{"id":1448,"date":"2020-10-26T10:30:12","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T15:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ele.local\/?p=1448"},"modified":"2021-02-19T16:17:03","modified_gmt":"2021-02-19T22:17:03","slug":"the-regulatory-issues-administrators-are-thinking-about-while-faculty-design-online-courses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everylearnereverywhere.org\/es\/blog\/the-regulatory-issues-administrators-are-thinking-about-while-faculty-design-online-courses\/","title":{"rendered":"The Regulatory Issues Administrators Are Thinking About While Faculty Design Online Courses"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Idea in brief:<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

This article aims to help college and university faculty understand the complex regulatory issues that new distance learning programs must account for. It summarizes for faculty a new comprehensive policy playbook written for administrators<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

While college and university faculty are planning new courses and programs, they may not be aware that administrators are anticipating how they must guide the program through a maze of complex regulatory requirements. This is especially important as virtually every higher education institution is reworking its educational model in substantial ways in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

Because it has been necessary to launch online courses and programs quickly, many (but not all) regulatory requirements have been waived or temporarily suspended, but administrators have to maintain documentation of the changes they are making and may eventually have to submit these programs for regulatory review.<\/p>\n

The numerous organizations that colleges and universities must answer to can be summarized as the \u201cregulatory triad.\u201d This model is presented in a new policy publication, Pursuing Regulatory Compliance for Digital Instruction in Response to COVID-19: Policy Playbook<\/a>. This comprehensive 74-page guide was developed by WCET \u2014 The WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies<\/a>, in partnership with Every Learner Everywhere\u00ae.<\/p>\n

The playbook covers accreditation, federal financial aid rules, state authorization, professional licensure, course-level record-keeping requirements, and student civil rights. In each section readers will find a guide to common regulations, whether or not they are suspended or waived in response to the COVID-19 crisis, the potential impact on the institution of noncompliance, and recommended procedures that institutions put in place during this transition to digital learning. It also includes a guide to helpful resources.<\/p>\n

For a quick illustration of how the regulatory issues can matter to an institution, imagine a traditional face-to-face program that is transitioning to online delivery and consider these two questions: In the new format, does how often an instructor and a student interact directly change, and does the process for keeping records of student attendance change? If so, each of those can have far-reaching ripple effects on the regulatory issues that higher education administrators manage.<\/p>\n

While the playbook is written for administrators, this article summarizes its content for faculty to help them understand how their curricular design \u2014 particularly when it involves distance learning \u2014 will ultimately intersect with the regulatory issues administrators focus on.<\/p>\n

The regulatory triad<\/b><\/h4>\n

In theory, a college or university can launch any kind of program it wishes and let the market judge if it is a quality program. In practice, however, an academic program is unlikely to succeed if academic credits from that program aren\u2019t recognized elsewhere and if students can\u2019t use federal financial aid money to pay for it.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where a stamp of approval from outside reviewers comes in. Accrediting agencies reassure employers, graduate schools, and licensing bodies that graduates came from a quality program. The U.S. Department of Education (ED) ensures that a program is eligible to receive a student\u2019s financial aid dollars.<\/p>\n

Every region and state in the U.S. has a slightly different mix of agencies that govern higher education, but the policy playbook uses the \u201cregulatory triad\u201d to illustrate the combination of federal regulators, accreditors, and state regulators that are generally involved.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Education (the Department)<\/b>:\u00a0 The Department has two key roles. First, it ensures the integrity of the $54 billion financial aid system by reviewing for institutional compliance with financial aid regulations. In that role, it looks primarily at institutional capacity and financial responsibility.<\/p>\n

Second, it has approval oversight of the system of independent accrediting agencies that assess quality. The Department doesn\u2019t review academic quality directly.<\/p>\n

Accrediting agencies<\/b>: Accreditors oversee academic quality at the institutional level.<\/p>\n

The standards used by accrediting agencies vary, but the Department only recognizes an agency if it adheres to a set of minimum standards. Occasionally, the Department ceases recognition of an accrediting agency<\/a>, putting in jeopardy the financial aid of students attending all the colleges and universities accredited by that agency.<\/p>\n

Many professional associations also deliver program-level accrediting that a department within a college or university may choose to participate in. Some programmatic accreditations are required in programs leading to professional licensure such as nursing, medicine, education, and law. Other program-level accreditations that are available may not be required but are pursued as a marker of excellence and to give strategic direction to the program.<\/p>\n

States<\/b>: Each U.S. state sets its own laws for ensuring consumer protection. In order to receive federal financial aid, institutions must be authorized to do business in the state or states in which they operate. (See more below on how regulations impact an online program serving students in multiple states.)
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Credit:\u00a0Pursuing Regulatory Compliance for Digital Instruction in Response to COVID-19: Policy Playbook<\/a>, WCET, WCET SAN, and WICHE in partnership with Every Learner Everywhere\u00ae, 2020<\/em><\/p>\n

Between these three legs in the triad, under normal circumstances, college and university programs are frequently examined, sometimes by more than one body, for their quality, alignment around mission, financial viability, governance structure, and administrative procedures.<\/p>\n

In this period of accelerated change to how education is delivered, administrators must still account for a large number of regulatory requirements. The rest of this article outlines a sample of them.<\/p>\n

Institutional and programmatic accreditation of distance learning<\/b><\/h4>\n

The approval to offer distance education is usually a multi-step process that involves the institution\u2019s accreditor as well as the Department. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, the Department granted broad approval of distance learning through December 31, 2020.<\/p>\n

However, colleges and universities must still contact their accrediting agency to determine if they have any other conditions that an institution must meet before adapting an existing program to an online format or launching a new program.<\/p>\n

And no one can say what will happen after this waiver period when, presumably, most new distance programs will still be offered. In anticipation of that period, the policy playbook advises colleges and universities to:<\/p>\n