What are the accreditation and certification issues in distance education?

Accreditation and the granting of credentials have traditionally been an institutional issue. But that is changing with the increasing internationalization of distance education, for several reasons:

• The increasing availability of courses from several sources
• The growing movement toward granting credit for assessed experiential learning
• The move away from the traditional assumption that credentials will normally be earned from a single institution.

The need for ready transfer of credit across institutional and even national boundaries has only grown with the development of private and corporate education programs delivered at a distance. In response to that need, several national and international agencies have been established to facilitate credit transfers. Examples of proposed and established agencies include:

• The CAT scheme operated by the former United Kingdom Council for National Academic Awards
• The Commonwealth credit bank proposed by the Commonwealth of Learning (COL)
• The Global Alliance for Transnational Education (GATE), based in Washington, DC.

• Elizabeth Ingham, Voluntary Accreditation in Europe