According to a January proposal outlining suggested changes to the Higher Education Act of 1965, the department wants to establish a virtual location for institutions and their distance-learning, or remote, students so it can more easily gather data on those programs and compare their outcomes. The department did not specify whether it intended to create such a virtual location or ask universities to create their own, and it declined to answer questions on the record or grant requests for an interview. The department’s proposal also suggested changing the rules so that colleges and universities can no longer provide “clock-hour programs,” or timed one-hour classes, asynchronously. In other words, in order to qualify for federal aid, any clock-hour programs would have to allow students to interact with the instructor and keep students learning and attending on the same schedule.
The department also proposed changing its definitions of what constitutes an “additional location” for instruction, which currently includes physically separate facilities and correctional institutions that host educational programs, to include virtual locations where 100 percent of a program is taught.
The proposed changes were the subject of a negotiated rulemaking session from Jan. 8-11, which focused on program integrity and accreditation for distance education programming and allowed department officials to answer questions and discuss changes with educators, education advocacy groups, accreditation organizations and other stakeholders. The department released transcripts from this session on Jan. 31.
Additional sessions to discuss and refine proposed rule changes on distance learning issues will take place later this month, with the final sessions scheduled for March 4-7, according to a department news release.
