Lupe Briseno

After reviewing and analyzing the content overview of the accreditation criteria and guidelines, as represented in Lesson 14, you should attempt to encapsulate and summarize responses to the following questions:

Why accreditation?
To start, I think any and all things need uniform standards to keep the participants under the same rules. Without rules, anything can and will happen. One of my strongest arguments goes with the Supreme Courts vote to remove the Ten Commandments from our schools and legalize abortion. And they wonder shy our children of today have so many issues dealing with school rules, parents, and their peers. But back to the point of accreditation. Accreditation means that an institution has been evaluated and that it meets a certain quality of standards set forth by a board or committee. Also, by becoming accredited, the institution becomes a member of that board or association and will be part of the future standards and policies this committee sets forth. Hence, today's distance education issues and accrediting standards. I personally feel that accreditation assures the student that the quality of course work and education he/she receives from that institution meets established requirements that have proven to be effective in the work force or in certain skills. One thing I have seen is RN's coming from Mexico with a degree can only be LVN's or CNA's due to our accreditation standards in the United States. But how do we handle those immigrants that take distance education courses from another country and come over here to use that education?

Who oversees it?
There seems to be many agencies ready to accredit anyone who meets their criteria. But, can we trust all those agencies? The readings showed there to be six (6) educational accrediting associations in the United States and they are set-up in geographical regions. Each region oversees those institutions within its' parameters and is responsible to the university's standards of quality. I also found www.chea.org, which is a private organization and they maintain a list of accrediting agencies that range from law to medical (nursing). They also have a mission statement: "The Council for Higher Education Accreditation will serve students and their families, colleges and universities, sponsoring bodies, governments, and employers by promoting academic quality through formal recognition of higher education accrediting bodies and will coordinate and work to advance self-regulation through accreditation.
CHEA Mission Statement, 1996 "

What type of supporting evidence is needed?
Since each organization can set its own policies and process for accreditation, they each provide their own guidelines for the process. They can include such things as self study and interviews, but this list is not all-inclusive. The institution seeking accreditation must meet the criteria and those begin with Principles & Philosophies of Accreditation, Institutional purpose, institutional effectiveness, educational programs, educational support services, and administrative processes. They must also meet the elements of institutional effectiveness: Planning, assessment and evaluation, and demonstrable use of evaluation results and information to improve all aspects of institution. Bottom line, distance learning accreditation must meet the same rigors as on-campus instruction in reference to course content, faculty oversight, student achievement, student access to faculty, record keeping, faculty qualifications, and evaluation and assessment. Just because it's done over the internet does not make it right for the courses to be taught differently or treated differently. We all want our diplomas to mean the same thing, regardless of whether we sat in a class or in front of a computer to get it.

What differences, if any, exist between accreditation of regular instructional programs and distance learning programs?
Since distance learning is relatively new, there does not seem to be any agencies able to accredit distance education. But, there are agencies that focus on distance education and have set forth some rules. Most of the time, these issues will be supplemental to the ordinary accreditation process. They should take into consideration the fact that the learner and school can be separated at great lengths, hence, we they must "grade" the institution on flexibility, how technology is used in the courses, and how the institution can maintain the same quality of education while not being face-to-face with its' customers, the students.

What role are the new information technologies and educational communications playing in counteracting and changing the strongest criticism of distance education?
Since distance learning seems to take on the role of "lazy students who don't want to attend class," it is certain that only time and the results produced through distance education will tell the true story. Some people think of it as one-way communication and sort of a correspondence course, with no instructor involvement, and therefore see it as not being personable. No human touch to go along with the course and learning environment. But, interactive video teaching, emails, chats, webcasts, etc. are changing the way people think of distance learning. Pretty soon, all those non-believers will jump their own ship and move into the 21st century "reality."