New on WCET Frontiers
Policy
Reasonable Cause and Voluntary Membership: The Key Objectives When Institutions Wish to Change a Primary Accreditor
Published by: Megan Raymond | 7/27/2022
Today, WCET’s policy team shares important updates about guidance from the Department regarding approval for accreditation changes. Due to an important federal regulatory change that became effective July 1, 2020, which expanded formerly “regional accreditors” beyond specific geographic areas for […]
Policy
Department of Ed Change May Result in More Institutions Needing Distance Education Approvals from Accrediting Agencies
Published by: Lindsey Downs | 6/18/2021
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. Image by kalhh from Pixabay Sometimes at first look, we don’t […]
Practice
2020 Top 10 Frontiers Blog Posts
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 12/18/2020
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 […]
Practice
Financial Aid Basics
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 11/19/2020
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 […]
Practice
Recapping the 2020 Election: What Higher Education Can Expect
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 11/13/2020
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 […]
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
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 […]
Practice
Surprise! Newly Released Final Regulations
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 8/26/2020
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, […]
Practice
Another Magical July 1 – Federal Regulations Now in Effect
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 7/16/2020
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 […]
Practice
New Regulations Review #2: Credit Hour, Title IV Eligibility, & What Exactly is a Week?
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 4/6/2020
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 […]
Practice
New Regulations Review #1: Regular & Substantive Interaction
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 4/3/2020
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 […]