be shaped, by members of the Alliance.
• The Academic Leaders Toolkit, , was a consortium of online science laboratories located in Colorado, Montana, and in British Columbia. Via software and robotics connected to high-end scientific equipment such as Nikon microscopes, students worked online with their lab partners scattered around the world to conduct science activities in real time for introductory biology, chemistry, and physics courses. These online laboratories served more than 2,000 students at eight Alliance member institutions in five states from 2011-16 when grant funding ended. 
• The North American Network of Science Labs Online (NANSLO) was a consortium of online science laboratories located in Colorado, Montana, and in British Columbia. Via software and robotics connected to high-end scientific equipment such as Nikon microscopes, students could work online with their lab partners scattered around the world to conduct science activities in real time for introductory biology, chemistry, and physics courses. These online laboratories served more than 2,000 students at eight Alliance member institutions in five states from 2011-16 when grant funding ended.
• Online Course Exchange (OCE), a robust administrative tool designed to support collaboration among institutions offering online courses. As members of a consortium using OCE, institutions expand student  access to high quality online courses and programs taught by other institutions participating in the consortium. 

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