DETC-accredited distance learning dental degrees?

The people of Greenwich shared with me their response from DETC to thieir question about clarifying DETC's new policy of being willing to accept applications from schools with "first professional degrees." As I understand this, the Distance Education and Training Council will consider schools that offer a distance dental (or medical) degree, but not those that offer a Ph.D. degree in business (or anything else).
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From DETC:
Thank you for your recent e-mail. The Commission's scope of accreditation
has been expanded to include the accreditation of First Professional
degrees. The definition included in the DETC Accreditation Handbook's
Glossary is:

"FIRST PROFESSIONAL DEGREE:
A degree that signifies both completion of the academic requirement for
beginning practice in a given profession and a level of professional skill
beyond that normally required for a bachelor's degree. This degree usually
is based on a program requiring at least two academic years of work before
entrance and a total of at least six academic years of work to complete
the degree program, including both prior required college work and the
professional program itself. By the National Center for Education
Statistics definition, First Professional degrees are awarded in the
fields of dentistry (D.D.S. or D.M.D.), medicine (M.D.), optometry (O.D.),
osteopathic medicine (D.O.), pharmacy (D.Phar.), pediatric medicine
(D.P.M.), veterinary medicine (D.V.M.), chiropractic (D.C. or D.C.M.), law
(LL.B. or J.D.) and theological professionals (M.Div. or M.H.L.)."
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DL Medical Program?

O, I bet there are millions of people who can't wait to go to a dentist or physician who earned their degree via distance learning... Scary thought! DETC should stick to accrediting professional programs that are not as consequential as medicine. (And I am a DETC supporter).

Just my opinion.

 

Is this final and official?

 

Re: Re: DETC-accredited distance learning dental degrees?

Yes, it was approved by the Department of Education a few months ago.

It is my understanding DETC had to apply for authorization to accredit a new degree category, not simply a new degree such as the Juris Doctor. The J.D. happened to fall in the First Professional Degree classification.

Don't look for DETC to accredit medical doctorate programs anytime soon.

 

Re: Re: Re: DETC-accredited distance learning dental degrees?

Drat, and I was looking forward to beginning my Doctor of Chiropractic degree by mail. I better return the mail order skeleton.

North

 

Re: DL Medical Program?

Not at all, defii. The dentist can also do fillings at a distance.

 

If you earn a distance/CA approved law degree, you can not take the bar in most states. Will it be the same situation for MD, DO, DDS, DC, and everything else that will be offered?

 

Hi Randell,

I think the point was so the CA approved JD programs could be accredited and thus receive financial aid. It has been suggested that they had to apply for a degree category, and not just a degree. So there you go, the first professional degree.

Tony

p.s. If they (DETC) accredits any MD,DDS,et cetera program well.................it won't happen. If it does, I think DETC would lose any respect they have.


p.s.s. I would think even California would stay away from that.

 

No Graduates from U.S. DL programs will qualify to practice in any state, in any of these fields. All of the requirements state that that candidates must be graduates of approved programs. To my knowledge, there are no approved programs for any of these career fields that are DL.

 

First Professional

First of all, the response from DETC indicates that the definition of first professional degrees is taken from the National Center for Education Statistics.

Second, DETC accreditation, like all accreditation has more than one standard. The standard that would tend to eliminate the medical and dental professions from consideration is the one that requires the education being delivered to be appropriate to the subject matter, and be able to achieve the desired learning outcomes.

Third, there are many distance courses available in the dental field, most for continuing education, but some for those topics for which hands on study is not required, so it's not such a far fetched idea the notion of a DL Dental degree, since technically, a combination program could fall under DETC accreditation. But as I said, there is a great deal of oversight that would likely ensure that this would not happen, at least not before I retire anyway.

Fourth, with all of the discussions on this board, why is it necessary to raise this topic in this manner? I do not often get involved in discussions on this board, and know that my institution is often called out as an exception when DETC is a target, so perhaps I should leave well enough alone. However, I take exception to this thread. Even if it was posted with a tongue in cheek attitude, some people will, and perhaps have, taken it seriously and I do not see that it has contributed to what I believe the intent of this board to be.

Best,
Mary

 

Mary,

I really do not think anyone is slamming DETC exactly. What IS humorous is the idea of getting a degree (MD, DDS) that requires very directed, hands-on training, through DL, be it RA or NA.

Yes, some parts of these programs could be learned through self study/dl, but who is going to provide the lab or hands-on education? A RA medical or dental program partnering? I would not think that likely, at least not in the near future. My point was that I doubt the DETC will accredit these programs. IE. They will not take on more than they can handle.

Also, nobody who can read and comprehend, AND cares enough to search out this site, will get the wrong impression about DETC from this thread.

Tony

Lighten up

 

Not to be stodgy...

but a lot of things that sound as if they'd be inappropriate subjects for DL really aren't, with further investigation.

"Would you want a doctor who got his MD through DL?" Well, I wouldn't mind a doctor who got some of the "book learning" through distance learning courses, or who met continuing education requirements through distance learning.

"Learn TRUCK DRIVING through distance learning?" Well, not entirely. But why not have a distance learning phase for courses such as rules and regulations or trip planning and an on-site phase for hands-on training? (See http://www.earthmoverschool.com/ for an example.)

 

I concur with Tony. I am certainly support of the DETC. I still stand by my position that they might well lose credibility if they were to attempt to accredit medical/dental programs.

 

Kristin,

As I have already stated some parts of the program could be learned through DL. My question is how will the rest (majority) of the education be handled. As of now, I don't see DETC forming a lot of 1 and 4 (or 7's) with the institutions that currently have the facilities. Could this change? Yes, but it would most likely take a long time, if it happened at all.

Even so, it (DETC) probably wouldn't be authorizing the degree.

Which goes back to my original point, which is they (the schools) want to get accreditation for JD degrees (specifically for California) for the financial aid.

Tony