Evaluation Standards Revamped

Training & Development, Jan, 2001 by Donna J. Abernathy

New guidelines for evaluating U.S. distance education programs are expected to be in final form this month.

Previous guidelines of the regional accreditors--circa 1996--focused mostly on televised courses. The accrediting agencies decided to update them in response to the growth of online learning. Add to that the increased phenomena of institutions entering into partnerships to share technology and courses. That can make it difficult to apply traditional accreditation standards, says David B. Wolf, chairman of the Council of Regional Accrediting Commissions, the group that hired the Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications to create the draft guidelines.

According to Sally Johnstone, director of the WCET, the new guidelines "focus on student learning instead of institutional preferences. We view technology as a tool that can really enable people to learn in their own way.

The draft plan, finished in September, is now in the hands of the regional accrediting agencies. They decide whether to accept the guidelines and how to apply them to their own standards, according to Wolf. The guidelines are meant to be broad so they can maintain quality without putting a stranglehold on institutional creativity, he says.