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Statement of Commitment to Standards for Distance Education and Off-Campus Instruction at Texas A&M University
A summary of information required in all requests to offer degree programs by distance education.
The Office of the Chancellor, the Board of Regents, and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board will evaluate all requests to offer degree programs by distance education based on the following criteria. Please explain how the degree program submitted for approval meets each criteria.
- Quality Standards. Instruction must meet the quality standards that an institution requires of similar instruction offered on-campus to regularly enrolled students.
- Admission. Students must satisfy the same requirements for admission to the institution, to the program of which the course is a part, and to the class/section itself, as required of on-campus residents. Students in programs to be offered collaboratively must meet the admission standards of their home institutions.
- Faculty. Faculty must be selected and evaluated by the same standards, review, and approval procedures used by the institution to select and evaluate faculty responsible for on-campus instruction. Institutions shall provide training and support to enhance the added skills required of faculty teaching classes by instructional telecommunications. Providers of graduate-level instruction must be eligible to teach graduate level instruction in residence.
- Instructor of Record. The instructor of record must participate in the delivery of instruction and evaluation of student progress.
- Instruction. All instruction must be administered under the authority of the same office or person administering the corresponding on-campus instruction. The supervision, monitoring, and evaluation processes for instructors must be comparable too those for on-campus instruction.
- Support Services. Students must be provided academic support services including academic advising, counseling, library and other learning resources, tutoring services, and financial aid that are comparable to those available for on-campus students.
- Facilities. Facilities (other than homes as instructional telecommunications reception sites) must be adequate for the purpose of delivery instruction that is comparable in quality to on-campus instruction.
- Institutions must also adhere to criteria outlined by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. See SACS criteria.
At the end of your Statement of Committment, attach the approval page [PDF] signed by your department head, graduate advisor, program director, and dean.