Online Teaching Course Accreditation Committee
Accreditation
Why Accreditation?
Accreditation helps prospective students determine if an institution meets or exceeds minimum standards of educational quality. This allows students to confidently choose only quality courses from institutions they know can be trusted. It saves students time and money because they can feel secure that there will be consequences if an accredited institution fails to provide what they promise, since an accreditor has the power to remove accreditation status. Further, course accreditation helps employers determine if specific online programs are fit for their employees to progress their knowledge on a chosen subject. Graduates are able to sit certification examinations in the knowledge that their certification will be taken seriously in the outside world: by employers and governmental agencies. Finally, the ongoing accreditation process creates goals for institutional self-improvement, since should never simply be a check and forget process.
WHAT OUR ACCREDITATION PROCESS ENTAILS
The OTCAC accreditation process entails:
- the institution or course-provider preparing a self-evaluation report: a detailed self-assessment of how the institution meets accreditation standards as set out in the official standards checklist
- a visit by OTCAC staff to the provider’s official website (unless the site is currently under construction; in which case a full website plan will need to be included with the self-assessment document) and an official report prepared by OTCAC’s team of educators or administrators with specialized expertise in the discipline being taught by the course, who determine whether or not accreditation standards are being met
- a final review and accreditation decision made by the accreditor’s decision-making committee. The Committee members typically include education administrators, faculty,members of the public and/or other experts in the education field, but it may consist of a minimum of two committee members.
ACCREDITATION STANDARDS
PROCESSING TIME
While OTCAC always aims to expedite the process of accreditation, helping course-providers to offer their education and training services to the public, we cannot veer from our duty to thoroughly and objectively assess each course. Therefore, we do not promise to accredit courses within a fixed amount of time, since we recognize that each course is necessarily unique and may require greater or lesser time to be spent assessing its material and handbook than previous courses examined. Generally, we try to finish the whole process within 90 days, but longer or more demanding courses will inevitably require a longer period of time to evaluate thoroughly. Once a course has received initial accreditation, it is a more streamlined process to continue its accreditation status because it involves a company filling in a questionnaire pertaining to any changes in the course from initial accreditation status such as changes in the wording of student documentation or the training material itself, a long with any student feedback concerning the course.