Collaboration, Virtual Community, and Partnerships

 This ECAR research bulletin introduces the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation research on successful collaborative practices in the context of higher education. It details 20 collaborative success factors and maps them to relevant examples gleaned from research on IT collaboration conducted by ECAR.

Citation for this work: Pirani, Judith A., and Toby D. Sitko. “Happy Families, Good Fences, and Winning IT Collaborations” (Research Bulletin, Issue 15). Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, 2008, available from http://www.educause.edu/ecar.

This case study complements the 2007 ECAR study by Philip J. Goldstein, IT Collaboration: Multi-Institutional Partnerships to Develop, Manage, and Operate IT Resources. Researchers undertook this case study to understand the benefits of multi-institutional development of a ubiquitously needed IT service. By leveraging emerging technology, procurement opportunities, and internal resources, the University of California Office of the President and University of California, San Diego were able to develop a complex disaster recovery solution involving the joint hosting and comprehensive mirroring of each location’s mainframe and non-mainframe computing environments.

This case study complements the 2007 ECAR study by Philip J. Goldstein, IT Collaboration: Multi-Institutional Partnerships to Develop, Manage, and Operate IT Resources. Researchers undertook this case study to understand the methods and practices used to manage ongoing collaborative activity and how the Kuali group partners plan for the sustainability of their collaboration. The case study highlights the collaborative nature of the Kuali Project to meet its goal of building a suite of administrative software, rather than the project’s history, structure, or operations.

Presentation at the Sixth Annual ECAR/HP Summer Symposium for Higher Education IT Executives, June 11-13, 2007, Boulder, Colorado. When Yochai Benkler's book, The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, came out, Stanford Law Professor Larry Lessig said, "This is -- by far -- the most important and powerful book written in the fields that matter most to me in the last ten years. If there is one book you read this year, it should be this." This work examines the ways in which information technology permits extensive forms of collaboration that may have transformative consequences for economy and society. Benkler's presentation outlines the characteristics of the networked information economy and the roles of collaboration and commons-based production of information, knowledge, and culture, and it suggests avenues to apply these broad trends to education and education-related policy.

Presentation at the Sixth Annual ECAR/HP Summer Symposium for Higher Education IT Executives, June 11-13, 2007, Boulder, Colorado. In 2006, ECAR distributed three surveys: the first was designed simply to ascertain whether the responding institution collaborated in significant ways; the second asked responding collaborators to describe their experiences, views, outcomes, concerns, and readiness with and for collaborations; and the third asked self-identified non-collaborators in IT to describe the barriers to collaboration they face, the cultural assumptions and beliefs of their institutions, and their views about the possible future for IT collaboration at their institutions. The survey responses offer a rich snapshot of how and when colleges and universities collaborate, the nature of the collaborations themselves, and a sense of the effectiveness of IT collaborations in higher education.

This document presents the key findings from the 2007 ECAR study, IT Collaboration: Multi-Institutional Partnerships to Develop, Manage, and Operate IT Resources. The study explores multi-institutional collaboration in terms of the types of information technology (IT) collaborations in higher education and the practices associated with positive outcomes. It is based on a literature review to identify issues and develop research questions; a screening survey of 586 colleges and universities to distinguish collaborators from non-collaborators; a follow-up survey tailored for 157 institutions presently engaged in at least one form of collaboration and a separate follow-up survey tailored for 113 institutions that have elected not to participate in IT collaborations; qualitative interviews with IT leaders from 30 institutions including both collaborators and non-collaborators; consultation with a select group of chief information officers who are extensively engaged in collaboration; and two in-depth case studies that look at how collaborators form, manage, and sustain their ventures.

This ECAR roadmap synthesizes the important issues and recommended actions drawn from the 2007 study, IT Collaboration: Multi-Institutional Partnerships to Develop, Manage, and Operate IT Resources. The study explores multi-institutional collaboration in terms of the types of information technology (IT) collaborations in higher education and the practices associated with positive outcomes. It is based on a literature review to identify issues and develop research questions; a screening survey of 586 colleges and universities to distinguish collaborators from non-collaborators; a follow-up survey tailored for 157 institutions presently engaged in at least one form of collaboration and a separate follow-up survey tailored for 113 institutions that have elected not to participate in IT collaborations; qualitative interviews with IT leaders from 30 institutions including both collaborators and non-collaborators; consultation with a select group of chief information officers who are extensively engaged in collaboration; and two in-depth case studies that look at how collaborators form, manage, and sustain their ventures.

This 2007 ECAR research study explores multi-institutional collaboration in terms of the types of information technology (IT) collaborations in higher education and the practices associated with positive outcomes. The study is based on a literature review to identify issues and develop research questions; a screening survey of 586 colleges and universities to distinguish collaborators from non-collaborators; a follow-up survey tailored for 157 institutions presently engaged in at least one form of collaboration and a separate follow-up survey tailored for 113 institutions that have elected not to participate in IT collaborations; qualitative interviews with IT leaders from 30 institutions including both collaborators and non-collaborators; consultation with a select group of chief information officers who are extensively engaged in collaboration; and two in-depth case studies that look at how collaborators form, manage, and sustain their ventures. A corporate edition is available here.

This 2007 ECAR research study explores multi-institutional collaboration in terms of the types of information technology (IT) collaborations in higher education and the practices associated with positive outcomes. The study is based on a literature review to identify issues and develop research questions; a screening survey of 586 colleges and universities to distinguish collaborators from non-collaborators; a follow-up survey tailored for 157 institutions presently engaged in at least one form of collaboration and a separate follow-up survey tailored for 113 institutions that have elected not to participate in IT collaborations; qualitative interviews with IT leaders from 30 institutions including both collaborators and non-collaborators; consultation with a select group of chief information officers who are extensively engaged in collaboration; and two in-depth case studies that look at how collaborators form, manage, and sustain their ventures. A non-profit edition is available here.

This November 2006 survey is for higher education institutions that indicated in an ECAR screening survey of September 2006 that they are involved in one or more significant multi-institutional collaborations. The survey will inform research that seeks to more deeply understand what drives institutions to collaborate as well as the extent of the collaborative activity.