Accreditation Survey

I am curious how the degree programs members of this board are CURRENTLY enrolled in are accredited (not previously enrolled in or having completed!!)

 

If you poll in at other, it may be interesting if you post the name of the other accrediting body

 

Considering that which RA accredits one's school is based solely on geographic location, what is served by this? Now, if you limit the poll to only those taking DL programs, there might be some interesting information. Still, some RA's are much smaller than others, accrediting far fewer schools, which would skew your data.

Additionally, you've omitted other national agencies like TRACS. You've also omitted foreign schools.

Finally, you've omitted unrecognized agencies, whose schools are often points of discussion on this board.

Rich Douglas, Ph.D.

 

The challenge I had in omissions is that the board polling program will only allow up to 10 choices. I picked the ones I guessed may be most relevant. If people post their ‘Other’ submissions I could derive just how bad my omittkions were...

Also, you make a good point in my wording, as I ‘assumed’ that since this is a DL board that would be the focus of the survey, and that was my intent. I am not looking for non-DL programs to show up in this survey.

As for what purpose this serves, "I am curios" would be about my best answer.

 

Rich makes some excellent points. The regionals are geographically based and are not of equal size. For instance, the North Central Assoication of Colleges and Schools has jurisdiction over 19 states, while the New England Assoicaiton of Schools and Colleges has only six states. North Central Association also accredits most of the completely virtual universities, such as Capella, Walden and Jones International.

Tony Pina
Northeastern Illinois University

 

You know, I’ve given this some thought, and I’m not sure I understand the concern if folks fill in their local programs that they attend. Why does it matter if the geography is of different sizes?

Why is that an excellent point? It still tells us something about the demographics of this boards members…

 

Maybe you should change the poll to to reflect NA and foreign schools. As of the time of this post, the second leading category is other. As for me, I attend Briercrest Bible College (NA through ABHE and foreign).

Pug

 

pugbelly, how on earth can I do that when 10 items is the max for polls?

If we get some more specific others I'll make the change.

I have two slots open, three if you count the independent slot that has gotten 0 votes so far.

The possibel slots are the blank one I didn't use, the 'other' slot, and the independent slot.

I'm open to suggestions on what three agencies should be put in there...

 

Hmmm....good question. I don't know. But I sure would be interested in knowing what the "others" are. Perhaps a follow up poll is needed for those with non-RA accreditation????

Pug

 

Perhaps one solution is to create two different polls. The first could list the Regional Accreditors and people could indicate the one with which they are currently (if indirectly) involved. The second poll could simply list "RA" as one of the choices, leaving 9 slots for the various other specific accreditors. Just a thought.
Jack

 

Considering the boundaryless nature of distance ed, what might it say about the demographics of the members?

 

It will certainly help me understand if all of the advice being offered is also being followed about the quality and ‘utility’ of the accreditation of degrees.

There is a persistent theme of the board, and I am curious if that theme is being carried out in practice.

Why would the ‘boundary-less of distance education’ affect the analytics of the demographics?

 

I guess I am just confused over why you segmented the options as you have. Six of the nine choices represents the same thing – RA, and differ only in their geographic representation. I was trying to figure out what demographics would be gleaned from various selections of the RA variety, If 50 people selected a relatively equal distribution, or even a weighted distribution of the six RA choices you offered, what would this say of the characteristics of population of responders?

 

I actually did give this some thought, and while it could be changed, having a category of ‘RA’ would signify that RA accreditation truly is a commodity item, with no difference between the six. I’m not convinced that is the case.

The mistake that I made is not framing the question up into more of a DL context… which is survivable but leaves an unanswered question on the table, the DL break down.

 

What about schools that are regionally accredited and professionally accredited (WACS and AACSB).

The other could be foreign or none, right?

 

So one of your assumptions is that some folks here actually factor into their selection process some value based perception of each of the six regional accreditors, on top of the value judgment they make on the institution and the program within the that institution?

 

I am of the opinion that the percentage of people giving significant value to one RA accreditor over another RA accreditor would be very small. I could be wrong. There are clear preferences between RA and NA, and there are clear preferences between institutions, but between the actual RA accreditors? I'd be surprised. Now THAT would be an interesting survey.


Pug

 

That is what this survey is.

 

This survey touches on it but it doesn't allow for a "no preference" vote.

 

Because any given distance education student might live in a state covered by one regional accreditor but be enrolled in a program covered by a different regional accreditor. This is often the case, especially when colleges more local to the student don't offer distance programs in the particular concentration of study that the student wants or needs.

Kit