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US DOE New Distance Learning Regulations Spike Criticism

This past week the Department of Education released the final unofficial version of its new regulations for remote and distance learning concerning online and competency-based higher education.

We have to say unofficial because the U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has established that higher education institutions can opt for new flexibilities, as soon as the ruling appears in the Federal Register.

Photo by SAGE Publications, used under CC license.

The new rulemaking is to get into effect the next year 2021 by the first day of July.

Among the rules figure, the necessity colleges have regular and substantive interaction with their online students to qualify for federal financial aid.

Colleges are not obliged to use individual instructors; rather they can hire instructional teams the same way Western Governors University has been doing.

To avoid credit inflation, DOE has proposed a new definition of the credit-hour, opting for a clock-hour. This shift, however, works with synchronous instruction. The new rules, though, allow colleges to use asynchronous instruction, such as under the condition that institutions use technology that can monitor how long students participate in each activity.

It will be easier to get a degree following competency-based education. It means a student can receive federal aid when they are allowed to complete as many courses as possible over a fixed period of time and demonstrate mastery of concepts or skills.

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