Using an experiential case approach, this study explores the conventional wisdom that distance education courses require greater faculty work effort and time commitment than traditionally taught courses. The study's basis for analysis is an instructor's time and effort in developing and delivering a graduate-level course in public administration, for both a distance course (a modality with which he had no previous experience) and his traditional classroom courses. The study finds support for the conventional wisdom. But it also suggests hypotheses for future comparative analysis that development and delivery time and effort may partially depend on the accumulation of instructor experience and the level of institutional support. This article also identifies some implications for future research and faculty participation in distance education.

This article examines the debate over metropolitan governmental form and the applicability of the reform-consolidation and market-public choice models to understanding the reality of how interlocal governmental relations operate in urban regions. These form-based models are found to be deficient as useful and inductively empirical paradigms for examining the day-to-day interplay of interlocal relations. The author presents an alternative model that posits that urban political and organizational cultures and their influence on the roles and behavior of local officials, especially administrators, may be more driving explanatory factors in interlocal relations than governmental form.

This article compares the opposite fates of two voluntary regional councils in similar substate regions of Michigan and evaluates their effectiveness as planning mechanisms of the new regionalism. Organizational development strategies and consensus building drove the survival and partial success of one council but reduced its policy effectiveness. A climate of mistrust emanating from virulent localism and idiosyncratic events undercut the other council’s organizational capacity and policy effectiveness and led to its demise. Implications of these cases as “weak” examples of new regionalism are discussed.

The economic development profession has called for expanding college degree programs to prepare practitioners for tomorrow's challenges. However, the nature and effectiveness of the academy's response will be determined by market-related issues of demand and supply, the degree of congruence between the academy and the profession about the content of program curricula, and the level of participation by all appropriate stakeholders in curriculum development, to ensure its relevancy for practice. This study of graduate economic development education in the Great Lakes region reveals that (1) market demand may be limited, (2) congruence in curriculum content is lacking, and (3) some stakeholders, capable of providing valuable feedback for program efficacy and relevancy, do not participate in curriculum development. Consequently, this approach to expanding the economic development education network may not be as promising as the profession might hope. Several action principles to enhance prospects for success are recommended.

No abstract