New on WCET Frontiers
Policy
SAN Releases a New “How To” Handbook to Build an Institution’s State-to-State Authorization Plan
Published by: WCET | 9/18/2025
The State Authorization Network (SAN) is excited to share SAN’s newest comprehensive resource, the State-to-State Institutional Approval for Distance Education Handbook, developed in partnership with Shari Miller, Institutional Compliance MATTERS. This handbook is the third major SAN report designed to demystify complex compliance requirements when institutions offer interstate opportunities, whether through online courses or experiential […]
Practice
Cutting through the Framework Fog
Published by: WCET | 9/11/2025
It comes as no surprise that Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping higher education. Much of what is emerging from the field relates to AI, whether it is news about technological advancements or questions about how we should use it. Alongside these, a wave of AI literacy frameworks has emerged, each offering its own definitions, competencies, […]
Practice
WCET’s Accessibility Project: Progress, but Not yet Perfection
Published by: WCET | 9/4/2025
WCET has always taken accessibility seriously. When we updated our website in 2021, we worked diligently to ensure that all content, including PDFs, adhered to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, AA standards. We worked with WebAIM a few years after the website’s launch to ensure that our web-based content still complied with those standards. […]
Practice
Breaking Down Walls
Published by: WCET | 8/28/2025
Imagine a student who relies on a screen reader to navigate their course or descriptive audio to better understand and follow video recordings. For that student, accessibility is a necessity. Thirty-five years ago, America made a commitment to that student when President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) on a hot […]
Policy
Insights into AI’s Transformative Role in Higher Education: WCET’s 2025 Survey
Published by: WCET | 8/21/2025
Artificial Intelligence is no longer a distant possibility on the higher education horizon. It’s here. And it is reshaping how institutions operate, teach, and support learners (in fact, I’d say it is changing the way most places operate, whether they’re ready for it or not). Since WCET’s first AI survey in 2023, the pace of […]
Policy
Your Opportunity to Inform the Department of ED: New Rulemaking Impact on Digital Learning
Published by: WCET | 8/13/2025
Another year, another round of U.S. Department of Education Negotiated Rulemaking, and once again, the results could have a big impact on students and the institutions serving them through distance education. On July 25, 2025, the Department released Public Hearing; Negotiated Rulemaking Committees. Two committees will be formed to develop future regulations affecting Title IV […]
Policy
Understanding the Trump Administration’s Educational AI Policies
Published by: WCET | 8/11/2025
On July 22nd, the White House released its national AI action plan, and, on the same day, the Department of Education followed up with the release of both a Dear Colleague Letter on the use of federal funds for Artificial Intelligence (AI) as well as a call for public comment on the Secretary’s supplemental priority […]
Practice
Securing Support, Building Trust: Why Buy-In Matters in Compliance
Published by: WCET | 7/31/2025
When it comes to institutional change and implementing new processes, gaining buy-in for the plan is critical. In 2022, a team at the University of Memphis (UM) made this strategy their priority. This unfolded when UM officials realized its need to rapidly transition from the Desire2Learn (D2L) Learning Management System (LMS) to the Instructure/Canvas platform. […]
Practice
Generative AI in the Curriculum: A Call for Coordinated Integration
Published by: WCET | 6/12/2025
As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in our personal and professional lives, higher education must take a strategic, coordinated approach to help students develop essential AI literacies. In this timely post, Gloria Niles, WCET Steering Committee Vice Chair, and the Director of Online Learning with the University of Hawai’i System, reflects on the 2025 EDUCAUSE […]
Practice
Staying the Course: Putting Students at the Center
Published by: WCET | 6/5/2025
Back before the pandemic, I embarked on a western U.S. camping trip I lovingly referred to as my “midlife crisis trip.” One of the few national parks I got to visit before the pandemic forced me back home was Zion National Park in southwestern Utah. If you’ve spent any time at Zion, you are likely […]