History and Mission

History

In 1997 the presidents of Washington's community and technical colleges approved an expenditure for the 1997-99 biennium to develop and centrally offer 20 AA transfer degree courses under a program dubbed WashingtonOnline.

The objectives were:

• Develop 20 quality online courses which would be owned and approved by the college system
• Share online classes to expand availability of online courses across colleges and to insure class size efficiencies
• Share technical support services by use of a third party vendor for technical delivery and support to avoid front end costs of building a technology infrastructure
• Train faculty to develop and deliver online instruction
  

Washington State's 34 independently governed colleges, building upon a history of working together, joined with the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges and the TLT Flashlight Project in 1999 to form the Washington Learning Anytime Anywhere Partnership.

The partnership had two goals:

• Launch the development and implementation of a comprehensive student-centered system of services
• Improve instructional quality and increase access to anytime, anywhere learning.

This project was funded by a FIPSE grant in the amount of $1,841,285 over four years. Of 630 nationwide applicants, this project was one of 29 successful grant applicants, and one of only four to community or technical colleges. In early 2000, the name WashingtonOnline was chosen to denote a new entity, which would function as a branch campus of all the participating colleges.

Mission
The mission of WashingtonOnline is to facilitate new collaborations among colleges in order to improve the educational system of Washington state for students who would otherwise not have educational opportunities.

Under the management of the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, WashingtonOnline will increase capacity and access to anytime anywhere learning through online delivery, support online learners by providing comprehensive online student services, support colleges offering online instruction, and support faculty and staff who serve online learners. Using modern technology, WAOL continually develops systems of coordination and services.