The Baylor College of Medicine Distance Education Committee will serve as the College’s primary recommending body on matters related to distance education – specifically, focusing on supporting excellence in distance education teaching and learning, recommending policies, procedures, and resources to support effective, innovative distance education at BCM; and support consistent and continuous commitment to improving student learning and success in the online environment.
Charge
The Distance Education Committee has the primary responsibility for the following:
- Serve as a resource for and advisor to the VP of Education Affairs in matters of policy, practice, and pedagogy regarding distance education instruction.
- Identify and recommend distance education best practices to support continuous improvement.
- Develop recommended policies, procedures, and processes related to distance learning requirements.
- Recommend, plan, and/or facilitate faculty development for faculty and administration engaged in or responsible for distance education courses.
- Work with the Office of Accreditation and Education Effectiveness to establish process(es) for adequate data collection regarding distance learning programs and courses that are comprehensive and accurate.
- Review new distance learning courses, modules, and programs and address the coordination of policies, programs, student support services,
Distance Education Committee Leadership
- Chair: Dr. Patrick Jefferson, Office of Education Affairs
- Administrator: Dr. Lizzie Babalola, Office of Education Affairs
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
- Chris Foster
School of Health Professions
- Maddie Hortenstine
- Abby Yesso
School of Medicine
- David Rowley
National School of Tropical Medicine
- Meishon Gipson
Academic IT / Policy/General Council
- Xenia Callier
Registrar / Instructional Designer / Academic Compliance
- Christina Jones
- Anita Vyas
- Elizabeth Babalola
Office of Accreditation and Education Effectiveness
- Ricky Mercado
National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements
The National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (NC-SARA) is a private nonprofit organization [501(c)(3)] that helps expand students’ access to educational opportunities and ensure more efficient, consistent, and effective regulation of distance education programs.
Recognizing the growing demand for distance education opportunities, higher education stakeholders – including state regulators and education leaders, accreditors, the U.S. Department of Education, and institutions – joined together in 2013 to establish the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements (SARA), which streamline regulations around distance education programs.
- Improves distance education program quality nationwide.
- Makes it easier for students to access distance education programs across state lines.
- Reduces costs and bureaucracy for states and institutions.
- Improves coordination between states on higher education opportunities.
- Provides valuable oversight of distance education programs.
- Shares out-of-state learning experience data like clinical hours and practice teaching.
Quality Matters
Quality Matters is an independent nonprofit organization with a peer-based approach to serving the education community across K-12, higher education and continuing and professional education.
QM aims to pursue quality assurance with an underlying principle of continuous improvement. QM’s goal is to encourage adoption and adaptation of the tools they provide, the standards and processes so they can fit the actual context in which the quality assurance needs occur for distance education. One thing to remember is that QM provides the tools that can inform larger quality assurance initiatives.
Quality Matters strives to provide an integrated quality assurance process but can be adapted to individual contexts for quality assurance. This can involve training and development of peer review teams who lead a self-review or informal internal review of Distance Education courses and programs.
- Rubric Standards
- Professional Development
- Course and Program Reviews
- A systematic quality-assurance process with continuous improvement and feedback loops
- Consistency and rigor in online course design reviews using a nationally recognized rubric instrument
- Trained peer review teams (faculty to faculty feedback and recommendations)
- Professional development and certification opportunities for faculty
- Documentation of quality assurance processes, measures and indicators for accreditation agencies such as SACSCOC
- Alignment to BCM’s core values of innovation, teamwork and excellence