Unit 3
Policy
in Distance Education
Objectives:
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Commentary
I have
done a quick summary of each of the articles for this policy unit.
They cover a wide variety of policy issues but by no means all of them.
The Kovel-Jarboe policy article is on moving from the margin to the
mainstream. The beginning of the article talks about how distance
education doesn't fit into most state policies. I can tell you I have
worked with this issue first hand as I have been on the coordinating committee
for the Electronic University Consortium for the regental institutions.
The main question is who are the stakeholders and how do they affect the five
policy clusters mentioned in the article.
Partnerships are the key in the Spears and Tatroe article.
Developing language for policy and procedures among partners can be a
daunting task. It is important to keep the lines of communication open.
Developing and maintaining partnerships is time consuming but having a
good working partnership is worth the time and effort, especially in these days
of declining resources.
The Dallet and Opper article is a good case study to describe the issue
of limited or shrinking resources and not enough funding to provide technical
answers to the issues. Another issue that appeared in this article is the
difference between the students' concepts of technology and those of the
faculty/administration. It demonstrates the need for distance education
and secondary/higher education administration to keep up on technology. Is
this an issue in your program?
The
Gellman-Danley article talks about one the most important issues in distance
education, that of standards and accreditation. There are way too many
"diploma mills" on the Web today. It is so easy to create a virtual
institution. One example, that has had its home base in South Dakota, is
Trinity College and University. You can check it out at www.trinity-college.edu/.
You can receive a certificate for $175, an associate degree for $375, and a bachelor degree for
$795. I worked with Don Jorgenson, at KELO TV, to
expose this diploma mill, that had its base in Sioux Falls. Last year the
state legislators passed a bill to keep non-accredited institutions out of the
state. At one point there were 20 diploma mills in the state because we
had no legislation to prohibit them. Last
summer I did an interview on the issues
related to the diploma mills for the Argus Leader.
It
is important when you look at any institution to check its accreditation and
make sure it is accredited by a regional accrediting agency. Trinity has
set up its own accrediting agency, www.aoaex.org.
Many of the institutions it lists on its accrediting page are valid institutions
and many are fighting to get their names off the list. Dakota State had
been on the list with several other South Dakota institutions but we finally
have our names removed from the list.
The
article lists several good practices you can review. I have provided the
URL for the Western Cooperative Best Practices document, www.wiche.edu/telecom/Article1.htm.
The best practices document is in PDF format and is 16 pages long.
Copyright
and intellectual property issues are very important to both distance education
faculty and administrators. The current copyright policy for Dakota State
uses the fair use guidelines until all legal determinations have been made for
distance education. What type of policy does your organization have?