Legislators, trustees, chancellors and presidents have not, by and large, conceptualized the powerful new technologies and their potential to reach distance and campus-based learners as an agenda that needs to be addressed on a system, state, or regional level. Beyond that, most states are still addressing the technical issues. There are, however, some notable exceptions. I believe Maine has moved this topic to a high profile, public policy agenda item. It is a routine part of discussions about how we are going to provide educational opportunity in the future.
Maine is the national leader.
Control of educational access will begin to shift to the consumer. The consumer will have a cornucopia of choices in terms of educational providers and products. There may be countervailing forces to retard this development, such as accreditation, limitation on transfer of credits, and trying to label distance education pedagogy as inferior. Distance educators, with technological tools at their disposal, can provide a wide variety of options for students that campuses cannot and we are on the verge of yet another leap forward in the power of the technologies. A single institution in a state or province will be able to precipitate significant change in the mission and functions of many institutions.