To start development of a collaborative educational network, we propose these actions (act now and commit to fine-tuning and midcourse corrections as we go):

• Networking stage
  • Inform all potential stakeholders about this plan and invite them to participate.
    Potential stakeholders are veterinary schools, AAVMC, NAVMEC, veterinary associations (AVMA, AAHA +) worldwide.
  • Gather development team: We need experts to cover all aspects of this project and at least one highly respected/influential eLearning experienced expert.
  • Summarize tools and know-how  all potential stakeholders have.
• Administrative stage:
  • Infrastructures and equipment. Find a Moodle hosting solution. Moodle can be hosted ‘in house’ or a commercial Moodle hosting solution can be used.
  • Install and customize a Moodle community hub.
  • Create an example of a  course that can be shared.
  • Training. Initiate a teacher/trainer training program. Great programs already exist, so we can start with one pre-existing program.
  • Design Personal Learning/Working environment – to ease collaboration and training.
  • Prepare fundraising plan (sponsors, fees, advertising).
  • Create manuals for administrators.
• Progressive stage:
  • Promote idea through social media: start a Facebook group, describe project at Wikipedia, tweet about it . . .
  • Contact all potential partners and organizations leaders as an Open Courseware Consortium to gather all knowledge and support we can.
  • Prepare more detailed strategic plan (mission, vision, structure, hosting, consulting, training and support . . .).
  • Present the detailed plan publicly in at least a blog and wiki format and invite all relevant experts to participate in the development. Ask for, propose and promote new ideas.
  • Organize support services.
• Transformative stage:
  • Propose a list of desired features for each course that will be shared through the Consortium.
  • Organize an official conference where the plan will be presented and discussed as soon as the framework is defined.
  • Collect all available online courses and share them.
  • Benchmark.
• Continuous development with motto: act now and commit to fine-tuning and midcourse corrections as we go – as noted in The National Educational Technology Plan 2010 (Office of Educational Technology, U.S. Department of Education, 2010)

Action research – Map

Action research is a progressive and reflective problem-solving process led by individuals working with others in teams. It combines collaborative problem-solving with data-driven collaborative analysis or research. Action research provides a better understanding of underlying causes enabling better management of personal and organizational changes. We propose this action research map: