A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an "open enrollment" for students who have graduated from high school. The term usually refers to a higher educational institution that provides workforce education and college transfer academic programs. Some institutions maintain athletic teams and dormitories similar to their university counterparts.
Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at a school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance. Traditionally, this usually involved correspondence courses wherein the student corresponded with the school via mail. Today, it usually involves online education and the learning is usually mediated by some form of technology. A distance learning program can be completely distance learning, or a combination of distance learning and traditional classroom instruction. Other modalities include distance learning with complementary virtual environment or teaching in virtual environment (e-learning).
Continuing education is an all-encompassing term within a broad list of post-secondary learning activities and programs. The term is used mainly in the United States and Canada.
Bircham International University is a private, unaccredited institution of distance-learning higher education. It is registered in Spain and Delaware, and formerly operated from the Bahamas.
The Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC), formerly the National Home Study Council and then as the Distance Education and Training Council, is a non-profit national educational accreditation agency in the United States specializing in the accreditation of distance education programs of study and institutions. The U.S. Department of Education identifies DEAC to be among the recognized institutional accrediting agencies in the U.S. that are reliable authorities on the quality of education offered by the institutions they accredit.
Rushmore University is an unaccredited institution of higher learning offering online degrees in a variety of business-related fields, exclusively via distance learning. It has been described as a diploma mill, providing illegitimate academic degrees and diplomas for a fee.
National Academy of Higher Education (NAHE) identifies itself as an organization specializing in evaluation of people's educational credentials. Some United States educational authorities identify it as an unrecognized accreditation organization or accreditation mill. NAHE charges fees for a service described as an evaluation of the educational credentials of clients who have studied in other countries or attained degrees through alternative methods.
The National Association of Private Nontraditional Schools and Colleges (NAPNSC) was a United States educational accreditation agency, based in Grand Junction, Colorado, that was not recognized by the U.S. Department of Education or the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. NAPNSC specialized in the accreditation of higher education institutions that exclusively offer distance education programs.
Independent study is a form of education offered by many high schools, colleges, and other educational institutions. It is sometimes referred to as directed study, and is an educational activity undertaken by an individual with little to no supervision. Typically a student and professor or teacher agree upon a topic for the student to research with guidance from the instructor for an agreed upon amount of credits. Independent studies provide a way for well-motivated students to pursue a topic of interest that does not necessarily fit into a traditional academic curriculum. They are a way for students to learn specialized material or gain research experience.
California Southern University is a private, for-profit, university in Costa Mesa, California. It offers associate's, bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree programs online in psychology, business and management, risk management and regulatory compliance, criminal justice, nursing, and education.
The Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges (ACCSC) is a private, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization in the United States that provides national accreditation to private post-secondary educational institutions. It is recognized by the United States Department of Education as an independent accrediting agency. Established in 1965, it is based in Arlington, Virginia.
Badrul Huda Khan is an author and educator focused on web-based training and educational technology. Khan recognized the potential of the World Wide Web for education early in 1996, and was invited to keynote the NAU/web98 conference, sponsored by Northern Arizona University. Professor Khan first coined the phrase "Web-based instruction" in his 1997 book Web-Based Instruction. He contributed to the development of US virtual education policies organized by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and the Naval Postgraduate School, the National Educational Technology Plan by the US Department of Education and the Review of Joint Professional Military Education organized by the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is a past president of the International Division of the Association for Educational and Communication Technology (AECT). Professor Khan is a United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) Hall of Fame Inductee.
The Arkansas Department of Education Distance Learning Center is a provider of real-time or synchronous elementary and secondary education classes for students throughout the state of Arkansas. The DLC currently teaches classes to almost 3,200 students, located at more than 100 schools around the state.
Higher education accreditation in the United States is a peer review process by which the validity of degrees and credits awarded by higher education institutions is assured. It is coordinated by accreditation commissions made up of member institutions. It was first undertaken in the late 19th century by cooperating educational institutions, on a regional basis.
Pre-tertiary-education accreditation is a type of quality assurance process used in the United States under which services and operations of pre-tertiary schools and educational institutions or programs are evaluated by an external body to determine if applicable standards are met.
Warren National University, previously known as Kennedy-Western University, was a post-secondary, distance learning, unaccredited private university that offered undergraduate and graduate degrees in the United States from 1984 to 2009. It has been described by federal investigators and news sources as a diploma mill, a designation it has disputed. Its administrative offices were located in Agoura Hills, California.
Assam Don Bosco University is a state private, non-profit, co-educational, Catholic research university located in Assam, India. The university was founded on March 29, 2008, by the Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB) and executed by the Don Bosco Society, Azara, Guwahati. The university was officially established through the Assam Don Bosco University Act, 2009, on 9 January 2009 and created under the Assam Private Universities Act 2007.
John Frederick Ebersole was an American educator, author, columnist, and president of Excelsior College. He served as president from 2006 to 2016, succeeding C. Wayne Williams, the founding president of the college.
