Balancing Quality and Access: Reducing State Policy Barriers to Electronically Delivered Higher Education Programs

Purpose

Problems of access to higher education are most often associated with issues of race or economic status. In the western states, however, these problems are compounded by geography. There, even well prepared students are often stymied by the difficulty of getting themselves to the classroom where what they want to learn is being taught. In the case of individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, the added obstacles of distance and weather often prove insurmountable.

It is hardly surprising, then, that western states have emerged as leaders in distance education, developing a sophisticated telecommunications infrastructure over the last two decades. The approach to distance learning, however, varies greatly from state to state. Some states envision distance learning strictly as a means of serving students in outlying areas, while others have created major statewide programs and still others have specifically designated certain institutions as providers of distance education.

The policies regulating this multitude of options, especially when offered by out-of-state providers, are just as varied. While some states require only registration of out-of-state programs, for example, others insist that such programs be licensed. Many others waive the licensing requirements if the programs are offered by an accredited institution. To complicate matters further, when the Balancing Quality and Access Project was conceived there existed no agreed-upon criteria for assessing distance learning, and the procedures of regional accreditation associations and state regulatory bodies were not coordinated.

Clearly, if students were to take full advantage of the flood of advances in distance education, it was necessary to address the barriers imposed by interstate policy, and especially the need for standards with which to judge the quality of these programs. That is what this project intended to achieve.

Once the project began, however, it became apparent that the question of interstate policies was less crucial than it had first appeared. For while it is theoretically possible to control the offerings of an out-of-state institution if they are received at, for example, a local community college, at home students can have unlimited access to programs on cable television or on the Internet. As a result, many states accept all out-of-state programs offered by accredited institutions.

In addition, the decision by the Western Governors’ Association to develop a virtual institution, the Western Governors’ University, offered a means of addressing the issue of interstate compatibility in the future. The university, which will eventually award its own credentials based on outcome assessments, will function as a regional broker of courses, learning modules, and degree programs offered by colleges, universities and companies, thus eliminating all barriers to interstate distance education.

At the same time, as they began to play a more important role in helping states to approve out-of-state distance education (12 of the 15 WICHE states used accreditation as the principal criterion for granting approval), the regional accrediting associations became more interested in assessing the quality of distance education. The accrediting agencies looked to this project to help establish specific distance education standards.

While the concern over interstate regulatory policies diminished, however, the need to ensure quality in programs made available through technology became preeminent. The project’s creators realized that their most significant task would be to help learners to evaluate and select distance education programs. Hence, the project’s new focus became such questions as whether or how a student engaged in distance learning would have direct access to faculty, what kind of academic advising and support services would be available to him, and whether he could count on the originating institution’s commitment to offer the program for as long as he required it.

Innovative Features

The project’s originators began by documenting existing state regulations and practices about degree programs delivered electronically from out of state. They surveyed and interviewed personnel of state higher education regulatory and governing offices and reported the results in a publication entitled When Distance Education Crosses State Lines: Western States’ Policies.

Project staff then proceeded to develop the "Principles of Good Practice for Electronically Offered Academic Degree and Certificate Programs." They achieved this through a consultative process, circulating and revising drafts in the light of comments from the WICHE Advisory Board, the regional accrediting agencies, and state higher education executive officers in the western states. State higher education agencies in turn distributed drafts to local colleges and universities, and WICHE disseminated preliminary versions of the principles through its paper and electronic media.

The principles, which address entire programs rather than individual courses, are based on the assumption that the institution and its electronic curricula are accredited by a nationally recognized accrediting body. The principles cover curriculum and instruction, evaluation, and institutional context and commitment—including institutional role and mission, faculty support, resources for learning, student services, and commitment to distance learning programs.

Project Impact

The Principles of Good Practice have become the basis for national agreement on the standards for education delivered through technology. They have been endorsed by state agencies, regional higher education groups, and the regional accrediting associations.

Eight western states—Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota and Washington—have in various ways incorporated the principles into their review and approval processes for in-state programs. The Western Legislators’ Conference passed a resolution encouraging member states to consider adopting the principles as the basis for in-state assessments. The Western Governors’ University will stipulate that all whose courses and programs are to be listed in the WGU online catalog must certify their adherence to the principles.

The impact of the principles has been felt outside the West as well. The Southern Regional Education Board adopted a set of principles for participation in its Electronic Common Market with wording almost identical to the Principles of Good Practice developed by this project. The regional accrediting associations’ national Task Force on Distance Learning endorsed the principles, as did all individual regional accrediting commissions, most of which included the principles in their handbooks.

Seventeen out of 19 professional associations contacted by project staff requested information and are considering incorporating the principles into their standards policies. The National Association of State Approving Agencies also adopted the principles’ basic philosophy, and Virtual College, a publication designed to accompany Peterson’s Guide to Colleges and Universities, endorses the principles as tools for judging quality.

Lessons Learned

California, whose rules governing out-of-state providers have long been among the strictest in the West, is closing down its state licensing and regulatory agency. This development confirms the project staff’s belief that across the nation future efforts will focus on educating students about their choices rather than on attempting to regulate program providers.

Dissemination and Recognition

It was a major goal of the project to have the principles become the standard for discussions of quality in distance education, both in the West and throughout the country. To ensure this, staff mailed a one-page brochure on the principles to WICHE commissioners, to other regional higher education organizations, to state higher education executive and administrative officers, to college and university presidents, and to the initiators of the Western Governors’ University.

Project staff published articles in Changeand other magazines, made conference presentations, contacted professional accrediting associations, and educated students with two booklets, entitled Distance Education: A Consumer’s Guide—What Learners Need To Know, and Good Practices in Distance Education. Numerous requests for copies of the principles led to a second stage of dissemination as recipients incorporated the principles into their own work and republished them in journals and newsletters.

Available Information

Additional information may be obtained from:

Sally M. Johnstone
Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications
P.O. Box 9752
Boulder, CO 80301-9752
Telephone: 303-541-0232

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