jcummings's blog

The first-ever “Open Education Week” starts today and runs through Friday, March 10. Launched by the Open Courseware Consortium with the participation of nearly 100 colleges, universities, foundations, and other organizations from around the world, the purpose of the event is to raise awareness about the current and potential impact of open educational resources to advance educational access and achievement globally. U.S. Undersecretary of Education Martha Kanter will hold a conference call at 1:00 PM, EST, to highlight the U.S.

On a vote of 303-114, H.R. 2117, the House bill to repeal the U.S. Department of Education regulations on state authorization of online/distance learning and a federal definition of the credit hour passed. The bill now moves to the Senate, where companion legislation was already previously submitted but not acted on by the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP).

Inside Higher Education reports that the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote today on H.R. 2117, a bill to repeal the U.S. Department of Education's "program integrity" regulations mandating a federal definition of the credit hour and state authorization of online/distance learning programs as a condition of program participation in federal student aid. The article notes that the Obama Administration opposes the bill, as do some House Democrats, who have proposed various amendments to it. However, H.R. 2117 did receive some Democratic support in getting voted out of committee for consideration by the full House.

As mentioned last week, the higher education community anticipates that the U.S. House of Representatives will vote this week on a bill (H.R. 2117) to repeal U.S. Department of Education (ED) regulations mandating state authorization of online/distance learning and a federal definition of the credit hour. The bill also seeks to block any future attempts by ED to institute regulations regarding a federal definition of the credit hour. EDUCAUSE joined a letter released today by the American Council on Education (ACE) and supported by nearly 100 higher education associations and organizations urging House members to vote in favor of H.R. 2117.  We encourage EDUCAUSE members to read the letter and share it with others as appropriate.

Earlier this month, U. S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced the “Student Right to Know Before You Go” Act (Senate Bill 2098), which proposes to give students, their families, and the public at large a clearer understanding of what the relative costs and economic benefits are from pursuing particular courses of study at given institutions. The bill would achieve this by requiring colleges and universities to report individual student educational records to “statewide individual-level integrated postsecondary education data systems,” which would most likely be existing statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDSs). That would allow the data to be combined with K-12 and workforce data on individuals to permit public reporting of:

The American Council on Education (ACE) announced this morning that H.R. 2117, the House bill submitted last summer to repeal the U.S. Department of Education’s regulations extending state authorization requirements to online/distance learning and establishing a federal definition of the credit hour, will move to a vote of the full U.S. House of Representatives next week. The full text of the ACE notice is provided below.

Many thanks to Russ Poulin at WCET for uncovering the DC Circuit Court of Appeals hearing calendar (http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/sixtyday.nsf/fullcalendar?OpenView&count=1000) and highlighting that the U.S. Department of Education's appeal of a federal district court order overturning its state authorization regulations in relation to online distance learning will be heard today:

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 9:30 A.M. USCA Courtroom - Judges Rogers, Edwards, Ginsburg

• 10-1079 - American Petroleum Institute v. EPA, 20 minutes per side

• 11-5174 - Association of Private Sector v. Arne Duncan, 20 minutes per side

At the recent U.S. Senate hearing on technology accessibility that focused largely on higher education, “The Promise of Accessible Technology: Challenges and Opportunities,” Mark Turner, Director of the Center for Accessible Media at the California State University (CSU), presented his perspective on “the issues faced by postsecondary institutions as they work to ensure that technology used to deliver educational programs and services are usable by all students, staff, faculty, and members of the public—irrespective of disability status.” In doing so, he noted that the size and scope of the CSU, with 23 campuses serving 427,000 students a year, meant that the university system as a whole served enough students with disabilities (approximately 11,000) to populate a mid-sized university in their own right.

The U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee hearing entitled “The Promise of Accessible Technology: Challenges and Opportunities” also featured testimony from the National Federation of the Blind (NFB). Early in his comments, Mark Riccobono, executive director of the NFB Jernigan Institute for blindness research and training and a member of the Postsecondary AIM Commission, stressed the need to move from “the old accommodations model” for addressing accessibility to “a new paradigm of mainstream accessibility”:

The U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee recently convened a hearing entitled “The Promise of Accessible Technology: Challenges and Opportunities.” While the chair, ranking member, and witnesses all commented on the latter, the hearing primarily addressed continuing challenges to realizing the promise of technology in higher education for those with disabilities, drawing in part on the findings and recommendations of the Postsecondary AIM Commission. However, the opening witness, Eve Hill of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Civil Rights, first reiterated the DOJ’s earlier guidance on college and university technology adoption in relation to accessibility: