This learning community project focused on various models of collaboration with a primary emphasis on development of a collaborative degree delivery model for Belmont Technical College ’s Information Technology degree in Information Services: Library Paraprofessional. Initial partners included librarians from Belmont and Edison Community College. The learning community expanded to include library and student services’ representatives from an additional three institutions…Southern State Community College, Lorain Community College and Owens Community College. Collaborative processes and procedures in such services as advising, financial aid and course scheduling became key focus areas as the collaborative degree structure evolved.

Other activities of the learning community involved various Belmont Technical College faculty that teach in the online Library Paraprofessional degree. Three collaborative areas were explored including:

• Intra-divisional/department - Both the Visual Basic Programming Course and the Programming Logic course are offered in web format and it was decided that these two individuals would integrate elements of the two courses and team teach each.
• Cross-divisional/department/functional area - LC members decided that development of a web-based public-speaking course targeted to working adults that also included learning outcomes in the development of slide-show presentations and library research would be a logical course for exploration of team-based cross-divisional course development and delivery. The three faculty involved were all from different departments and developed and co-taught the pilot class.
• Inter-institutional - LC members identified the need to communicate program and course expectations to K-12 instructors involved with Tech Prep. One way this might be implemented would be in a team teaching model. Using a web-based delivery format, the college faculty member could team with the K-12 teacher and deliver the course to a combined high school/college group of students, a high school class who would then receive college credit, or to the regularly scheduled college students. By teaching the course, the K-12 teacher would then become familiar with the expectations of the college curriculum.