Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) have been working hard for over a year now to meet the state authorization rules. There are, however, a number of other federal regulations that affect eLearning and most IHE have not been paying close enough attention to these regulations and to their ramifications.
All involved with eLearning are familiar with the HEOA passed in 2008 and in particular to H.R.3746 Part H and S.1642 Part G—Program Integrity:
(ii) the agency or association requires that an institution that offers distance education programs to have processes by which it establishes that the student who registers in a distance education course or program is the same student who participates, completes academic work, and receives academic credit;
There are five other federal regulations over the past several years that eLearning program administrators need to pay careful attention to as some have come about from unethical practices in the field. The five include:
Definition of a “Credit Hour.”
Prohibition against “Incentive Compensation.”
Definition of “Misrepresentation.”
Clarification of “Last Day of Attendance.”
Definition of “Gainful Employment.”