This will include a technological platform that supports interactive video and other technologies to allow course delivery among the CIC campuses, a repository system for shared resources, standards for the interoperability and security of computer systems, and mechanisms that address potential revenues and copyrights. Faculty seeking to introduce learning technologies into existing courses will find that some of the work has already been done and there is no need to begin from scratch. In designing new collaborative projects, faculty can turn to the CIC for help resolving obstacles that may arise. Already the CIC universities are sharing general learning tools and resources. In the same way that the institutions are coordinating online access to their library holdings, individual faculty members and departments are placing their learning resources on the WorldWide Web where they are available for general access.
Digital images provide an excellent example.
The process of creating a collection of images can be time-consuming and expensive. Yet once the images are captured in digital format, they can be shared extensively for virtually no additional cost. Thus, a psychology class studying schizophrenia can access images of brain scans from a medical collection at one site and then in seconds move on to a collection of impressionist paintings housed at another site. A complex procedure that is costly to demonstrate could be made available through online video and downloaded at the convenience of interested faculty and students. Similarly, software developed at one CIC university may have broad application throughout the consortium.