2. Regulations Affecting Distance Education

There are many regulations affecting California community college teaching ranging from federal laws, to state laws, to policies promulgated by the Chancellor's Office to those imposed by college board policies and even policies created by each college's faculty senate.  And, of course, we cannot forget those recommendations from the ACCJC.

In this module, the focus will be on a few of the regulations affecting distance education classes.  One body of regulations that will be covered will be those issues that have been of particular concern to federal legislators affecting distance education courses only that fall under the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 (HEOA) Links to an external site..

The Higher Education Opportunity Act governs the nation’s student-aid programs and federal aid to colleges. It was initially signed into law as the Higher Education Act (HEA) in 1965 and it has been reauthorized nine times since then. It was scheduled for renewal in 2014.  Many of the issues that have been addressed over the past few years by the HEOA affect distance education courses only.  It appears that there is concern regarding the quality of education students are receiving in distance education courses, particularly those courses being offered by "for-profit" institutions.  Because all students are eligible for federal aid, one way to regulate colleges is by denying federal financial aid to students attending colleges that are not operating in a manner consistent with established law.  Hence, a number of regulations have been created under the HEOA that are directed solely at distance education programs.

Two issues regarding online courses arose repeatedly during the last HEOA re-authorization hearings:

  • Student Authentication
  • Correspondence Course vs. Online CourseTwo arrows point at one another.