New on WCET Frontiers
Ensuring Quality in Alternative Higher Education: Quality Matters’ Perspectives
Published by: WCET | 5/20/2015
Today we learn with Deb Adair, Managing Director and Chief Planning Officer, Quality Matters and Julie Porosky Hamlin, Executive Director, MarylandOnline; Member, Quality Matters Board of Directors their perspective on quality assurance for alternative higher education. Thank you Deb and Julie for […]
Practice
CCCOnline Finds Success in Six-week Intensive Courses
Published by: WCET | 5/13/2015
As of summer 2014 CCCOnline has been offering 6-week intensive courses. These have shown great promise in terms of student interest, student success/retention, and instructor satisfaction. Before I embark on this journey we’ve been on, first a little background on […]
State Authorization “On Ground” Rule: No More Delays, More Confusion to Come
Published by: WCET | 5/5/2015
The final state authorization deadline for “on ground” programs approaches quickly A U.S. Department of Education regulation that outlines steps states must take in overseeing institutions within their own boundaries will take effect on July 1 of this year. It […]
Practice
Breaking Bad: Improving College and University Teaching
Published by: WCET | 4/22/2015
Tony Bates has had a distinguished career promoting distance learning and open learning and content initiatives around the world. Today Tony shares with us his latest book – an online, open textbook – as a resource for those teaching in our current digital […]
DEAC Announces Peer Review Process for Non-traditional Distance Ed Providers
Published by: WCET | 4/16/2015
How do students judge the quality of distance education courses? The Distance Education Accrediting Commission’s (DEAC) new quality review process helps students to make that evaluation. Traditional colleges have accreditation. Accrediting agencies traditionally provide peer-review evaluations to (according to the […]
NANSLO Web-based Labs: Real Equipment, Real Data, Real People!
Published by: WCET | 4/7/2015
Many pressures on higher education make the services of the North American Network of Science Labs Online (NANSLO) essential. These include growing enrollments in online courses while campus enrollments decline, the need to provide flexibility for nontraditional students, a growing […]
What Can Happen If I Don’t Follow State Authorization Regulations?
Published by: WCET | 3/24/2015
Those of us in WCET’s State Authorization Network (SAN) and in the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (NC-SARA) leadership often get asked the questions: “Does anyone really enforce ‘state authorization’ in the U.S.?” “Why don’t I read in the higher education […]
Practice
IPEDS Fall 2013: Less than Half of Fully Distant Students Come from Other States
Published by: WCET | 3/12/2015
This is the third in a series of three blog posts examining the 2013 IPEDS Fall Enrollment survey and its counts of distance education enrollments. The first blog focused on the 2013 survey statistics and the second compared the growth […]
Practice
IPEDS Fall 2013: Higher Ed Sectors Vary Greatly in Distance Ed Enrollments
Published by: WCET | 3/5/2015
This is the first of a series of posts providing insight on data regarding enrollments in distance education that was released by the U.S. Department of Education earlier this year. Terri Taylor Straut crunched the data for WCET. Terri has […]
Defining a Research Agenda for Distance Education
Published by: WCET | 2/10/2015
Thank you to Tanya Joosten, Laura Pedrick, and Diane Reddy for inviting me to a summit to kick-off the new National Research Center for Distance Education and Technological Advancements. Operated by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, DETA (as they have thankfully […]