That learning, if implemented quickly and flexibly enough into accreditation standards and processes, will allow accreditation agencies to continue to provide strong programs of quality assurance into the next century. Too few institutions take the time to contemplate the long-range impact of technology on education and integrate the ramifications of it into planning. The operating assumption is that the faculty-centered classroom model of higher education will remain unchanged. Neither the increased productivity made possible by technology nor the transformed learning environment it allows will be met by these institutions. Competitors ready to re-vision the learning environment, whether higher education institutions or corporate training programs or courseware developers, will succeed.
Online education gives power to the student.
The institutional model of accreditation appears to value institutional autonomy in all things, particularly in developing curriculum and determining when to award credits and degrees. Residency has often been key to institutional control. That was not so difficult when students literally had to move physically to gain access to other learning environments. A student's educational progress need not be at the whim of any given institution's course scheduling and class-size limits. Accrediting agencies are not known for being models of learning organizations.