Evolving Evaluation: The Future of Faculty Development in the Digital Age

Published by: Russ Poulin | 4/8/2011 | 1 comments

Rumors There are rumors, hints, innuendos, and whispers floating around about the federal ‘state authorization’ regulation… A leader of a national organization (who had been in contact with the Department of Education on this issue) said that he thought there would be some changes in the regulation coming in the next month. At last week’s […]

Published by: Russ Poulin | 3/30/2011 | 2 comments

On Monday, the Presidents’ Forum of Excelsior College held a meeting in Washington, DC addressing the “Federalization of Higher Education.”  Other topics arose, but the main focus of the discussion was on the ‘state authorization’ regulation. While I was on the closing panel, by far the most interesting session was one that included Eduardo Ochoa, […]

Policy

Published by: Russ Poulin | 3/24/2011 | 4 comments

First a short musing on “train wrecks” followed by a couple requests of you.  We need your help on the impact of the ‘state authorization’ regulation on students and your outstanding questions about it. Speaking of Train Wrecks “Train Wreck.”   Yes, that was my quote in the Chronicle of Higher Education last week.  They asked […]

Published by: Russ Poulin | 3/17/2011 | 6 comments

The long-awaiting ‘Dear Colleague’ letter is now here.  The letter is meant to answer outstanding questions on this regulation.  Sometimes it succeeds and sometimes it fails. Eduardo Ochoa, Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education, reminds us that:  “this guidance is provided to assist institutions with understanding the changes to the regulations in these areas, and does […]

Published by: WCET Frontiers | 3/16/2011 | 5 comments

The 2010 Managing Online Education survey had a very disturbing finding considering that distance education has moved beyond its nascent years. We learned that many campuses do not have formal policies and procedures to assure that their online courses and programs are compliant with mandates of the American Disabilities Act (ADA).  More than a third […]

Published by: Russ Poulin | 3/10/2011 | 2 comments

House to Investigate ‘State Authorization’ Tomorrow, the U.S. House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training will hold a hearing titled “Education Regulations: Federal Overreach into Academic Affairs.”  We’ve heard that ‘state authorization’ is one of the issues that they will be addressing. John Ebersole, president of Excelsior College, and Ralph Wolff, president of the […]

Published by: Russ Poulin | 3/3/2011 | 0 comments

As of today, there are 119 days remaining until July 1, when the ‘state authorization’ regulation takes effect.  With less than four months to go, we are forced to split our attention in two directions. The first direction is “advocacy.”  We are working with many higher education organizations to advocate either a rescission of the […]

Published by: Russ Poulin | 2/24/2011 | 4 comments

I have had many conversations on this issue in the past week.  As institutions begin (or have begun) enrollment for the summer term, this issue has become very real.  Students enrolling for courses beginning in June will be in courses that continue past the deadline.  While July 1 is the implementation date, institutions are making […]

Published by: Russ Poulin | 2/14/2011 | 2 comments

Happy Valentines Day. There has been much action on the “state authorization” issue over the last couple weeks.  In late 2010, I had several people assure me that this issue was “not a problem.”  It has been fun to watch the light bulbs suddenly switch on over their heads.  For those new to the “state […]