Today's blog post comes from the Chronicle of Higher Education. Ever the critic of distance education, Rep. Vernon J. Ehlers, Republican of Michigan, has introduced legislation that would require scientific scrutiny of online learning. The Independent Study of Distance Education Act of 2007, H.R. 412, would direct the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a study comparing distance-education programs to classroom instruction. The same measure was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2005 but was killed during House-Senate negotiations. In an interview with The Chronicle last year, the congressman talked about diploma mills and his concern that some distance education institutions could confer meaningless degrees.
"As a scientist, I strive to base my policy decisions and voting on reliable studies and data," Representative Ehlers said in a written statement released on Tuesday. "Unfortunately, when it comes to the Higher Education Act and distance education, there is no scientifically correct, statistically valid study of the quality of online distance-education programs as compared to campus-based programs." -- Andrea L. Foster
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