This project is a description of a recent collaboration between the Instituto Tecnologico de Monterey (http://www.cem.itesm.mx/) and The American Graduate School of International Management (http://www.t-bird.edu). The alliance is of special interest to this class because it is one of distance learning. The Instituto Tecnologico de Monterey has been offering distance learning classes for more than twenty five years. Their current state of technology is rather sophisticated, in that they operate satellites that broadcast classes across the world. The American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird) is a novice at distance learning. But it has recently build up its information technology infrastructure in order to be able to send compressed video via multiplexed ISDN lines to the Monterey campus.

The alliance is interesting and valuable for discussion here because of its history and development and because it favors both institutions. The history of the development of the program began five years with a mutual vision from leaders of both institutions. After working out some details, more details and more details a contract was recently signed. A large part of the details were an ironing out of both technological and pedagogical responsibilities. The responsibilities Thunderbird agreed to accepted required that it upgrade its current network to make it very stable. As well the school has invested over half a million dollars in a near state-of-the-art video production lab and in two special distance learning (e.g. video equipped) classrooms. The goal of the program is to offer the high quality Thunderbird international management curriculum worldwide.

Without going into detail about the content of the program, I will highlight two interesting implications from this program. One of them is alliances. As mentioned above, this specific distance learning alliance is a win-win situation for both schools. Monterey gains not only the allure of one of the most reputable international business curriculums in the world, but also tremendous economies of scale. The institute will be able to expand its current offering of classes and bring in many more students with hardly any additional capitol expenditures. As well Thunderbird benefits from the economies of scale by bringing in more students, even though they had to undergo an enormous capitol outlay to get started. The main benefit to Thunderbird is long-term, so having an initial alliance with an experience leader in international distance education is a tremendous opportunity considering Thunderbird has never offered a distance learning class before and hadn't hired anyone under the title of instructional designer until this summer.

The second important aspect to bring up about this alliance is that it is the product of two visionaries. For it to be successful it will take ongoing cooperation from every member involved in both institutions. I think that the importance of these aspect scannot be overstated. Distance learning doesn't just happen, and for it to happen well it has be carefully designed and be part of the institution's main vision of itself. I would hope to see a rewriting of some educational institutions' mission statements as they begin to align their overall vision with distance learning.