Rightly or wrongly, there have always been suspicions about online education in terms of whether its quality can match that of face-to-face instruction. The pandemic raises the more specific issue of how we do quality assurance generally and makes the question of quality assurance for online education even more salient. The two articles in this section examine quality assurance in response to the pandemic and an initiative that focuses on setting standards for online education.
Judith S. Eaton notes that, perhaps obviously, accreditation visits and other functions of the accreditors now are being done at a distance. More important, she argues, the pandemic has accelerated significant changes already under consideration to expand the scope of accreditation. Accreditation needs “to include review of alternative providers and alternative credentials,” for example, Google’s new career certificates. Standards and reviews might also be expanded to cover issues brought out by the pandemic—for example, basic needs and security and consideration of racial and social justice. These changes will require greater coordination and collaboration among all accreditors, perhaps including a common platform, as “all accreditors are now emerging as national.” She concludes, “The pandemic has been a catalyst for change and can lead to future and more permanent innovation in accreditation.”
Lori Williams and Melanie Booth discuss quality assurance and consumer protection in online education. They describe the formation and operation of the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA). NC-SARA was formed to fill a gap in state oversight of online education: “[A]bout one half of states [were] without any distance education regulation and one third without accreditation requirements.” The council offers a set of standards for online education to which 52 states and territories have agreed. The standards have become the basis for reciprocity among states in recognizing providers. The 2,100 institutions joining NC-SARA benefit from reciprocity as well and can operate across state lines. As online education plays a bigger role and new approaches to it are developed, NC-SARA can directly address quality assurance and consumer protection.