Advance

good practices and sound policies that accelerate the effective adoption and use of technologies in teaching and learning.

Transparency By Design
College Choices for Adults Press Contacts

Media Releases:

• Capturing the Adult Learner: Learner Progress on College Choices for Adults (PRNewswire) (August 31, 2011).
• Colleges Choices for Adults Adds Side-by-Side Comparisons (August 27, 2010).
• Trusted Information on Returning to College: College Choices for Adults (August 27, 2010).
• College Choices for Adults Adds New Data & A New Member (PRNewswire) (June 14, 2010).
• Three More Colleges Join Major Distance Learning Transparency Initiative (PRNewswire) (January 1, 2010).
• WCET Launches New Website to Offer Transparency to Adult Learners (August 4, 2009).
• WICHE and WCET Win Grant to Improve Transparency & Accountability in Adult Higher Education (December 15, 2008).

Article from NonTraditional Students Report from November 2009

New Web site helps adults choose their best-fit online program

Initiative Organizer Descriptions

Transparency by Design, which produces the College Choices for Adults website, is a consortium of regionally-accredited, adult-serving distance higher education institutions assisting adult learners in becoming informed consumers of higher education. The key differentiator of this site is providing program-level learning outcomes and results of measures of those outcomes.

Transparency by Design, funded by a grant from Lumina Foundation for Education and annual dues from member institutions, calls for regionally accredited, adult-serving institutions which offer some or all programs at a distance or online to commit to increasing the number of adult learners who find success in higher education by providing an unprecedented level of data to inform college choice.

Transparency by Design is governed by an Executive Committee comprised of elected leadership from the member institutions.

 

WCET, the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies accelerates the adoption of effective practices and policies, advancing excellence in technology-enhanced teaching and learning in higher education.

Lumina Foundation for Education is committed to enrolling and graduating more students from college — especially low-income students, students of color, first-generation students, and adult learners. The organization's goal is to increase the percentage of Americans who hold high-quality degrees and credentials to 60 percent by 2025. Lumina pursues this goal in three ways: by identifying and supporting effective practice, through public policy advocacy, and using communications and convening power to build public will for change.

The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) works collaboratively with its' members to expand educational access and excellence for all citizens of the West. WICHE is the only organization in the western United States that focuses exclusively on higher education issues, from access and accountability to tuition and fees to distance learning and innovation. In addition to Transparency by Design, WICHE's other adult-focused programs include Non-Traditional No More, College Access Challenge Grant Program, and Best Practices in Statewide Transfer and Articulation Systems.

The Presidents' Forum of Excelsior College, established in 2004, is a collaboration of  accredited, national, adult-serving institutions and programs which have embraced the power and potential of online education. The Mission of the Presidents' Forum is to advance the recognition of innovative practice and excellence in online learning.