COMPASS: MERLOT's Strategy for Institutions' Academic Support Services

Collection - Community - Consultation - Customization Of MERLOT Partners’ Academic Support Services

Among MERLOT’s goals is to ease the burden on campus personnel in their planning and implementation of academic technology.   The same principles of reuse and not reinventing the wheel that have been applied to faculty-centered services are being applied to services for academic administrators and leaders.  MERLOT can help find ways to align with the work they are already doing and make their work more successful and take less time.

• The MERLOT Collection will include online materials that will help managers, administrators, and leaders of educational institutions in planning and implementation of their academic support services with technology more effectively and more efficiently by providing easy access to quality resources. 
  
  
• The MERLOT Community will provide a collaborative venue for comments, recommendations, and evaluations of the various online resources and strategies for using technology for academic support services.   By building upon the value-added network of academic leaders, campuses and their academic technology staffs can better leverage resources and effective practices.

• MERLOT Consultation will provide experts to visit the campus and provide support to MERLOT partners’ implementation of academic support services using technology and MERLOT.
  
  
• MERLOT will Customize tools for planning and execution of projects with MERLOT partners to support the successfully and timely implementation of an institution’s academic support services with technology.

MERLOT’s Collection for Academic Support Services

The taxonomy of the Collection of online materials and resources to support Academic Support Services will be initially represented by the following list.  As other projects and priorities become evident, new categories and sub-categories will be added.  You can browse the COMPASS collection in MERLOT now.

• Accessibility and Assistive Technology 
• Accreditation 
• Content Repositories 
• Course Redesign 
• Degree Completion/Accelerated Graduation
• ePortfolios
• Faculty Development
• Hybrid & Online Course Development
• Institutional Research on Technology Use 
• K-20 Initiatives 
• Learning Management System Planning & Implementation
• Library and Information Sciences
• Mobile Computing
• Online Degree Program Development
• Other Innovations/Emerging Technologies
• Scholarship of Teaching & Learning
• Textbook Affordability

MERLOT’s Community of Academic Support Services

MERLOT Project Directors or their designees may participate in task forces or working groups for building, commenting, recommending, and evaluating the different resources and strategies for using technology in Academic Support Services. 

• MERLOT will organize and publish case studies of its partners projects.
• Portals (Teaching Commons) will be further developed and organized on the MERLOT Communities page, with support and involvement by interested partners:
• Faculty Development
• ePortfolio
• Pedagogy
• Online Courses
• Learning In Virtual Environments
• Others as they emerge
• MERLOT face-to-face and virtual meetings will focus on providing community support for institutional planning.
• A special session providing overviews, updates, and discussion of COMPASS will be conducted at the MERLOT International Conference.

MERLOT’s Consulting for Academic Support Services

Successful implementation and integration of MERLOT into campus academic support services and other projects may often require outside assistance and consulting services.  Members of the MERLOT Leadership Community (MERLOT staff, Project Directors, Editors) will be available for consulting, training, and other related services.  The nature of the consulting services, including the topics/issues, time involved, and location, for example, will be based on the institutional or organizational needs.  Partners may request visits to a campus, or meetings with leadership at the MERLOT offices.  Additionally, periodic phone or web conferences may be arranged, with individuals or groups at the partner campus.

Partners may request up to two consulting visits per year (1-3 days), and only be responsible for travel expenses.

Themes and topics for consulting activities might include: Getting Started with MERLOT, Engaging Your University, Faculty Engagement, Using MERLOT for online learning, Using MERLOT to connect globally.

MERLOT’s Customized Academic Support Services

Partner Campuses and Systems have a variety of tools and resources that may be customized and co-branded for their use.  These include communication tools like the MERLOT Seedling (e-newsletter template), institutional teaching commons (customized MERLOT portals), networking sites (customized MERLOT VOICES spaces), and marketing and training materials.  A customized MERLOT home page is also in the development stages, providing the ability to highlight the Partners’ priorities.

Download the one-page flyer (pdf)

rev. 6/4/09 pm