OIG Report on WGU, Part 3: A Brief History of ‘Regular and Substantive Interaction’

October 17, 2017.Reading time 15 minutes.

Thank you to Van Davis for this third entry on our series examining the U.S. Department of Education Office of Inspector General’s Audit Report of Western Governors University. Today, Van examines the changing nature of definitions used over time. Is it just me or is it hard to comply with changing definitions? Thank you, Van! […]

The OIG Report on WGU, Part 2: React…But Don’t Overreact

October 3, 2017.Reading time 17 minutes.

Word cloud with words: Hysterics, panic button, have a fit, alrm, sare, panic, lost it, go to pieces" written several times.

It has been more than a week since the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued its Final Audit Report declaring that “Western Governors University Was Not Eligible to Participate in the Title IV Programs.” Both of us (Russ Poulin, WCET and Van Davis, Blackboard) have been following the activities surrounding the […]

On the OIG/WGU Finding, Part 1: When Interaction Is Not Interaction

September 22, 2017.Reading time 10 minutes.

Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a report concluding: “We concluded that Western Governors University did not comply with the institutional eligibility requirement that limits the percentage of regular students who may enroll in correspondence courses. Therefore, the Department should require the school to return the $712,670,616 in Title […]

Sweeping Changes Proposed by the Department of Education

August 3, 2018.Reading time 17 minutes.

text box reads: Be observant! Be innovative! Be Active! Your participation in this process is critical! These comment periods offer the regulated parties the ability to share their insight into the practical application of what the Department proposes before they become a final regulations.

Ready to change higher education, as we know it, in the United States? Based on two announcements from the U.S. Department of Education on July 31, Betsy DeVos and company seem poised to do so. Of most importance to our readers is a wide-ranging set of issues that are slated to be addressed in an […]

New Regulations #3: Direct Assessment and Competency-Based Education

April 13, 2020.Reading time 25 minutes.

In case you missed it, the Department of Education finally released the last set of regulations from its epic 2019 negotiated rulemaking process on April 1st. And, no, it wasn’t an April Fool’s Day joke. This is the third and final part of WCET’s analysis of the proposed rules. Part one of our analysis details […]

New Regulations Review #1: Regular & Substantive Interaction

April 3, 2020.Reading time 29 minutes.

A roller coaster cart filled with people about to go over a long drop

Much to everyone’s surprise, the Department of Education finally released the last set of regulations from last year’s negotiated rulemaking for public comment on April 1st (and it wasn’t an April Fool’s Day joke—we checked). This post will examine the proposed changes to the distance education and credit hour definitions. We’ll have another post early […]

Negotiated Rulemaking: The Complexity of “Regular and Substantive Interaction”

April 26, 2019.Reading time 20 minutes.

Image of extremely complicated and complex geometry problem, including numbers, shapes, and graphs.

This is the third in our blog post series on the results of the U.S. Department of Education’s negotiated rulemaking process. The first in the series focused an overview of process, issues, and next steps. The second covered rules for state authorization. Today, we focus on definitions that seem like they should be easy, but […]

A Look Back at 2017 for WCET Frontiers: It’s Been Weird

December 21, 2017.Reading time 11 minutes.

In orer: Interaction” Education Dept. Clarifies its Intent on State Auth Reciprocity Distance Ed Costs and Price: Not as Closely correlated as You’d Think The Federal State Auth for Distanced Ed Regulation Still Stands Is Your Distance Education Course Actually a Correspondence Course? On the OIG/WFU Finding: Part 1, When Interaction is Not Interaction House HEA Proposes Changes for Distance Ed, CBE, & State Auth Ed Dept. Confirms “Reciprocity” Definition Clarification The OIG Report on WGU: Part 2, React… but Don’t Overreact OIG Report on WGU: Part 3, A Brief History of “Regular & Substantive Interaction”

What a weird year for news. Comic actress Melissa McCarthy won an Emmy Award for her Saturday Night Live portrayal of White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. It is hard to say which was more surreal, her version of “Spicey” or the actual twisted logic used by Spicer himself. Here at WCET and the Frontiers […]

House HEA Proposes Changes for Distance Ed, CBE, and State Authorization

December 4, 2017.Reading time 18 minutes.

In a new bill regarding higher education rules proposed in the House of Representatives: all federal state authorization rules are ended, competency-based education gets a boost with “regular and substantive interaction” being redefined and expanded accreditation oversight, accreditation reviews for distance education are a thing of the past, some confusion remains over distance and online […]

Why We Need to Stop Using ‘Self-Paced’ in CBE Descriptions

August 10, 2016.Reading time 11 minutes.

Myk Garn is a long-time friend of WCET. He currently champions “new learning models” for the University System of Georgia. Myk also serves on the Board of Directors for the Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN). After recent discussions about attacks on the CBE model (see last week’s Department of Education’s Office of Inspector General’s criticism on […]