© MERLOT Tel Aviv, IsraelJune 2007 MERLOT Governance The Challenges of Managing a Virtual Academic Consortium Professor Sorel Reisman MERLOT Managing Director

© MERLOT Tel Aviv, Israel June 2007

MERLOT Governance

The Challenges of Managing a Virtual

Academic Consortium

Professor Sorel ReismanMERLOT Managing Director

June 2007

© MERLOT Tel Aviv, Israel

Presentation Outline

• Geographical Perspective• History of MERLOT• Governance – Participants &

Organization Structure• Library Partners• Communicating in a Virtual

World• Other MERLOT Entities• Managing Content


Geographical Perspective:

Virtual Entitybut

Physical Presence

June 2007


MERLOT – An International Consortium

June 2007


Headquarters

June 2007


A Closer Look

June 2007


Even Closer

June 2007


A Tourist Destination

June 2007


The California State University


Origins of MERLOT

June 2007


Brief History of MERLOT• 1997

- MERLOT developed and hosted at Cal State University, Sonoma• 1999

- The University of Georgia System, Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, University of North Carolina System, and the California State University System formed the MERLOT ‘cooperative’

• 2000– January – MERLOT cooperative sponsored 48 Biology, Physics,

Business and Teacher Education faculty (12 from each system) to develop peer review standards/processes for on-line teaching-learning materials

– April - other higher ed systems/institutions invited to join MERLOT cooperative.

– July - 23 higher ed systems/institutions of higher education had become MERLOT Institutional Partners

– New release of MERLOT website – Hosted by CSU at WestEd

• 2006 (August)– third release of MERLOT of website

• 2007 (June)– 47,000+ members and 17,000 library materials- TBA – mirror host in Sacramento, California – California Virtual College


Participatory Governance

June 2007


Governance Participants• Executive Director• Staff • Advisory Board • Project Directors Council• Editors Council• Corporations• Consortia• MERLOT International Conference Committee• Journal of Online Learning & Teaching

Editorial Board

June 2007


Partners

June 2007


ExecutiveDirector

Organization

June 2007


ExecutiveDirector

AdvisoryBoard

Organization

June 2007


ExecutiveDirector

Staff

AdvisoryBoard

Organization

June 2007


ExecutiveDirector

Staff

AdvisoryBoard

Organization

ProjectDirectors

BoardMembers

Editors

June 2007


ExecutiveDirector

Staff

AdvisoryBoard

Organization

ProjectDirectors

BoardMembers

Editors MIC JOLT

June 2007


ExecutiveDirector

Staff

AdvisoryBoard

Organization

ProjectDirectors

BoardMembers

Editors MICCorporations Consortia JOLT

June 2007


ExecutiveDirector

Staff

AdvisoryBoard

Members

Organization

ProjectDirectors

BoardMembers


Members

June 2007


ExecutiveDirector

Staff

AdvisoryBoard

Members

Organization

16+

160+

18

5-10

2525

8

47000

ProjectDirectors

BoardMembers


Members

June 2007


Community ParticipationType Number

Admin Team – CSU Office of the Chancellor employees

~ 8 FTE

Advisory Board Variable

Sustaining Partners - Project Directors 2

State System Level - Project Directors 16

Campus Level 10

Discipline Editorial Boards 16+

Editorial Board Members ≈160

June 2007


Staff Locations• Executive Director – Long Beach• Managing Director – Newport Beach• Webmaster – Seal Beach• Director of Academic Programs – Dallas• Director of Institutional Development -

Oklahoma• Developers – Huntington Beach,

Arkansas, Las Vegas• IT Support Staff – Phoenix

June 2007


Staff Locations

June 2007


MERLOT Added Value• Access to the Partner Reserve• A voice in the strategic direction of MERLOT• Support of the peer review process in MERLOT

to increase the value of the collection• Seedling package – branded newsletter for

localized institutional MERLOT communications

• Institutional Teaching Commons package for localized MERLOT-based faculty development presence

• JOLT package for online journal infrastructure replication

• Reduced MIC registration fee


Library Partners

June 2007


Related Libraries

June 2007


GLOBE Worldwide


COMMUNICATIONS

Managinga

Virtual Organization

June 2007


Group Actual Meeting

Virtual Meeting

Staff

Advisory Board

Project Directors

Editors Council

MIC

JOLT

Meeting Schedules

June 2007


Group Actual Meeting

Virtual Meeting

Staff •Bi-annual retreat•Partner meetings

•Weekly strategy•Weekly operations

Advisory Board

•Mid Year Meeting•MIC

•As required

Project Directors


•Monthly•Bi-annual major

Editors Council


•Monthly•Bi-annual major

MIC MIC •Weekly

JOLT •Mid Year Meeting•MIC

•Monthly

Meeting Schedules

June 2007


Meeting ModesActual

– Staff Retreats – biannually– Mid Year Meeting: Staff, Project Directors, Editors

Council, Advisory Board– MIC:

• Staff• Editors Council• Project Directors• Joint session of EC and PD• Advisory Board

Virtual– Staff – Weekly Operations; Weekly Management– Project Directors – Monthly Operations; annually

operations– Editors Council – Monthly Operations; annually operations

June 2007


ExecutiveDirector

Staff

MIC

BoardMembers

ProjectDirectors

AdvisoryBoard

Corporations Consortia JOLTEditors

Members

Communicating with Members

16+

160+

18

5-10

25 25

8

47000

Webmaster

June 2007


The Webmaster• “Human Face” of MERLOT• End User technical support• Role of Webmaster non-existent 5-6 years ago• 2006 - 2129 email/phone requests/issues • 2007 (January to May) - 875 • Webmaster responds almost 7/24• Issues which make up half of all inquires:

• Information requests (MIC, JOLT, contributing)• Web Services• Bad emails• Profile needs to be updated/removed• Unable to log in• Peer review process/requests about peer review

• Remedy Reporting• Analytics essential to process & site improvement

June 2007


Vineyard Newsletter

June 2007


Grapevine Newsletter

June 2007


Extending the Community: Building Editorial Boards• Taskforce – “editorial board in-training”• Core group - 4+ motivated individuals including

Chair• Develop discipline taxonomy• 100 – 150 submitted learning materials

– 20% with Assignments– 20% with Member Comments

• Portal editor selected • Declare Editorial Board• Example - Fire Safety

– Taxonomy – 1 month– Build Collection - 4 months– Training - 2 months– Oversight - 4 months


OtherMERLOT Entities

June 2007


MERLOT International Conference“The MIC”

June 2007


MIC Committee Positions• Volunteer committee• Staff advisory liaison• Strategic direction – staff defined• Operations – committee led• Logistics - event planning company • Committee chair – may be host site

person • Weekly committee meetings• Weekly MERLOT staff update

June 2007


MIC Conference Committee

June 2007


Journal of Online Teaching & Learning

June 2007


JOLT Board


Managing Content

June 2007


Distribute Content Management

June 2007



June 2007



June 2007


Portal Content

June 2007


Portal Template

Institutional Teaching Commons

June 2007


MERLOT About Us


Discussion

Documents

© MERLOT Tel Aviv, IsraelJune 2007 MERLOT Governance The Challenges of Managing a Virtual Academic Consortium Professor Sorel Reisman MERLOT Managing Director