Leadership in accreditation and networked learning

Distance education and traditional campus-based education are experiencing an historic convergence that has produced a high degree of anticipation and anxiety among those who deal with institutional evaluation and accreditation. Convergence of these two approaches as networked education is well-advanced; today's instruction, once mediated at the boundaries of the campus both by the state regulatory authority and the regional or professional accreditation body, easily crosses physical boundaries and established jurisdictions. Accreditation threatens to become a pastiche of intertwining jurisdictions, since neither government nor accreditators have fully anticipated the implications of networked education. How will public policy ensure that appropriate educational and academic controls persist, and how and by whom will the decisions that guarantee the quality, continuity, and credibility of student work be made? Students themselves may already be providing new directions for leadership.

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Distance education and traditional campus-based education are experiencing an historic convergence that has produced a high degree of anticipation and anxiety among those who deal with institutional evaluation and accreditation. Convergence of these two approaches as networked education is well-advanced; today's instruction, once mediated at the boundaries of the campus both by the state regulatory authority and the regional or professional accreditation body, easily crosses physical boundaries and established jurisdictions. Accreditation threatens to become a pastiche of ...  [+] Show more