Regulation of E-Learning: New National and International Policy Perspectives

About the Project

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The Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE), UC Berkeley, with the support of the Ford Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is conducting a research project to explore and inform current and ongoing debates in the regulation of technology-mediated higher education both domestically and globally. Specifically we will conduct a preliminary examination of existing and emerging public policies that will shape the regulation of e-learning both domestically and internationally.

For this pilot project we will engage in a series of activities that include commissioning a set of white papers and analyses. These papers and analyses will provide the basis for discussion and debate at a small by-invitation symposium to be held in early Winter 2006. The symposium, where the white papers are presented, would then be used to identify further research on the most promising topics. The proceedings of the symposium will be published and disseminated through this website. A Steering Committee, which includes Bruce Chaloux, Michael Goldstein, Diane Harley, Sally Johnstone, Vijay Kumar, Kurt Larsen, Gary Matkin, and Brian Pusser, has been established to oversee the project.

Goals:

• Elucidate the intended and unintended outcomes of various regulatory models, including whether they hamper innovative practice and/or limit consumer choice.
• Develop a brief overview of the history and contemporary principles of regulation and the public interest in education.
• Gain a more concise understanding of the rationale behind current regulatory model(s) from various stakeholder perspectives (e.g., different tiers of providers, different types of consumer, different countries and regions).
• Encourage a wider and more research-driven conversation on this topic through collaboration with other research centers and projects. Specifically, establish a framework for a comprehensive research agenda to guide policy makers and institutional leaders.
• Disseminate findings to a wide constituency, including international, national, and regional higher education organizations.

Background and Rationale:

The universe of postsecondary education is expanding. It is an era of rapid demographic and labor market changes, increased competition and shifts in institutional form (e.g., the rise of for-profit degree granters, the hybrid form of nonprofit/for-profit partnerships, corporate universities), and, perhaps most important, new forms of delivery driven by emerging technologies. In nearly all of these cases the pace of innovation and establishment of new institutional forms outstrips the ability of regulators or policy makers to stay ahead of the curve.

Nothing epitomizes these challenges more clearly than the regulation of online learning. As online education increasingly challenges the traditional importance of institutional locale and political boundaries, it has run into the considerable complexities and policy collisions of state and national regulation and multiple levels of accreditation. Within the United States there is a fair amount of ad hoc policy at the state and institutional levels. At the national level the traditional "Big 6" nonprofit associations find themselves challenged to compete with for-profit associations and corporations in the legislative arena.

On the international level, significant attention is being paid to the role of e-learning in cross-border education, and its implications for national quality assurance and accreditation (see for example the excellent review in OECD, 2004). UNESCO and OECD have been particularly active in addressing the challenges, both on the national and international level, posed by cross-border higher education and its corollaries – the increased mobility of students, professionals, programs and providers. Further complicating the picture is the increasing momentum of the "open education content" movement (Hewlett Foundation, 2004), and the questions it raises regarding how proprietary and open content will be blended and adapted into local contexts of certification and degree granting.

This project is not intended to be another inventory of regulatory barriers. We are not seeking the "what" of regulation, but rather the "why." The project will focus on the public policy issues that drive regulation, with particular emphasis on the imperatives – both real and imagined – that underlie domestic and international regulation of postsecondary education, from both an institutional and a consumer (learner) perspective. That is, our interest is the deeper research, models, and theories that color understanding of regulation as it is applied to e-learning.

Based on our and others' work to date, we view this as a key juncture, where technology, competition, and public policy must be understood and integrated to ensure both an effective U.S. postsecondary education system, and the diffusion of quality educational materials and practice across borders. As the complexity of the questions being asked demands multidimensional and interdisciplinary approaches, CSHE believes that bringing together a diverse set of stakeholders allows for productively framing the debate, raising fresh questions, challenging set ideas, and offering new solutions.