Distance Learning Policy Laboratory

The Board approved the establishment of a Distance Learning Policy Laboratory to support SREB's technology initiatives by focusing on significant policy barriers in distance learning. The Policy Laboratory began its work in 1999 with support from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education and the Stranahan Foundation. A Leadership Group of nationally recognized leaders in higher education, a state partner's network, and more than 100 administrators, faculty and distance learning experts participated in the Policy Laboratory's work. Seven detailed reports on key policy issues were published, with more than 70 recommendations to colleges and universities, states and SREB.

The Policy Laboratory focused on three overarching themes in distance learning:

• Increase access;
• Improve and ensure quality; and
• Drive down costs.

The results of this effort form the basis of a working agenda for SREB, detailed in  Technology Can Extend Access to Postsecondary Education ─ An Action Agenda for the South.

Additional Outcomes

National Town Hall Meeting results were reported in A Compilation of Executive Summaries and Recommendations of the Seven Reports and Rankings of the Recommendations from the National "Town Meeting" Conference September 17-18, 2002.

Costing and Financing Instructional Technologies in Higher Education: Practical Lessons and Policy Implications, May 14-15, 2002.

The Southern Regional Education Board's Distance Learning Policy Laboratory and Virginia Tech's Executive Forum in Information Technology hosted a small symposium on March 28, 2001, in Atlanta of well-informed practitioners to discuss a wide spectrum of issues surrounding security, access, and privacy in higher education. The intent was to prepare a set of background papers that would be used to structure discussion by a larger group that was looking broadly at the impact of information technology on higher education.