ABSTRACT
This chapter describes some of the author's experiences as an academic employed by a private sector company, Smarthinking, Inc., which is an Internet-based learning assistance provider. While employed for Smarthinking as its first Online Writing Program Director, he discovered how similar the goals of private sector, 'for-profit' educational enterprises can be to academic efforts within a state-supported or privately owned college or university setting. The chapter suggests that interdependency between the academy and private sector educational enterprises creates a synergistic juncture where academic teaching and research skills can enhance such private sector efforts, and where educational enterprises originating in the private sector similarly can benefit the academy and its students. A variety of models exist for partnership between the academy and private sector. Perhaps the most common model is that of textbook and software publishers, who partner with English studies professionals to develop both textual and technology-based educational materials and programs.
