Components of quality in distance education - Distance education guidelines from different countries

As distance education has become popular with students, educational institutions have seen it as a chance to increase their quality/quantity trade-off. This gives rise to the potential for 'digital diploma mills'. However, distance education students have the freedom to move and will if the quality, in their eyes, deteriorates. Potential students therefore need a reliable indicator of quality that enables them to navigate the huge number of distance education courses available. This paper reviews how some distance education providers and accrediting bodies regard quality by looking at the guidelines that they have developed. It proposes the main components of guidelines that could be used to determine a quality distance education course from the viewpoint of the educational institution and the student.