Volume 74 - Winter 2000	Download

A Look at Professional Accreditation and Distance Learning by Shirley Richmond, EdD, MT(ASCP), CLS(NCA) CLSPRC Four-Year Educator

As we progress into the next millenium we must address many new and exciting educational challenges. One of these is the continued growth and expansion of distance education. That distance learning is an increasingly important fact of life was illustrated most graphically in 1996 by the creation of Western Governor' s University. Distance education is being fueled by technology, especially the expanding use of teleconferencing, computers and the Internet. Other major contributing factors include the desire to maintain existing programs despite dwindling enrollments and the desire to mount programs by extending specialized education to remote areas with limited resources. Further, we now have a strikingly different educational landscape than that which existed only a few years ago. Fewer of our college students fit the traditional residential studentprofile: young, full-time, and living on the university campus. Rather, students are most often older, taking courses on a part-time basis, and are seeking an additional career.

It is likely that future access to education will be available from a number of providers via information technology and telecommunications. Education will be available anywhere and at any time that the consumer wants it. Thus, the future of our institutions will be determined by the extent to which these consumers have educational products provided to them conveniently and at a competitive cost.

The changes in educational delivery will embrace many issues, ‘ quality' being one of great importance. Can professional schools or programs be offered in ‘ totality' by distance education? Professional accreditation has been a traditional vehicle for establishing quality assurance for the public, patients, students, and institutions where programs are located. Over the last several years, accrediting agencies have made changes in their policies and procedures to respond to institutional concerns about cost while maintaining standards. However, a recent report by the Pew Task Force on Accreditation of Health Professions Education cited the accrediting community with diminishing guarantees of quality and lapsing into a process that focuses more on rigid compliance with arcane rules than improving the quality of educational programs.

In contrast to the conclusions reached by this controversial report, NAACLS has been reviewing its policies and working to streamline its processes. Further, it has always encouraged and fostered development of innovative programs. Volunteers and staff will need to continue to be proactive in planning for future accreditation standards and guidelines. We have passed the crossroads of the ‘ old way' of doing business and the demands for a ‘ new way' and are heading down the latter road. NAACLS is promoting a process of guided self-evaluation and self-improvement and, as in the past, focuses on student learning outcomes. Therefore, we must carefully define the criteria and tools for the assessment of student learning outcomes for distance education.

Questions that need to be discussed and resolved include, but are not limited to, the following:

• How can we assure that the outcomes of distant education activities are comparable to those of traditional programs?
  
• Do we need new Essentials or will our current ones work?
  
• Do we need two sets of Essentials? Can we offer laboratory courses via the web?
  
• How will we evaluate web-based courses, and will these courses need to maintain objectives in the three domains of cognitive, psychomotor and affective?
  
• Should there be designated faculty or site/clinical coordinators at each site, and should the distant faculty have some type of faculty appointment with the primary institution?
  
• If we have numerous educational settings, how can the primary institution assure curriculum planning, coordination of classroom teaching, and supervised clinical education?
  
• If these courses are offered at community colleges or hospitals, will we need any type of affiliation agreement?
  
• Should distant sites be visited during the site visit?
  
• How will these multi-sites be considered in light of accreditation fees?
  
• With the decrease in clinical affiliates, can students get adequate laboratory/clinical experiences if they cannot be associated with a student laboratory?
  
• If these distant sites are in remote areas, will they have the availability of advanced equipment to learn techniques?
  
• Can ‘ virtual laboratories' be established to provide comparable outcomes as clinical supervised laboratories?
  
• What criteria will be used to determine adequate resources for programs with distant learning components?
  
• What type of faculty development will we expect for the faculty utilizing these new technologies?
  

These are only a few of the questions to be considered as we move our accreditation efforts into the new millennium. We must remain proactive in maintaining the quality of innovative programs so that students can assume their rightful place in the 21 st century marketplace.

Submitted:
Shirley Richmond, EdD, MT(ASCP), CLS(NCA)
CLSPRC General Educator Member
Associate Dean
School of Allied Health Sciences
University of Texas Medical Branch
Galveston Texas

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