Tusculum College part of partnership awarded $50,000 by Mellon Foundation

Tusculum College, as part of a unique Appalachian partnership in open source Web learning, has earned an award, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation announced today. The College is part of LAMP, the Learning Asset Management Project, one of the 2008 Mellon Awards for Technology Collaboration.

“Tusculum College has benefited greatly from our participation in the LAMP consortium,” said Dr. Kim Estep, provost and vice president of academic affairs. “The faculty uses this platform to provide online enhancements to their courses, to collaborate for committee work and tasks forces and to share ideas and training opportunities with other schools in the Appalachian Colleges Association.”

LAMP is a partnership of 16 schools in the Appalachian College Association (ACA), including Tusculum College. The schools use Sakai, software that professors and students access through their Web browsers. Sakai allows professors to set up courses and projects online and then collaborate with colleagues and students on coursework, research and other projects.

Dr. Estep added, “The LAMP consortium has provided enrichment to us technologically and through the relationships we have built with faculty at other institutions through this collaboration. We are delighted that the consortium has received a grant to replicate this model elsewhere.”

In recognizing the Appalachian College Association’s work in creating and leading the LAMP project, the MATC Award Committee noted the importance of new sustainability models to the long-term success of open and community source software initiatives,” said Ira Fuchs, Vice President for Research in Information Technology.

“ACA/LAMP has shown the higher education community that it is possible for institutions having limited resources to install, operate, and sustain even the most sophisticated software, provided that they work together to meet their common challenges.”

Tusculum College, the oldest college in Tennessee and the 28th oldest in the nation, is a civic arts institution committed to developing educated citizens distinguished by academic excellence, public service and qualities of Judeo-Christian character. About twenty-four hundred students are enrolled on the main campus in Greeneville and four off-site locations in East Tennessee. The academic programs for both traditional-aged students and working adults served through the Graduate and Professional Studies program are delivered using focused calendars whereby students enroll in one course at a time.