Preference Between RA Agencies?

I have worked for institutions under three of the regionals: Western Association (WASC not WACS), Northwest Association and North Central Association. I recently participated in the development of two online masters degrees that were approved by WASC. I currently work as a full-time administrator in instructional technology & distance learning at a university under North Central.

In my experience, none of the six regionals are any more difficult or easier than the others for achieving accreditation as a whole. However, North Central has been the leader in accrediting virtual programs, degrees and institutions. So I would likely side with Rich on this one. It may be that North Central, having the largest jurisdiction of the six regionals (19 states) plays a factor.

It has also been my experience that WASC has, historically, been the least accepting of completely online programs. The fact that online degrees are now being accredited points to a change in WASC that I think is positive.

Tony Pina
Coordinator of Learning Technologies
Northeastern Illinois University

 

I know this is probably a silly question, but if the standards are published, how can it be more difficult for a DL degree to be accredited than a B&M?

 

If things are being weighed that are not relevant to DL, like a physical library, then there can be problems.

Also, accreditors are made of up member schools, the vast majority of whom are traditional. Those member schools also provide the evaluators doing the accreditation visits. Those people tend to look for things to be similar to the way they are at their home schools. This puts DL schools at a further disadvantage.

Finally, there is that old bogeyman, bias. There are many people out there who simply cannot be convinced that credible higher education can be conducted using DL means. I think this factor has been the most impactful on this dynamic--and the reason why we see such differences among the RA's regarding DL schools.

(Walden moved from Florida to Minnesota to go from SACS to NCA. AMU did the same, moving from Virginia to West Virginia (about 50 miles, actually). UoP (actually, it was IPD at the time) moved from California to Arizona specifically to get away from WASC. I have to wonder if some other schools have purposely set up shop in NCA's jurisdiction.)

 

No DL in WASC? How about CSUDH?

Cal State University Dominguez Hills has DL programs http://dominguezonline.csudh.edu/programs.php
and they were reaffirmed in 2002.

 

Re: No DL in WASC? How about CSUDH?

Who said there were no DL programs in schools accredited by WASC? I don't see that in this thread.

There have been DL programs in schools accredited by WASC for a long time. But DL schools? That's another story.

 

I find it curious that, at least at the time of this post, roughly 26% of the online learners that participated in the ACCREDITATION SURVEY poll are enrolled at SACS schools, but only 13% of the people that have participated in the RA PREFERENCE poll survey rank SACS as their preferred accreditor.

Pug

 

Actually, that's a great question.

The answer is that there is LOTS of room for interpretation in the published standards.

In looking at the SACS Principles of Accreditation, the first example that I come across is in section 2.7.2, which states that an institution "offers degree programs that embody a coherent course of study that is compatible with its stated purpose and is based upon fields of study appropriate to higher education."

Certainly open to interpretation. But if it were always the same people doing the interpreting, this wouldn't be much of a problem. But it's not. R.A. reviews are done by "teams" of faculty and administrators from peer institutions. Each school is assigned a different team. And the interpretations made by these teams can be wildly different.

In terms of DL, there is a "chicken and egg" paradox. Since the review teams are made up of people from accredited schools, (which, in the case of SACS, are ALL B&M), they tend to be suspicious of fully DL schools. Sometimes, they will focus on illogical standards, such as how many physical books are in the schools library -- an important issue for a B&M school, but completely irrelevant for a fully DL school.