Deans are asked to review the information below related to:

1. Planning New Distance Education Programs
2. Approval Authorization Processes
3. Projections and Funding
4. Minimum Cohort Admissions

Planning New Distance Education Programs

Each new program proposed for distance education delivery should be approved by the dean of the college before the department chair or academic program coordinator approaches the Office of Distance Education with the proposal. When the Director of the Office of Distance Education is notified that an academic department is interested in offering a new program, a contact will be made back (by the Director of Distance Education) to the Dean to insure that he or she approves of the offering and the proposed instructional delivery methodology. The proposed distance education program must be approved by A P & P before it can be proposed for delivery off-campus (whether site-based or online).

The time line for rolling out the proposed programs (for both new programs and sites not currently approved by SACS/GA) should take into account that several levels of approval/authorization may be required depending upon the status of the proposed program. The time line should also take into account the time needed to market the program before the application deadline. A 2008 EduVentures study found that the average length of time between the point at which prospective distance education students first hear about a program and the point at which they make the decision to apply ranges from 25 weeks for undergraduates to 33 weeks for doctoral program candidates. While these numbers are averages, when combined with other factors (the need to gain any required approval/authorization, time to market sufficiently to meet acceptable enrollment levels, and application deadlines), they indicate that planning needs to begin a minimum of 1 year in advance of the planned start date.

In some cases, new site locations for programs previously approved by the dean will require approval by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Commission on Colleges (SACS, COC) and/or authorization by the UNC General Administration (GA). In these cases, deans will not be asked to approve the program again before the approval/authorization paperwork is initiated; however, they will be asked to approve the final versions of all paperwork to be submitted to SACS and/or to the General Administration for the site approval. The Director of Distance Education will identify which approval/authorization process is required, and the assigned distance education program manager will initiate the associated paperwork and work with the academic program coordinator to complete it.

Colleges and departments are asked to confer with the Director of Distance Education before selecting and publicizing any new location as some types of locations are preferred over others for support or approval purposes and some sites may lead to objections from other institutions or agencies. The director can provide guidance on why a site might or might not be a good idea and can seek pre-approval from institutions or agencies that may have a stake in the placement of programming in a particular location.

Approval and Authorization Processes

Deans are asked to help stress the importance of early planning when they are approached by academic departments with plans to offer distance education programs. For information specific to the various approval and authorization processes, please click on the links below:

• Campus Approval Procedures
• SACS, COC Approval Procedures
• General Administration Authorization Procedures
• U.S. Dept. of Education (Financial Aid) Approval for Sites and Programs

Projections and Funding

Distance Education Student-Credit-Hour (SCH) funding is based on projections made 2-3 years in advance of the academic year in which the funding is received. Since SCHs produced by distance education programming (and/or courses) in summer are funded by state appropriations, departmental program/course projections must include all summer term distance education courses (on campus summer courses are not included in the projections). The process used to project student-credit-hours (SCH) for distance education program is a separate, different process than the one used for courses offered on the main campus. Deans will be asked at various times throughout the year to gather, from their academic departments, SCH data to support projections and to verify distance education SCH production for current year funding.

Instructions for completing Distance Education SCH Projection worksheets [pdf 275k]

Minimum Cohort Admissions

Deans are responsible for setting the minimum number of students that must be admitted to program cohorts in order to let them go forward and the deadline by which that number must be achieved. Minimums and deadlines may differ by program level, type, and delivery method, and should be communicated firmly to the department chairs and the academic coordinators, so that the expectations are clear. Cohorts with low admission numbers often end up with far fewer at the end of the schedule of courses due to attrition which can stretch valuable resources and sometimes result in a less than optimum educational experience for students and faculty. Early and thoughtful planning can help avoid many of the problems that lead to low admissions and ultimately result in either "pulling the plug" on a cohort at the last minute or making the decision to go forward with fewer than the minimum number of students. Distance Education supports whatever minimum admission number is set by the deans.