Faculty Communication - New Acadeum Partnership (2 Options)

Announce your new partnership with Acadeum, benefits of course sharing, and how to access pre-approved courses. [Faculty template]

• Option 1
• Option 2

 

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Option 1

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From: Provost or Chief Academic Officer

To: Faculty

 

Message:

 

Greetings Faculty,

 

I want to let you know about an exciting new initiative at [School Name]. We have joined the Acadeum course sharing network. [Insert information pertaining to consortial memberships where applicable.]

 

At [School Name], our central focus is our students. As part of that, we strive to ensure our students are supported through their educational journey as efficiently as possible. Our membership within the Acadeum course sharing network is an additional tool to assist us in delivering on our student-centric focus.

 

The Acadeum course sharing network facilitates online course sharing among institutions that have similar curricular goals and academic quality standards. Our goal in joining this network is to help students stay on track to completion.

 

In your role as faculty, you have a vested interest in ensuring students are taking courses that not only align with [School Name] academic values, but that also offer the same quality and rigor we uphold in our own courses. As members of the Acadeum network, we are able to maintain more control over the quality of courses students usually take off campus.

 

Courses that are taken through the Acadeum course sharing network have several benefits when compared to the standard transfer courses taken off campus:

• Courses are transcribed as our own, which means they maintain aid eligibility and course grades and credits are easily transferred

• Courses are billed as our own; no application or billing setup required

 

The goal of online course-sharing is not to replace the traditional academic core of our institution but to provide an extended curriculum to supplement and strengthen the central features and commitments at [School Name]. [Consider adding benefits that may apply to the institutions such as improved retention because students no longer take courses off campus and don’t return, eliminates the need to offer independent or directed studies, ability to expand electives for majors, launch new programs sooner by leveraging course sharing while courses are developed, etc.]

 

Only courses that are pre-approved via the Acadeum Course Sharing platform [insert unique link to ACS course list] are available for student registration. Using our internal course review process, we have engaged the appropriate internal teams in efforts to approve and map courses that our students need in the Acadeum network. In instances where a course is available at our campus in the term in which it is needed, students must take that course locally. We will not approve courses that directly compete with courses that [School Name] faculty have elected to teach in a given term.

 

If you know of courses for which students have been unable to find a suitable course offering at [School Name], please direct them to the online platform: [insert unique link to ACS course list]

 

You will likely hear more about this new partnership in your department specific meetings.

 

Learn more about Acadeum course sharing here.

 

Thanks!

[Signature]

 

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Option 2

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From: Provost (or Provost’s Office)

To: Faculty

Subject: Approving summer courses to improve quality and control

 

Greetings Faculty,

 

As many of you already know, [SCHOOL NAME] is joining the [CONSORTIUM NAME], powered by Acadeum, to access more high quality courses from aligned institutions. Through the Consortium, [SCHOOL NAME] can oversee the quality of courses taken off campus while giving students access to financial aid and bringing back the course grade. This approach will help us streamline the student experience, keep students on track to graduation, and generate revenue for the institution that is often leaked out to another institution.

 

As a faculty member, we want your help selecting the most aligned online courses, so that students are prepared for the subsequent courses you teach. Through the Consortium, students may access only pre-approved courses. We will not approve any courses that are available and taught by [SCHOOL NAME] faculty for the session the student is seeking.

 

We have identified a number of courses that we know students need this [TERM NAME] as well as a selection of possible equivalencies for you to review and approve. Simply highlight the courses you want to approve by department. [Insert school course mapping spreadsheet].

 

If you have any questions feel free to contact [CONTACT NAME].

 

Thank you.

[Signature]

 

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