Monday, June 28, 1999

Education Dept. Names 15 Participants in Distance-Learning Pilot Project By MARTIN VAN DER WERF Washington The U.S. Department of Education on Friday announced the first 15 participants -- ranging from individual colleges to large higher-education systems -- for a pilot project that will make more financial aid available to students pursuing college degrees through distance learning. Students taking classes on line have been hampered in receiving financial aid because of a number of provisions in the Higher Education Act. The government will allow institutions in the pilot project to waive some of those requirements, including one that makes students ineligible for aid if their college enrolls more than 50 per cent of its students or offers more than 50 per cent of its courses via distance education. The participants will also be allowed to disregard a rule that the academic year must be at least 30 weeks long before a student can get the maximum amount of financial aid. Congress created many of the barriers in reauthorizing the Higher Education Act in 1992, mostly because of allegations of scholarship fraud at so-called correspondence schools. With the vast expansion in distance learning since then, Congress sought to ease the restrictions and created the pilot project in 1998. "Recent advances in technology and use of the Internet have resulted in a spectacular growth in distance education and present us with a twofold challenge: to ensure that students pursuing high-quality distance learning programs have access to federal student aid, and at the same time, to ensure the integrity of the federal student aid programs," Education Secretary Richard W. Riley said in a statement. The Education Department said that as of last fall, distance-education courses were offered at 90 per cent of institutions with enrollments of more than 10,000 students, and at 85 per cent of institutions with enrollments of 3,000 to 10,000 students. The institutions in the pilot project will be closely monitored to protect against fraud and abuse of the financial-aid programs, the Education Department said. The pilot project is expected to last five years. Thirty-five more institutions or consortia may be added in the third year. The individual institutions selected for the pilot project: Capella University (formerly the Graduate School of America), Minneapolis Florida State University, Tallahassee Franklin University, Columbus, Ohio Masters Institute, San Jose, Cal. New York University Southern Christian University, Montgomery, Ala. University of Maryland University College, College Park Western Governors University The following consortia and systems were also selected: Colorado Community Colleges and Occupational Education System (13 community colleges) Connecticut Distance Learning Consortium (23 institutions) LDS Church Education System (four institutions in Utah, Hawaii, and Idaho) North Dakota University System (11 institutions) QUEST Education Corp. (Hamilton College and the American Institute of Commerce, both in Iowa) Southwest Consortium for the Advancement of Technology in Education (14 institutions in Texas and New Mexico) Washington State University and the Washington Community and Technical College Online Consortium (44 institutions) Background stories from The Chronicle: Education Department Agrees to Negotiate on Waivers of Rules for Distance Learning (12/18/98) College Leaders Criticize Government's Plan for Rules on Distance Learning (12/7/98) Congress Moves Cautiously on Aid for Students in Distance Education (6/5/98)

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