In continuing with the Problogger 31 Day Challenge today’s assignment is to write a link post.  My chosen link is to the about.com blog on distance education and a post in particular dealing with whether or not your school of choice is acredited.  It is really no surprise that there is a blog on distance education on About.com, this website is a rich source of information on just about any subject.

When I attended Ashford I really didn’t think about whether or not their distance education program was accredited considering that the brick and mortar campus has been in existence since 1918.  Using the website listed to reach the U.S. Department of Education’s College website I was able to obtain the following information.  While not specifically on Ashford it cover distance education programs in the state of Iowa as well as 18 other states.

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, The Higher Learning Commission
1952/2008/Fall 2012

Scope of recognition: the accreditation and pre-accreditation (”Candidate for Accreditation”) of degree-granting institutions of higher education in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, including tribal institutions, and the accreditation of programs offered via distance education within these institutions. This recognition extends to the Institutional Actions Committee jointly with the Board of Trustees of the Commission for decisions on cases for continued accreditation or reaffirmation and continued candidacy. This recognition also extends to the Review Committee of the Accreditation Review Council, jointly with the Board of Trustees of the Commission, for decisions on cases for continued accreditation or candidacy and for initial candidacy or initial accreditation when there is a consensus decision by the Review Committee.

Sylvia Manning, President

If you are still in research mode for a distance education institution the search that I did took less than a minute and gave me all the information that I needed to know about my particular school.  With the increased popularity of distance education I am sure thare are some “schools” that are cropping up that are scams. It is nice to know that there is a resource out there to help narrow down the choice of schools to attend online.

I highly reccommend adding the distance learning blog to your daily reading so that you can be up to date on additional things regarding making the journey back into higher education.