April 6, 2001

Accreditors Finish Guidelines on Online Programs

By DAN CARNEVALE

Representatives of the six regional accrediting bodies have finalized a set of recommendations for building and evaluating online-education programs.

But the recommendations won't become accreditation standards, says Charles M. Cook, the director of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges' Commission on Institutions of Higher Education. "We've always considered them testimonials, not a new set of standards," he says. "It's always been the local regions' option of how to