Submitting a Program for Distance Delivery

Graduate programs, particularly master’s programs that provide workforce development, are Texas A&M’s current focus for distance education. The University wants to increase the number of students in master’s programs in two ways: (1) by delivering entire master’s degrees by distance or (2) by delivering certificates composed of a subset of courses from a distance master’s program. To offer an existing program by distance, a university must receive permission from the governing board of the institution. The Provost then notifies both Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the Coordinating Board of the board’s decision.

Steps required for submitting a program for distance delivery:

1. Obtain the department head’s and dean’s approval for offering the existing or proposed program by distance.
2. Notify the Office of Distance Education about plans to offer the program via distance. If the program is part of Texas A&M’s approved degree inventory, proceed to the next step below (Step 3).

    

   If the degree is a new degree program, it must be approved by the college sponsoring the degree, the Graduate Council, the Faculty Senate, the Provost, the President, the Board of Regents, and then the Higher Education Coordinating Board.

   Recommendation: If your department is developing new master’s degree programs, please consider including distance delivery in the new program proposal. That way, if you decide to deliver the program by distance, you can do it without further approval.

3. The Office of Distance Education will work with departments and faculty to help develop the proposal. Both the Coordinating Board and the Southern Association of College and Schools require that all distance education courses and programs meet specific criteria. The Coordinating Board requires the following criteria be met:
   • Instruction must meet the quality standards which an institution requires of similar instruction offered on-campus to regularly enrolled students.
     
   • Courses which offer either regular college credit or continuing Education Units must do so in accordance with the standards of the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
   • 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 are required of on-campus students.
   • 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 must provide training and support to enhance the added skills required of faculty teaching classes via instructional telecommunications.
   • The instructor of record must participate in the delivery of instruction and evaluation of student progress.
   • Providers of graduate-level instruction must be approved by the graduate faculty of the institution.
   • 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 to those for on-campus instruction.
   • Students must be provided academic support service—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 (other than homes as instructional telecommunications reception sites) must be adequate for the purpose of delivering instruction which is comparable in quality to on-campus instruction.
4. Submit the draft of the degree program proposal to the Office of Distance Education. Be sure to complete and attach the form which shows that the department head and the dean of the college approve the proposal. (A copy appears at the end of this section.)  The Office of Distance Education will establish a committee which will examine the degree program proposal. 
5. Once complete and approved by the college and the Office of Distance Education, the proposal will be delivered to the Office of the Executive Vice President & Provost. Items required by the Board of Regents will be prepared and the proposal, with attachments, will then be forwarded to the Texas A&M System Chancellor for presentation to the Board of Regents. 
6. Once the program is approved by the Board of Regents, the proposal will be returned to the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost, which will send the proposal to the Coordinating Board. A letter will be attached that states the Board of Regents has approved the program for distance delivery