The Southwest Regional Center for Advanced Technological Education is a collaboration among two-year colleges, four-year colleges and universities, industries, and Tech Prep consortia in West Central Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma to provide technical education in a vast rural region through distance education. The project is developing the infrastructure and the pedagogy to deliver many technical courses through distance learning. These include existing courses in CAD/CAM/CIM which are being converted for delivery via distance learning to two-year institutions and secondary school sites. Faculty at two-year colleges are working with the Department of Education at Texas Technical College to develop new instructional materials. In particular, the Center is developing new AAS programs in polymer technology and electro- mechanical technology to complement needs of industry in the area. Through an intensive effort at developing distance education and electronic networking in the consortium, the Center is enabling the member institutions to share their substantial resources, to deliver quality instruction throughout the area, and to exchange data and information rapidly and efficiently. This "center without walls" addresses the intertwined problems distance, expense, and limited resources inherent in delivering advanced technological education in such a large region. Its findings, strategies, tactics, materials, and methodologies constitute a significant contribution to technical education in the nation.
