The Department of Education has released a final rule updating the regulations that govern distance education in higher education. Work on the Distance Learning and Innovation regulation started more than a year ago with negotiated rulemaking, and the final rule reflects changes made as a result of a recent public comment period on the draft rule. The rule covers a wide variety of topics around the requirements for distance learning programs in relationship to eligibility for federal financial aid, including a focus on updating regulations to reflect current technologies and innovative instructional design methods.
Particularly important to CTE, the new regulations will allow asynchronous distance delivery of some courses or portions of courses delivered as part of clock hour programs, including those at area CTE centers. While area CTE centers have been given flexibility to offer courses by distance learning during the pandemic, this change will allow clock hour programs to continue offering both synchronous and asynchronous remote experiences to students in the future, provided other requirements of the rule are met. This was a big victory for clock hour CTE programs, and one ACTE and our partners at Advance CTE, as well as many members, had weighed in on during the public comment period.
The new regulations will take effect July 1, 2021, but the press release on the rules stated that “institutions have the ability to voluntarily utilize the new flexibilities as soon as the regulation is officially published in the Federal Register,” which should occur in the next few days. You can view the full rule and a fact sheet on the Department of Education’s website.
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