Standards, Accreditation, Benchmarks, and Guidelines in Distance Education

Standards are the results of concerted efforts to improve the quality of education found in distance education. Legal and ethical standards are needed to ensure a positive educational environment. Participants from different cultural, physical, economical, and intellectual backgrounds should have equal access to all the positive aspects of distance education. Standards support the consistent ways to maintain high quality distance education via collaborations among different regional institutions. They ensure the efficiency and usability of learning by reducing the differences between learning experiences of different regions. The standards allow all stakeholders access and adapt learning experiences based on their needs and learning goals.