Distance Education Regulations Update

1. Distance Education Regulations Update Dr. Mike Rogers Assistant Vice Chancellor for Faculty Development Office of Academic Affairs BOR

2. What Do We Know? • October 2010- U.S. Department of Education (DoE), as part of final “Program Integrity” rules, requires Title IV schools to secure any required state approvals for out-of-state distance learning- state-by-state beyond the school’s home state. • April 2011- Following considerable debate about the rationale and practicalities of compliance, DoE shifts full implementation from July 2011 to July 2014, but in the meantime expects “good faith” compliance efforts by schools. • April-August 2011- Schools get up-to-speed on complexity of state-by-state compliance, and some states clarify or revise their requirements. Some schools opt to withdraw from certain states. • April-August 2011- SHEEO works to provide an “authoritative” guide to state requirements; and The Presidents’ Forum and COSG, supported by the Lumina Foundation, explore an interstate compact. • July 2011- a federal court throws out DoE’s requirement on state regulation and distance learning, but on a consultation technicality. State authority unaffected. DoE next step unclear, but DoE may already have necessary statutory authority to proceed, or opt to institute formal consultation. • September 2011 – DOE appeals ruling that vacated state authorization ruling.

3. What Do We Know? • State regulations predate the federal regulation. • State regulations survive anything that happens to the federal regulation. • States with regulations expect you to be in compliance before you enroll the first student in that state.

4. What Do We Know? • Confusion – respondents don’t understand the nuances of regulations from state-to-state. • Difficult processes – some of the requirements seem duplicative of accreditation, unnecessary, and expensive. • Little value added – from their point of view this gets in the way of serving students, but they aren’t seeing the need for consumer protection. • Consistency – they would like to see more uniformity or reciprocity among states.

5. What Has the USG Done? • Established a website to track ALL information about this issue – http://www.usg.edu/academics/distance_education_regulations. • March 2011– sent email to each state asking if USG could apply as a system. Alabama, Vermont and Nebraska said yes. Florida - ? • May 2011 – held a state wide DE Regulations meeting. • May 2011 – established a state by state matrix of responses. • May 2011 – posted information regarding what USG institutions should do regarding acceptance of students. • May 2011 – advised institutions to begin to seek approval. • Continue to update website frequentlyhttp://www.usg.edu/academics/distance_education_regulations

6. SREB ACTIONS • Programs listed in the Electronic Campus are considered part of an SREB reciprocal agreement between 15 of the 16 SREB states. • Free Trade Zone Agreement. • Working to achieve reciprocity with other regional organizations.

7. Letter Sent to SREB States: • Dr. Linda Noble from the University System of Georgia recently contacted you asking for instructions for our state institutions to obtain authorization to offer distance education courses to students from your state. Through this letter we are following up to your response to her March 22, 2011 email.  As sister SREB member states participating in electronic campus.org and through the current SREB Free Trade Zone agreement, we believe our institution is in compliance with your state regulations by having programs listed in the electronic campus.  Please let us know if any further action is required for authorization to offer distance education programs in your state.

8. What Should Institutions Be Doing? • Determine where your out-of-state DE students are coming from. • Use a sound business decision process to determine whether to seek approval from: • All 50+ states and territories or… • A specific geographic area or… • States with high student population for you or … • Your criteria

9. Until such time as your institution makes a business decision that it will not accept students from certain states due to additional costs required to attain authorization resulting from authorization to offer DE course in those states, you should conduct your business as usual.

10. What Should Institutions Be Doing ? • Document business process but do not publish • Seek approval from your selected states • Post a statement to your web site similar to what North Georgia has done • Go about your business as normal

11. What Should Institutions Be Doing? • https://sites.google.com/site/uwgstateapprovals/

12. Recently enacted federal regulations requiring enforcement of state laws affecting the delivery of distance education degrees, programs and courses to students whose physical presence is in a state other that Georgia may limit <INSTITUTION’s> ability to offer online opportunities to these students.  If you wish to enroll in one of our online offerings and are located in a state other than Georgia, please inquire before enrolling to determine if we have acquired permission to offer online courses in your state.  You may email your inquiry to (insert email address.) Please note that this email address is exclusively for questions regarding state approval of online offerings.  Other types of inquiries should be sent to the academic department offering the online courses. • An live example may be seen at:http://www.northgeorgia.edu/Graduate_Admissions/Degree_Programs/Graduate_Programs.aspx

13. CONSUMER COMPLAINT PROCESS • Have available SACS contact information • Have a consumer complaint hotline available • Posted on your website • Hosted by a third party • Have available consumer complaint hotlines to the states from which you have online students. • SHEEO has this data but you may not link to it.