During the first three weeks, CCOBLA has attracted 53 new members. I’ve added a photo gallery on the sidebar so you can see some of the people who have joined the compact.

Members from 16 states and the District of Columbia have joined, with Wyoming, Montana, and Arkansas currently representing those states with the most members.

Most of the activity among CCOBLA members takes place in our private Yammer community where we have weekly discussions on specific topics, plus other conversations that pop up whenever a member has a question to ask or something to share. I will be posting some summaries of those conversations to the CCOBLA website (right here) in the future.

We all have to start somewhere.

For CCOBLA, the beginning is January 1, 2012. The College Compact of Online and Blended Learning Administrators is designed to provide valuable resources to the men and women serving in administrative capacities in two-year colleges*.

As you can see on the “About” page,

“The mission of the CCOBLA is to provide connections for collaboration and community-building among the men and women who serve in administrative positions at two-year colleges* with a focus on the issues related to online learning and/or blended learning.”

Some of the features of CCOBLA include:

• Focused:  By focusing on the issues and practices in the two-year colleges (and similar), we can provide access to the most relevant information for the leaders of online and blended learning development.
• Community:  Group members will have similar goals, needs, and issues. Bringing together a group of intelligent people in a vibrant communications network should prove beneficial to all as we grow our network of connected members.
• Collaborative:  One of the main goals of CCOBLA is to facilitate the sharing of resources and knowledge for the benefit of all members. Having a network of colleagues to share with and learn from can be of tremendous benefit to the members, their colleges and most importantly, the students.
• Organic:  No fertilizer or other types of BS allowed.
• Fun:  All work and no play … well, you know the rest.

This organization is being started by Barry Dahl. But don’t think of it as his group – think of it as your group. The whole purpose of this organization is to provide support to the online and blended learning (OBL) administrators at 2-year colleges* (see NOTE below) as they try to navigate the very rough waters around the OBL island (at least it often feels like they’re on an island).

For more information, you can email Barry (barry at ccobla dot org). Better yet, just go ahead and register to become a member. There is no membership fee and no obligation to stay. Check it out and let’s see if we can build something great together.

* NOTE: The emphasis on two-year colleges is not to dissuade others from joining in the conversation. It might be more accurate to say that it is for administrators at “low-cost, open-access” institutions, which would still include those from colleges that have expanded their missions from associate degree-granting to include baccalaureate degrees, and the like. There is also no intention to exclude potential members from the institutions that work in partnership with two-year schools.

Another NOTE: People who work in administrative positions related to OBL are “auto-accepts” during the registration process. Others who are not in positions within organizations related to OBL will need to be confirmed prior to being accepted as members, and may be asked to indicate why they are interested in joining or what value they can add to the group. At least to begin with, no selling will be allowed; so salespeople & vendors need not apply. Sorry if you don’t fit the profile. The membership can re-evaluate the criteria for acceptance as the network grows and can decide to expand the criteria if desired.