The Boston Consortium for Higher Education: Providing Benefits of e-Learning to Leading Academic Institutions The Problem The Boston Consortium for Higher Education is comprised of leading Boston-area colleges and universities, including Babson College, Bentley College, Berklee College of Music, Boston College, Boston University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University, Olin College of Engineering, Tufts University, Wellesley College and Wheaton College. The Consortium's mission is to create a collaborative environment that inspires its member institutions in the development and practical implementation of innovative cost management and quality improvement ideas. Led by the Financial Officers of these organizations, it employs a philosophy based upon dialogue and trustful relationships.

"Element K's e-Learning brings a new dimension to our traditional instructor-led classes. It's exciting to watch our students, faculty, and staff respond so enthusiastically to the ability to learn anytime-anywhere." -  Gisele M.C. Nedeau,Assistant DirectorCustomer Services/Training Services for Northeastern University, Boston Consortium Member

One of the Consortium's most exciting recent initiatives is the adoption of e-Learning as a way for member institutions to offer critical IT, computer and business management training to their faculty, students and administrative staff. To supplement in-house resources in a rapidly changing IT world, Consortium schools looked to e-Learning as a highly effective, cost efficient way for them to increase individual skills and expand proficiencies while optimizing their users valuable time. The schools also wanted to offer the convenience of self-paced instruction accessible from any computer with Internet access, whether at home, work or at school.

The Element K® Solution
After searching for an e-Learning company best suited to meet its needs, The Boston Consortium for Higher Education selected Element K, a leading provider of e-Learning solutions to Fortune 1000 companies, universities, government organizations and individuals. Element K's e-Learning solution offered Consortium member schools the option to access to more than 1600 engaging, interactive courses designed exclusively for the Web and covering a wide array of topics - from IT and professional computing courses to personal computing and business management skills. Other features of the solution that greatly appealed to the schools included Element K's interactive self-assessment tool, as well as its specialized "just in time, just for me" training, 24/7 access, reference libraries and round-the-clock technical support.

"Professors don't usually have the time to teach software application programs like Excel or Photoshop and may even want to expand their own knowledge of an application," said Pattie Orr, Director of User Services at member institution Wellesley College. "Element K's e-Learning solution makes it possible for our students, faculty, and staff to learn all the computing and IT skills they want to learn at their own pace, whenever and wherever they want. That kind of flexibility has really motivated people and contributed to their desire to learn."

The Results
On behalf of all its member institutions, the Boston Consortium for Higher Education negotiated the purchase over a two-year period of 30,000 subscriptions to Element K's e-Learning courses delivered through elementk.com. Babson College, Bentley College, Northeastern University, Wellesley College and Wheaton College were among the first institutions to promote Element K's self-paced tutorials and Web-based instructor-led courses to their faculty, students and administrative staff, and Element K's online training offerings have been met with much enthusiasm at each of the schools.