About MCO
Quick Glance- |
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| Formed | January 2000 | |
| Co- Chair | 
Kyle Kraus |
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| Co-Chair |  Lynn Zayac Director Center for Instructional Technology Westfield State University Phone: 413-572-8142 Email: lzayac@westfield.ma.edu |
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Massachusetts Colleges Online (MCO) is a collaborative of public state higher education institutions involved in the design, delivery, management, and assessment of online, blended, and other technology-mediated learning formats. The collaborative provides opportunities for all members to address the issues and challenges arising from professional practice, and the pooling of financial and intellectual capital toward the development and enhancement of services.
The 24 State University and Community College institutional MCO liaisons meet monthly during the academic year to share best practices and identify new opportunities for collaboration.
Vision, Mission and Values
VISION: MCO is the trusted resource for knowledge and expertise in online learning for public higher education institutions within the Commonwealth of MA.
MISSION: MCO, a statewide organization of professionals, advances the quality of online learning and empowers institution members to provide: best practices; advice and consultation to decision-makers on technology, pedagogy and policy; and support for professional development and research.
VALUES: Education access and opportunity, collaboration, collegiality, continuous improvement, androfessional practice
Initiatives & Interests
As a collaborative organization MCO has been active in:
- Promoting public higher education in Massachusetts specific to new online delivery models and introducing innovative practices to promote student engagement and learning.
- Designing professional development opportunities that support both faculty and staff development as it relates to online learning including planning and hosting an annual conference, recognizing Courses Of Distinction (COD), scheduling webinars and offering training classes
- Negotiating vendor pricing for public higher education institutions across the state – that are not offered through other affiliations such as NERCOMP
- Leveraging consortium agreements across the state such as
Quality Matters; streaming servers; OER platforms; LMS systems - Fostering partnerships to increase capabilities and efficiencies
- Promoting innovation in using technologies to enhance learning
- Maximizing revenue by cutting costs through collaboration (i.e. technology and consortia discounts) and generate new revenue by offering new products and related services (i.e. workforce development training