Distance Education Quality: The Resources--Practices--Results Cycle and the Standards.

Overview & Synopsis

The development and implementation of effective distance education happens in an iterative cycle. The three stages are: (1) procurement and preparation of the resources necessary to meet the distance education goals; (2) delivery of instruction using the best practices from education, business and research; and (3) analysis of the results of distance education to gauge achievement of the goals. Each stage of the Resources--Practices--Results (RPR) cycle continually revisits lessons learned in the other stages and builds upon the successes realized in the other stages. This paper explores the match among the established success factors incorporated into the RPR cycle and six sets of distance education standards published by higher education boards and councils in the United Kingdom and in the United States at national and regional levels. There is variation in the degree to which the standards address the RPR success factors. (Contains 15 references.) (Author)