About IDECC and QCR
The International Distance Education Certification Center (IDECC, www.idecc.org)
is a non-profit organization dedicated to the mission of promoting quality
in distance education through the establishment and monitoring of standards
for course delivery. IDECC is dedicated to providing resources that aid in
the understanding of issues related to distance learning and encourage its
effective use. IDECC provides a service to distance education courses providers
with its program to review course delivery in light of the established standards
for instructional design and delivery, and to issue IDECC certification to
those courses structured to ensure quality delivery. Regulatory agencies
often require proof that such standards have been met, which IDECC certification
documents. IDECC first began providing course review services to professional
industries such as real estate and appraisal. In 2006 IDECC modified
its standards to apply to the Higher Education sector and started providing
course reviews under the name of QualityCourseRecognition.com.
The QCR (Quality Course Recognition) self study process is based on the IDECC
Distance Education Standards which have been used for course reviews since
the year 2000. The QCR program has been designed exclusively for
academic institutions seeking a third party quality assurance review
of their distance learning programs. QCR is administered by IDECC which is
a non-profit organization dedicated to the mission of promoting quality education
through the establishment and monitoring of standards for course delivery. IDECC
was established in 2000 and is a subsidiary of ARELLO (the Association of Real
Estate License Law Officials)
Does the QCR program apply only to online courses? No, the IDECC standards
are developed in such a way that they can be used to evaluate the quality of
courses taught by various delivery systems including print, CD-ROM based courses,
online, television, and video conferencing.
With the proliferation of distance education in academia and industries like
real estate, appraisal and insurance, many governmental regulatory agencies
and accreditation bodies are concerned about issues found in distance education
delivery systems. A few of these issues include how to verify student identity,
verify clock hours or measuring appropriate levels of interactivity within
the course. Some regulatory agencies and academic institutions have chosen
to not allow distance education as a viable option to traditional classroom
education in their jurisdictions because of these major concerns. However,
as a substantial portion of existing research suggests, there is no significant
difference between the outcomes found in the traditional classroom verses the
distance education environment.
IDECC has been a catalyst for helping regulatory agencies in the U.S. and
Canada and now academic institutions understand the dynamic issues in distance
education and helping them ensure quality in distance learning programs.
IDECC is a subsidiary of the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials
(ARELLO). In 2000, ARELLO approved the formation of IDECC to extend the scope
of its involvement in distance education. The ARELLO Board of Directors assigns
their Education Certification Committee to administer distance education programs
IDECC would be involved with. The programs are administered by a group of distance
education professionals of whom all have advanced degrees in their areas of
study. The Education Certification Committee is made up of regulatory and educational
specialists from across the U.S. and Canada and is accountable to the ARELLO
Board of Directors.
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