Campus officials in charge of online education programs said that even if institutions were willing to spend the money necessary to meet the state-authorization rule, ED hasn’t given colleges enough time to make those adjustments.
The rule was first proposed in October, leaving schools about nine months to comply with the federal regulation.
“It will be impossible for most colleges and universities to comply by the deadline,” said Raymond Schroeder, director of the University of Illinois at Springfield’s Center for Online Learning, Research, and Services. “As a result, students will be hurt. One has to wonder what will happen to those students who are halfway through a program, or in their last summer term when their university is forced to pull out in July.”
Schroeder added that state governments could see schools’ efforts to comply with the new rule as a potential “revenue source” and “charge fees beyond what universities can possibly afford.”
Poulin said that even educational technology advocates who closely follow federal policy were surprised that ED didn’t allow more public input on the rule before it was proposed.
“It caught us a bit off guard. We weren’t able to say that we had some major problems with the way the rule was written,” he said, adding that he didn’t believe ED officials were trying to sneak the state-authorization rule into law. “I believe they had the best intentions in mind.”
Eight colleges and universities recently detailed the procedures and costs necessary for schools to comply with the state-authorization rule.
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