# Presentation: 729657

## Distance Education: Opportunities and Constraints

- U.S. Department of Education

## Overview

- The Context:  Distance Education in 2001
- Statutory & Regulatory Limitations
- Distance Education Demonstration Program

## Context:  Rapid Growth

- Large Number of Institutions Offer Courses
- Half of all postsecondary institutions
- Number of courses more than doubled in three years (95-98) from 25,730 to 54,470
- Enrollments also doubled, reaching 1.6 million in 1998
- 50% offer 15 or fewer
- 23% offer 1-5

## Context:  Rapid Growth

- Fewer Offer Degree Programs
- 10-12% offer full degree programs by DE
- Number of programs doubled from 95-98 from 690 degrees and 170 certificates to 1,190 degrees and 330 certificates
- All have high expectations

## Context:   Anytime, Anywhere

- Asynchronous programs provide flexibility
- Time and place
- When they begin their work
- How many units of work they might wish to undertake
- How long it takes them to complete a given unit of work
- When they wish to take vacations
-     or breaks

## Context: New Institutional Arrangements

- State-based Consortia
- 35 states and growing
- Marketing, cross registration, shared course development, specialized services
- Home and host institution
- Joint Degree Programs
- Degree Completion Programs

## Context:  New Institutional Types

- Proprietary Degree-Granting
- Serving adult students
- Regionally accredited
- Innovative and responsive
- May be publicly-traded
- Complex management structures
- 		Example  University of Phoenix

## Context: New Institutional Types

- Virtual Universities
- No on-site programs
- Response to great demand from adult learners in the workplace
- May not be degree-granting
- Serving individuals and corporations
- Accreditation issues
- 	Example:  Jones International University

## New Academic Structures

- Sequential courses -- year round
- Concurrent courses on different calendars
- Self-paced
- Frequent starts
- Overlapping terms
- Variable length modules
- Mix of on-campus and distance ed
- Competency-based approach

## Congressional Concerns

- Memory of the late 80’s and early 90’s
- Quality assurance
- Possibilities for fraud and abuse
- Aid requirements structured around traditional concepts of higher education
- Increase educational opportunities

## Statutory & Regulatory Limitations

- Note that the laws and regulations governing
- Title IV programs do not use the term “distance
- education” but rather use the terms
- “telecommunications” and “correspondence”

## Statutory & Regulatory Limitations

- _Telecommunications course_
- A course that is delivered primarily through the
- use of technology except that this does not
- include a course that is delivered using video
- cassette or disc recordings unless that course is
- also provided n the school’s campus
- during the same award year.

## Statutory & Regulatory Limitations

- _Correspondence Course_
- A “home study” course in which instructional
- materials are primarily paper-based and
- provided to students via the mail; and

## Statutory & Regulatory Limitations

- _Correspondence Course (continued)_
- A course in which instruction is provided via
- video cassettes or video discs unless the school
- also delivers the same course to students
- physically attending classes at the
- school during the same award year;
- and

## Statutory & Regulatory Limitations

- _Correspondence Course (continued)_
- A telecommunications course is considered a
- correspondence course if total
- telecommunications and correspondence
- courses is 50 percent or more of the total courses
- provided by that school during that award year;
- and

## Statutory & Regulatory Limitations

- _Correspondence Course (continued)_
- If a course is part correspondence and part
- residential it is considered to be a
- correspondence course.

## Statutory & Regulatory Limitations

- _Educational Program_
-  A school is not considered to provide an
- educational program if the school does not
- provide instruction itself, but merely gives
- credit for instruction provided by other
- schools; examinations provided by agencies
- or organizations; or other accomplishments
- such as “life experience.”

## Statutory & Regulatory Limitations

- _Bottom line_
- A school cannot contract out an entire program or
- establish a program that is made up entirely of
- courses that a student takes at another school ; or
- Offer a program based on credits earned by means of demonstrated competencies
-      without offering courses in that
-      program.

## Statutory & Regulatory Limitations

- Can not  contract out a program with another school or company - such as a publishing company, a truck driving company, a medical facility, etc. -  unless the school provides some courses towards the program itself.

## Statutory & Regulatory Limitations

- _Student Eligibility_
- A student is not eligible to receive Title IV aid for a
- correspondence course unless that course is part
- of a program leading to an associate, bachelor’s,
- or graduate degree.

## Statutory & Regulatory Limitations

- _Bottom Line_
- Correspondence study students enrolled in
- certificate programs are not eligible.

