The Online Credit Hour: A Brief History and Guide to Regional Accreditation Similarities, Differences, and How They Can Affect Your Programs

Document delivery is a service offered by academic libraries that allows distance education students to access or obtain the research materials required for their studies. These services find the document and send a copy of it to the student (Calvert, 2001). Document delivery services aim to provide the same level of service to on-campus students and to off-campus students. They provide access to library materials at the student’s home institution as well as from other libraries. Document delivery services for distance students are generally part of a library’s Interlibrary Loan Department but document delivery can be a separate department. Some libraries have a division or department dedicated to serving distance students and document delivery is handled there when they exist. In the United States, regional accreditation agencies consider document delivery services to be a vital part of a distance education program. For example, the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools’ Guidelines for Distance Education emphasize that students should have access to the appropriate library resources for the field of study (2000).

Download Full-text

Regional Accreditation and Nontraditional Colleges

The Journal of Higher Education ◽

10.1080/00221546.1979.11778095 ◽

1979 ◽

Vol 50 (2) ◽

pp. 171-177

Author(s):

James W. Hall

Keyword(s):

Regional Accreditation

Download Full-text

Diversity under Review: HBCUs and Regional Accreditation Actions

Innovative Higher Education ◽

10.1007/s10755-019-09482-w ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 45 (1) ◽

pp. 3-15 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Christopher A. Burnett

Keyword(s):

Regional Accreditation

Download Full-text

Higher education accreditation, quality assurance and their impact to teaching and learning enhancement

Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences ◽

10.1108/jeas-08-2018-0092 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 35 (4) ◽

pp. 235-250

Author(s):

Samar Aad Makhoul

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Higher Education Institutions ◽

Student Attrition ◽

Faculty Members ◽

Faculty Retention ◽

Regional Accreditation ◽

Learning Enhancement ◽

Attrition Rates ◽

Content Type

Purpose This paper aims to study the relationship between higher education accreditation and teaching and learning enhancements in academic institutions. Higher education institutions are now looking at satisfying the standard by standard list assigned by internationally recognized accreditation agencies. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether outside quality confirmation can truly influence the inward life of higher education institutions. Will accreditation implementation have an impact on teaching and learning enhancement and drive institution change? Design/methodology/approach This study was based on an explanatory qualitative design whereby individual faculty members who are tenured or in tenure-track positions in business schools in Lebanese universities were interviewed. The latter universities from which interviewees were questioned are either the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accredited or currently pursuing accreditation. The sample included 30 faculty members from four different higher education Lebanese institutions. Findings Following thorough review of previous literature, and building on the outcomes of the interviews conducted for the purpose of this research, the author deduced that AACSB serves as the optimal guiding mechanism that incorporates effective evaluation criteria for learning quality and universities. There also exist a lack of commonality and shared standards among accrediting agencies. The researchers also highlight the need to introduce further quantification into the accrediting measures adopted including faculty retention and student attrition rates. Research limitations/implications Ranking agencies were not considered in this study. Those can be used to assess the effectiveness of higher education institutions and will provide fair quality assurance of learning. It is encouraged to incorporate the ranking agencies variable within the scope of future studies for further analysis. Practical implications The paper includes the need to introduce further quantification into the accrediting measures adopted including faculty retention and student attrition rates. Originality/value The focus of this study will be of particular interest to Business school seeking or maintaining accreditation. It will also be of interest to the Lebanese government if they want to look at having a regional accreditation. Future research could possibly explore the need to have a regional accreditation especially with the emerging numbers of higher education institutions in Lebanon.

Download Full-text