Workforce Pell Final Rules: Turning Policy into Practice for the Digital Learning Community

Practice

Published by: WCET | 5/14/2026

Authored by Rae Mancilla, EdD, Executive Director of University Digital Education; Natalie Baney, MBA, Executive Director of Digital Enrollment; Anthony Delitto, PhD, Associate Provost of Digital Education; and University of Pittsburgh Center for Excellence in Digital Education (Pitt EDGE). Institutional Tradeoffs of Outsourcing the Online Enterprise Institutions of higher education have faced mounting fiscal pressures […]

Practice

Published by: WCET | 5/7/2026

A recent Washington Post article about online education, competency-based education, and accelerated degree programs elicited the comments you might expect. I lost count of those decrying such programs as degree mills. Not surprising. We continue to see a general misunderstanding of online education—even though the majority of students today are enrolled in at least one […]

Policy

Published by: WCET | 4/30/2026

For 15 years, the State Authorization Network has supported higher education institutions navigating the complexities of interstate compliance for distance education. SAN currently serves more than 975 institutions and organizations nationwide. What began as a response to emerging federal regulations in late 2010 has grown into a national community of practice, connecting professionals, shaping institutional approaches, and advancing shared understanding across an evolving regulatory landscape. This anniversary offers an opportunity to […]

Policy

Published by: WCET | 4/21/2026

It was a big week for federal higher education policy. Last week began with the launch of negotiated rulemaking for the Accreditation, Innovation, and Modernization (AIM) Committee, signaling a bold plan for reform on accreditation. It closed with two significant regulatory actions: the release of the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DoJ) interim final rule on digital accessibility and the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) proposed rules addressing accountability.   […]

Policy

Published by: WCET | 4/16/2026

Authored in collaboration with Cheryl Dowd, Senior Director, SAN & WCET Policy Innovations, Erika Swain, Assistant Director of Academic Compliance and Authorization, University of Colorado Boulder; and Mitchell Tiedman and Ella Reichard, University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado Law Clinic. The compliance challenges and negative outcomes that can arise around interstate distance education are well-documented: barriers […]

Practice

Published by: WCET | 4/9/2026

Over 1.85 million credentials are offered in the U.S. That number, from Credential Engine’s Counting Credentials 2025 report, is striking on its own. But the more important story is what those credentials tell us about how the credential marketplace is changing, and why getting the data infrastructure right has never mattered more.  Credential Engine’s research in the Counting Credentials report, […]

Practice

Published by: WCET | 4/8/2026

Institutional leaders are quickly realizing that “quality” isn’t an end-goal; instead, it’s an ongoing journey toward continued improvement. This idea, coupled with WCET’s commitment to supporting institutions as they face increasing pressure to innovate, is behind the launch of the new WCET Online Learning Quality Rubric Toolkit. The WCET Online Learning Quality Rubric Toolkit has […]

Practice

Published by: WCET | 4/2/2026

I came out of a graduate program that focused on research over teaching. I received one day of pedagogical training, which (because, as a historian, I was tapped to teach freshman composition) was half a day more than my peers. During my first few years of teaching, I floundered and struggled to find ways to […]

Practice

Published by: WCET | 3/26/2026

Recently, I was participating in a nationwide AI workgroup where someone suggested that the very phrase academic integrity is problematic. The argument was that it implies students lack integrity or are cheating when they use AI. In that same conversation, there was an undercurrent that anyone focused on integrity concerns might be a Luddite, someone […]