Boulder, Colorado — The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) has been awarded a $550,000 grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York for a pilot project that will focus on the college transfer process. Inefficiencies in the transfer process can create major stumbling blocks for students trying to earn a degree. The Interstate Passport Initiative will attack the transfer problem at an interstate level, with the goal of improving graduation rates, shortening time to degree, and saving students money. Institutions in five Western states—California, Hawaii, North Dakota, Oregon, and Utah—will participate.

Boulder, Colorado — The North American Network of Science Labs Online (NANSLO) has been awarded a grant from Next Generation Learning Challenges, an initiative working to improve U.S. college readiness and completion, especially among low-income individuals, by identifying and accelerating the growth of effective education technology. The 15-month project, funded at just under $750,000 and including a consortium of institutions in the Western U.S. and Canada, aims to add a powerful new component to online science courses: students will have access to a remotely located science lab and the ability to control remote instrumentation, allowing them to perform experiments, practice scientific observation, and conduct data analysis, as students in classroom-based courses do.