New on WCET Frontiers

Policy
New SARA Reciprocity Policy Modification Process Yields Proposals Intended to Increase Student Protections
Published by: Lindsey Downs | 3/21/2023
Providing uniform consumer protection for distance education students located in all member states is a hallmark of the interstate reciprocity agreement known as the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (SARA). States that chose to join the agreement, often through state legislation […]

Policy
New Federal Aid Rules Drop Proposed Change to “Distance Education” & Expand Pell Grants to Incarcerated Students
Published by: Lindsey Downs | 11/2/2022
Image by David Mark from Pixabay ‘Tis the season for all things pumpkin, brisk mornings, and the release of new U.S. Department of Education final regulations! WCET and the State Authorization Network (SAN) have been closely following and reporting about […]

Policy
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: Time to Review Proposed Regulations & Consider Public Comment
Published by: Lindsey Downs | 8/3/2022
July brought us the next chapter chronicling the U.S. Department of Education rulemaking process. WCET and the State Authorization Network (SAN) have been following the rulemaking process, which began with the preview of the second Biden administration negotiated rulemaking committee, […]

Policy
What’s Happened to Those Federal Regs on Professional Licensure and Reciprocity?
Published by: Lindsey Downs | 6/24/2022
Publication of the Department of Education’s proposed professional licensure and reciprocity rules will be delayed until 2023. In March we alerted you to two proposed changes to U.S. Department of Education regulations from its Negotiated Rulemaking process earlier this year. […]

Policy
Federal Policy Surprises! Updates and a Call to Action
Published by: WCET Frontiers | 2/22/2022
How many of you like surprises? Surprises can be great fun, but let’s be clear that rulemaking surprises are sometimes more like encountering the clown from IT. Not to be left out, Congress is also providing its own surprise so […]

Policy
2022 Digital Learning Policy Preview, Part 1: U.S. Department of Education Negotiated Rulemaking
Published by: WCET Frontiers | 1/26/2022
The self-proclaimed “policy nerds” at WCET and WCET/SAN began looking forward to 2022, and we started to marvel at all the policy issues for digital learning in higher education that will be in play this year. Some significant changes for […]

Practice
2021 Top WCET Frontiers Blog Posts
Published by: ewalton | 12/16/2021
WCET staff–thank you for your on-going support of the WCET Frontiers blog. Over the holidays, we wanted to offer you the chance to review posts that you may have missed but had been popular with your peers. Rather than evoking […]

Policy
One Year Anniversary of the Federal Regulations for Professional Licensure Notifications – How are you Celebrating?
Published by: Lindsey Downs | 7/1/2021
Maybe it is a little cheeky to say celebrating, but we are all on this crazy journey together to manage these institutional requirements. The federal regulations require notifications in order for institutions to participate in Title IV HEA programs, and […]

Practice
Unprecedented Times Surprised Some Institution Staff with State Regulatory Compliance Requirements
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 11/10/2020
These unprecedented times raised regulatory compliance challenges that may have surprised some institution personnel. However, some of these regulatory compliance challenges were not actually unprecedented. The COVID-19 pandemic induced institutions to shift from in-person to remote instruction. As a result, […]

Practice
Institutional Accreditation in the Midst of COVID-19
Published by: Lindsey Rae Downs | 11/6/2020
In response to the pandemic, accrediting agencies acted creatively in applying their quality assurance processes in an uncertain and changing world. Today’s guest post provides insights about how one accrediting agency (the Higher Learning Commission) responded to this challenge and […]