Why Join the Collaboration?

Creating Value & Impact Through Collaboration
Building Capacity for a Stronger Future
Working Together for Student Success
Convenient, Customized, Cost-Effective
 

Creating Value & Impact Through Collaboration

The Collaboration for the Advancement of College Teaching & Learning is a regionally-based membership organization with national outreach that supports and promotes outstanding college teaching and learning. Since 1981, it has evolved into a unique alliance of more than 100 diverse institutions serving thousands of faculty, staff, and students. Known widely for its distinctive, cutting-edge programming and emphasis on practical, research-based strategies, The Collaboration strives to help colleges and universities excel in educating students for the 21st century.

An independent nonprofit since 1998, The Collaboration and its work are made possible by institutional memberships. In addition to funding program development and core operating costs, these fees support consulting and other member benefits, development, and outreach. In turn, The Collaboration has raised more than $5 million in contributions to help provide greater value and impact for its members.

Membership in The Collaboration enables colleges and universities to:

• build capacity to remain vibrant, competitive providers of education in a rapidly changing global environment 

• develop and retain a proficient faculty and staff by providing the knowledge, skills, and support needed  to design education, teach, and assess student learning more effectively 

• meet key institutional needs by drawing from a comprehensive, cost-effective package of programs not available locally 

Building Capacity for a Stronger Future 

Assessment, retention, diversity—never before have colleges faced such challenges in meeting the needs of a changing society. Whether your institution is two- or four-year, has a specialized mission, or serves a distinctive student population, The Collaboration helps you meet these challenges by staying informed of current issues and practices, leveraging limited resources, and profiting from opportunities not available elsewhere. 

For a fraction of your institutional budget, membership helps build your college or university through a comprehensive program of educational development opportunities. It enables you to engage your entire faculty and staff in a holistic, multicultural  approach to fostering student persistence and success. And it provides benefits available only to Collaboration members. 

As a member, not only will you help shape Collaboration programs, but we'll work with you to customize a package of Collaboration programming that draws on our vast talent pool to strengthen your local professional development efforts and address your campus priorities. You alone determine the level of your benefits—the more you participate, the more you gain. 

Working Together for Student Success 

Successful careers in education thrive with regular professional development and engagement in a professional, scholarly community. While campus programs and disciplinary associations meet some of this need, membership in The Collaboration provides your faculty and staff with the benefits of a broadbased professional association focused on a key part of every academic's work: student learning. 

With a Collaboration membership, you provide everyone at your institution with a terrific employee benefit: members-only discounts and programs designed to help them and their students succeed. Since everyone is a member, you have opportunities to promote more effective collaboration within and across departments as well as between faculty and students, student development staff, and administrators. And through interaction with teachers from diverse disciplines and institutions, your colleagues gain a broader perspective on current issues and proven strategies that just can't be duplicated by a campus or system program. 

A Collaboration membership gives your faculty and staff access to a wide range of opportunities, including: 

• an inclusive professional community devoted to exceptional teaching, learning, and assessment

• high-quality conferences, workshops, and institutes

• an international showcase for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

• priority consideration for our talent pool of presenters and consultant/evaluators

• valuable resource materials

Convenient, Customized, Cost-Effective 

Whatever the extent of your local faculty and staff development programming, The Collaboration provides a convenient, cost-effective way to enhance it. If you're in the upper Midwest, not only can an entire group attend Collaboration summer institutes and conferences for the price of sending one or two people to other national events (and with the same great presenters), but your faculty and staff can build lasting networks and remain engaged long-term for greater value and impact. 

Wherever you are, The Collaboration makes it easy to bring high-quality programs right to your own campus for far less than if you developed them yourself. With your member discount and our attention to your specific needs, our popular Traveling Workshops and consulting services can be the backbone of your annual or multi-year program, the main event for your retreat, or the kick-off for an important change initiative. 

For the price of membership, we'll be your link to a carefully selected talent pool and resources on a wide range of topics. We'll help you find other campuses interested in collaborative projects or cost sharing. Writing a grant proposal? Call us for ideas, feedback, consulting, or evaluation help. And what better way to disseminate your results—always important to funders— than through The Collaboration? 

Chances are, you already know that Collaboration conferences are among the best around. As a member, your institution will have these and much more at your disposal. It's an investment you just can't afford to pass up.

Return to 2007-08 Membership Information.