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About the Colorado Consortium
The Colorado Consortium for Independent Study provides a number of ways in which we are removing boundaries and a number of ways to help you overcome the boundaries of distance and time.
First, courses and programs offered are changing and evolving. We still offer a number of traditional print-based correspondence courses. Many of these courses have been enhanced by the addition of media, such as audiocassettes, slides, videocassettes, CD-ROM, and computer communication of various kinds. Other courses employ media as the primary vehicle for content (course by cassette, for example), and still others depend entirely on computer communication for the delivery of content and for the interaction between student and instructor and between student and student.
We offer independent study courses. The courses provide guided instruction, available at a distance and on demand, so that you can remove educational boundaries created by geography, by the academic calendar, by professional demands, or by family responsibilities. Independent study does not mean that you are alone. Your instructor will not only evaluate and comment on your assignments and examinations, but will also provide answers to questions and advice on how to be more successful in your course.
Distance learning might be another way to describe what we do, but we also know that many of you are close to campus and that you have chosen independent study as one of your educational options. Perhaps the definition of correspondence is what needs to be expanded to include technological means of providing instruction.
Finally, in order to provide the widest range of course options for you, the Consortium no longer restricts course offerings to a single institution. What this means to you is that you may find the same course offered by more than one institution. In most cases the courses will vary in some significant way, often involving media or other technological differences. This change also eliminates the boundary created by graduation requirements that may restrict enrollment to courses by the institution granting the degree.