Policy
Department of Ed Change May Result in More Institutions Needing Distance Education Approvals from Accrediting Agencies
Published by: Lindsey Downs | 6/18/2021 | 0 comments
We are just now figuring out that both accrediting agencies and institutions may have more work ahead of them in meeting federal requirements regarding oversight of distance learning programs. Sometimes at first look, we don’t fully comprehend the impact that a change in regulation or Department of Education (the Department) guidance might have out in […]
Practice
2020 Top 10 Frontiers Blog Posts
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 12/18/2020 | 0 comments
It’s that time again – let’s take a look at 2020’s Top 10 Frontiers blog posts based on views by you, our readers! Thank you for your support of WCET Frontiers through your subscriptions, comments, sharing, and guest authoring! 2020 was a challenge for us all, but we hope our posts provided you with assistance, […]
Practice
Financial Aid Basics
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 11/19/2020 | 0 comments
The following special topic paper originally appeared in the publication Pursuing Regulatory Compliance for Digital Instruction in Response to Covid-19: Policy Playbook, which was published by the Every Learner Everywhere Network and develop and edited by WCET. The Playbook gives background on several regulations, resources to understand them, and recommendations on how to comply. Today, […]
Practice
Recapping the 2020 Election: What Higher Education Can Expect
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 11/13/2020 | 0 comments
The election of Donald Trump in 2016 significantly impacted higher education, perhaps more than any recent election. Citing her belief that “We must expand our thinking about what education actually is, as well as resist the urge to expect all students to follow the same track,” Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has presided over a […]
Practice
Did Your Course Go Digital Due to COVID-19? Playbook Advises on Regulations When Making the Switch
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 11/4/2020 | 0 comments
The spring 2020 term saw an unprecedented response to an unprecedented challenge as virtually every U.S. higher education institution offering face-to-face instruction rapidly switched to remote instruction, many in as little as one to two weeks and some in a few days. Institutions struggled to resolve challenges ranging from the technological to the pedagogical to […]
Practice
Surprise! Newly Released Final Regulations
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 8/26/2020 | 4 comments
On April 1st, the Department of Education released the final set of proposed regulations stemming from the 2019 Negotiated Rulemaking process (April Fools!). Back in April, WCET published three blog posts outlining the proposed regulations on April 3rd, April 6th, and April 13th. I know that seems like a lifetime ago but many of us […]
Practice
Another Magical July 1 – Federal Regulations Now in Effect
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 7/16/2020 | 0 comments
July 1 is that magical day when Federal Regulations affecting institutions that participate in Title IV federal financial aid programs become effective for regulations that were released by the U.S. Department of Education by November 1 of last year. The purpose of this timing is for financial aid offices at institutions to have time to […]
Practice
New Regulations Review #2: Credit Hour, Title IV Eligibility, & What Exactly is a Week?
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 4/6/2020 | 5 comments
On April 1st, the Department of Education finally released the last set of regulations from its epic 2019 negotiated rulemaking process. On April 3rd WCET posted an analysis of proposed changes to the definition of distance education including (finally) a proposed definition of regular and substantive interaction. Today we are examining several other aspects of […]
Practice
New Regulations Review #1: Regular & Substantive Interaction
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 4/3/2020 | 4 comments
Much to everyone’s surprise, the Department of Education finally released the last set of regulations from last year’s negotiated rulemaking for public comment on April 1st (and it wasn’t an April Fool’s Day joke—we checked). This post will examine the proposed changes to the distance education and credit hour definitions. We’ll have another post early […]
Practice
Not Fooling – A Third Package of Proposed Regs Has Arrived
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 4/1/2020 | 3 comments
**Update: On 4/2/2020, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it amended the public comment period timeline. The text below has been updated to reflect this update.** The third package has arrived! In the midst of managing rapid conversion of face-to-face courses to online to maintain academic continuity during a pandemic, we received the third […]