## Statutory & Regulatory Limitations

- _Cost of Attendance_
- For a student engaged in a program of study by
- correspondence, the student’s cost of attendance
- can include only tuition and fees and, if required,
- books and supplies, travel, and room and board
- costs incurred specifically in fulfilling
- a required period of residential
- training.

## Statutory & Regulatory Limitations

- _Bottom Line_
- Generally, there are no living expenses allowed
- for correspondence students.

## Statutory & Regulatory Limitations

- _Institutional Eligibility_
- Generally, a school is ineligible if --
- 1. More than 50% of the school’s courses are correspondence and/or telecommunications
- 	and/or
- 2. 50% or more of the school’s regular  enrolled students are enrolled in correspondence courses

## Statutory & Regulatory Limitations

- _Bottom Line_
- A schools in ineligible if more than 50% of its programs or students are enrolled in correspondence courses or programs
- (Rule - School is a sum of its eligible programs)

## Statutory & Regulatory Limitations

- Keep in mind that --
- A telecommunications course is considered a
- correspondence course if total
- telecommunications and correspondence courses
- is 50% or more of the total courses provided by
- that school during that award year.

## Statutory & Regulatory Limitations

- _Bottom Line_
- Virtual Universities are not eligible
- Schools with large numbers of distance
-      education students and/or programs may not be eligible
- Schools with large number of students enrolled in correspondence
-      programs may not be  eligible.

## Statutory & Regulatory Limitations

- _Student Enrollment Status_
- Regardless of the number of credits or hours a
- student is carrying, no student enrolled solely in
- correspondence study is considered more than a
- half-time student.

## Statutory & Regulatory Limitations

- _Bottom Line_
- Limits the amount of Pell Grant Program funds
- Limit on deferments under loan program.

## Enter the Distance Education Demonstration Program

## Statutory Purposes of Program

- Test quality and viability
- Increase access
- Help determine:
- Most effective means of delivering Distance Education
- Statutory and regulatory changes needed
- Appropriate level of student assistance

## Status of Program

- Began July 1, 1999 with 15 participants
- Ten new participants added July 1, 2001
- Waivers and PPA amendments
- Monitoring plan
- Data Collection
- Work with accrediting agencies

## Waivers Provided

- 50% rules
- Courses
- Students
- Telecommunications/  correspondence student
- Time requirements
- 30 week academic year
- Definition of a week of instruction

## Waivers Provided

- Correspondence student - halftime only
- Cost of attendance for correspondence student
- Satisfactory academic progress - consistent application
- Specified for Western Governors University

## New Approaches

- New methods of enrollment tracking
- Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium
- North Dakota University System
- Multiple Disbursements/Just in Time Delivery
- Colorado Community Colleges Online (CCCOnline) Consortium
- Western Governor’s University

## New Approaches

- Exclude living expenses from calculation of cost
-      of attendance
- Western Governor’s University
- LDS Church Educational System

## New Approaches

- Decouple credits from time
- Western Governors’ University
- Several participants with 12- hour rule waiver
- Individual academic plans
- Western Governors’ University

## New Approaches

- 2 Plus 2 programs
- Franklin University
- Washington State University and Washington Community Colleges
- Debt management
- LDS Church Educational System

## New Approaches

- State systems sharing enrollments
- Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium
- North Dakota University System
- Colorado Community Colleges Online (CCCOnline) Consortium
- Satisfactory academic progress
- Western Governors’ University
- Colorado Community Colleges Online (CCCOnline) Consortium

## Report to Congress

- Maps the terrain
- Recommends further experimentation with “student-based” delivery system
- Raises lots of questions
- Is available for your reading pleasure at
- 	http:// www.ed.gov/offices/OPE/PPI/DistDemo

## Questions Raised in the Report

- Should the HEA distinguish among various means of delivering education, either between distance education delivery methods, or between distance education and onsite educational delivery, for purposes of Title IV aid?

## Questions Raised in Report

- Should current rules governing the amount of distance education an eligible institution may provide be retained, modified or replaced?

## Questions Raised in Report

- Is there an alternative to the “12-hour rule” that would ensure that the amount of instruction is adequate in the variety of ways that academic activity is organized in distance education?

## Questions Raised in the Report

- Should the current rules that treat correspondence students differently from other students be retained, modified, or replaced?

## Questions Raised in the Report

- Are there additional waiver authorities that would improve the Demonstration Program and enable it to test more completely new approaches to administering aid?

## Contact us

- Kay Gilcher
- 	kay.gilcher@ed.gov
- 	202-502-7693
- Cheryl Leibovitz
- 	cheryl.leibovitz@ed.gov
- 	202-708-9900