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Content Details

ED464525 - Distance Education and Accreditation. ERIC Digest

Category
Executive Agency Publications
Collection
Education Reports from ERIC
SuDoc Class Number
ED 1.615:
Date Issued
December 1, 2001
Author
Loane , Shannon
Source Institution
ERIC Clearinghouse on Higher Education, Washington, DC
Sponsoring Agency
Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), Washington, DC
Publication Type
ERIC Publications - - ERIC Digests in Full Text
Subject
Accreditation (Institutions), Accrediting Agencies, Distance Education, Higher Education
Identifiers
ERIC Digests
Abstract
In 1997-1998, there were more than 1.3 million enrollments in college-level, credit-granting distance education courses; this is approximately double the almost 754,000 formal enrollments in 1994-1995. The number of courses offered also almost doubled, with the nearly 26,000 distance education courses offered by 2- and 4-year higher education institutions in 1994-1995 growing to more than 47,500 different college-level courses in 1997-1998. This rapid growth in distance education has created the potential for fraud and abuse. With so many courses and programs offered by so many providers, how can students determine which courses and programs are worthwhile and which ones are shams? This digest reviews information about distance education, discusses accreditation, the traditional method of determining the quality of higher education offerings in the U.S., and how accreditation is being applied to distance education today. Although the past five years have seen much controversy, debate, and uncertainty, it appears that the accreditation community has begun to adapt, in large and small ways, accreditation practices and standards and apply them to distance education programs and institutions. (Contains 19 references.).