All proposed programs must be approved through the campus AP&P approval process and must be on the General Administration's Institutional Inventory before they can be proposed for distance education delivery. Campus procedures include all required departmental, college, and institutional approvals. The time needed to pursue campus approvals should be taken into account when setting the "roll out" semester.

Online courses to be offered as part of site-based or online programs may, at some point, be required to undergo a campus quality review process. This is not currently in effect but is under consideration. Should this requirement be set, information will be provided here.

Campus Procedures for Submitting Paperwork to Seek UNC General Administration Authorization and SACS Approval for Distance Education Programs

Effective 9/1/2011 all proposals for GA Authorization and SACS Approval for Distance Education programs, cohorts, and sites will be submitted to Academic Affairs, to General Administration, and to SACS in batches following the deadlines provided in the table below.

Note:  The notification of Intent to Plan (Appendix F) and Request to Establish a Distance Education Program (Appendix G) are forms required by UNC General Administration and are located at http://www.northcarolina.edu/aa_planning/de/index.htm. The Appendix G doubles as the SACS Prospectus when required.

Department deadlines for submitting the final version of the Appendices F and G for each program/cohort/location are as follows:

Ideally, every program will seek authorization and approval much earlier than the deadlines. The earlier the Request to Establish is authorized by GA and approved by SACS, the earlier the program can be marketed and the application opened (both are prohibited until both GA and SACS approvals have been received for the program, cohort, and/or site).

Authorization/approval requests received after the stated deadlines will be re-dated and submitted for the following semester. The Director of Distance Education will notify the Dean, Department Chair, and Academic Program Coordinator if start date changes, due to failure to meet the deadline, are made to the original proposed start semester.