This concluding chapter identifies the key shifts in CLDE by weaving together CLDE's roots, progress, and contemporary concerns. It becomes apparent that CLDE is in a time of transition; yet, the authors highlight two models that have balanced tradition and innovation. Additionally, there are three important orientations to CLDE work that will…

This chapter explores the unique design of one of America's newest and most innovative community colleges: Stella and Charles Guttman Community College in New York City. This highly successful College offers its diverse student population a relevant, integrated curriculum and student support that is embedded in the classroom.

In campus environments where resources are low and demand for student and institutional success are high, there is an increased need to build a collaborative network and team aimed at advancing advising practices that promote retention, persistence, and navigation of resources for students. This chapter illustrates the use of a team-based…

This chapter provides a case study of innovation using eLearning in higher education. The case study shows how one university made system-wide organizational and procedural changes to create low-cost, open-access distance learning opportunities on a global level in response to student needs and opportunities.

This chapter is a case study of the Higher Education Administration and Leadership (HEAL) program at Adams State University. HEAL focuses on preparing the next generation of leaders at the nation's Hispanic-serving institutions.

A 4 Ps perspective addresses immediate needs: to help institutions gain traction in their retention strategies by framing and reframing the challenges and the possible responses, by challenging some of the traditional mental models about retention that can distract or dilute those strategies, and by offering focus and coherence to institutional…

New terms were exploding early in the development of distance learning and virtual universities. Distance learning, online learning, e-learning, and distributed learning were applied to the various new forms of learning using online or Web-based materials and processes. However, largely thanks to the immediate popularity of the Western Governors'…

In November 1996, forty-five higher education technology leaders convened in Washington, D.C., to discuss the virtual university (VU). The Western Governors Association had announced establishment of the Western Governors University (WGU). As a result, VU initiatives were emerging from, or being contemplated by, almost every state-level higher…

Institutions that have organized and centralized their data enjoy an obvious advantage in grappling with strategic planning and other issues. As the drumbeat for accountability, planning, and demonstrating effectiveness to internal and external stakeholders intensifies, the stature and importance of institutional research offices on most campuses…

University administrators can use information technology to drive innovation through focusing institutional purpose and improving business practices.

Western Governors University shows how both foreseen and unforeseen challenges shape innovative management responses.

Prior to 2003, virtual universities were being created at a rate that would question the usual perception that higher education rarely changed, or changed (if at all) at a glacial speed. No comprehensive study of what was actually being created had been done; nor had anyone tapped the experiences of the developers in the states to see what was…

American regional accreditation serves two basic functions: quality assurance and quality improvement. Through its public function of quality assurance, accreditation signals to prospective students, parents, employers, and others that the institution meets fundamental standards of quality. Through its private function of quality improvement,…

Distance education in its many forms had been around for decades, but the Western Governors University (WGU) was arguably the first "virtual university" (VU) in the United States, or at least the first VU that gained widespread attention from the press and public. After the governors in the Western Governors Association announced they would create…

This chapter, drawing from the previous chapters, synthesizes potential directions and implications of future innovation in higher education. The focus is on innovation to address critical issues that administrators face today: the adaptability, maturity, cost structure, and efficiency of the institution.