Determine If Working with an Online Enablement Vendor is Right for Your Institution
Use this resource to decide whether to build the necessary IT, instructional design, and marketing capabilities in-house or to work with an online enablement vendor. This nine step process covers how to understand, evaluate, and structure vendor partnerships and includes how to eventually migrate some technical capabilities in-house.
Step 1: Introduction to Working with Online Enablement Vendors
This brief outlines the online enablement industry and why colleges and universities are partnering with external vendors to promote online program growth.
Step 2: Evaluate Whether Working with an Online Enablement Vendor is Right for You
This diagnostic will help members assess their current capabilities and decide which component(s) of their online infrastructure, if any, could most benefit from a vendor partnership.
Step 3: Understand the Risks and Benefits of Working with an Online Enablement Vendor
Use this tool to see a comparison of the most important benefits and risks of entering into a partnership with an online enablement vendor.
Step 4: Use this Scorecard to Evaluate Potential Online Enablement Vendor Partners
This scorecard is intended to help members conduct an objective evaluation of a short list of potential vendor candidates and quickly visualize how they compare to each other.
Step 5: Five Levers You Can Use to Effectively Negotiate with Online Vendors
This document focuses on the key levers under an institution’s control for securing the best financial arrangement possible with an online enablement vendor.
Step 6: 11 “Must-Haves” for Your Contracts with Online Enablement Vendors
After vetting and selecting a partner vendor, formalize expectations and responsibilities in a legally binding contract. This document itemizes the most critical clauses that are necessary to avoid misunderstandings and client dissatisfaction.
Step 7: Prepare Your Campus for Your Pending Online Enablement Vendor Partnership
Before entering into a vendor partnership, institutions must get critical internal functions in order. Download this guideto help you determine where preparation is needed most before entering into a vendor partnership.
Step 8: Learn How to Engage Faculty and Staff in the Selection of and Partnership with Online Enablement Vendors
This model communications plan will help administrators build support for an online enablement partnership by overcoming common misconceptions and involving stakeholders in the procurement, negotiation, and implementation phases of a vendor partnership.
Step 9: Evaluate What Online Support Services to Move In-House
This document outlines a sample migration path, featuring tips from those few institutions that have successfully pulled most or all their online support services in-house after having partnered with an online enablement vendor.
More Resources
Design, Launch, and Market Targeted Online and Hybrid Programs and Credentials
Online Education 101: Myths, Administrative Organization, and Common Terms
