Financial Aid Fraud in Distance Learning

If you are an administrator at an institution that offers hybrid or fully online courses, you might consider reviewing the Department of Education's report "Fraud in Postsecondary Distance Education Programs" published in October of last year.

Available in PDF format here: DOE Report

Two days after this report was published, a New York Times article was released titled, "As Online Courses Grow, So Does Financial Aid Fraud"

Verifying student identity is a key component to preventing this type of nonsense. Institutions will have two choices moving forward: create cost and time intensive internal measures, or select an outside vendor experienced in dealing with these types of issues.

What is your institution doing?

Digital Proctor Awarded Top 100 Product of 2011

Digital Proctor Awarded Top 100 Product

Readers’ Choice Top 100 Products of 2011 District Administration magazine, A Leading Provider of Smart Solutions for K12 Administrators

District Administration Announces Its Readers’ Choice Top 100 Products of 2011 from a Record Number of Nominations. All Products Are Credited with Making a Difference in Education by Helping to Support Education Innovation.

Contact: Judy Faust Hartnett, editor in chief of District Administration magazine jhartnett@districtadministration.com

Norwalk, Conn. – November 21, 2011 —The 100 winners of the District Administration Readers’ Choice Top 100 Products of 2011 were announced today.

The prestigious acknowledgement is given annually to K12 education products that have supported education innovation. The winners werehttp://www.spectrumk12.com/exceedautodemo selected by the editors of District Administration from hundreds of nominations submitted by readers, including school superintendents and district-level directors in districts across the United States. The winning products were determined by the quantity of nominations received per product, as well as an evaluation of product quality based upon readers’ nominations and explanations.

The District Administration Readers’ Choice Top 100 Products awards program provides senior district leaders with the unique opportunity to learn what products their colleagues around the country are using and how these products contribute to the success of their districts. There were a record number of nominations this year.

“The nominations offer a view into the inner workings of how districts use products to help solve particular issues,” says District Administration’s editor in chief, Judy Faust Hartnett. “The recommendations we receive include extensive descriptions from school administrators of how these products are used in their districts and the difference they have made, making it very challenging to choose only 100 products. We hope these products and their accompanying testimonials will provide a valuable resource for our readers.”

About District Administration

District Administration is a monthly publication covering all of the important topics faced in today’s K12 school systems. With a circulation of more than 73,000, District Administration reaches top decision-makers in virtually every school district across the country. Subscribers are district-level leaders in K12 education, including superintendents, assistant superintendents, curriculum directors, business officers, IT directors and federal funds administrators. For more information, visit www.DistrictAdministration.com.

Cheating in the Digital Age - From Schools.com

Interesting infographic from Schools.com:
Courtesy of: Schools.com

It's Not Just About the Erase Marks

As I pointed out in our sister-blog at studentidentityverification.com, a recent article in Bloomberg spotlights a growing trend in K-12 education, in which teachers are changing student answers on standardized exams to ensure proper passage rates.

"People are quick to blame standardized exams for being inherently too "high stakes" and therefore say that this type of behavior is almost a natural product of a system that relies on such tests.

There's a parallel between this type of activity in K-12 and situations where faculty members in higher education feel like they have to lower their standards and just let students, who otherwise wouldn't, pass their course to meet metrics like graduation rates, etc. 

De-emphasizing high stakes exams is often touted as a solution, but that's just adding tape and gum to a leaky pipe and ignores the underlying problem. Namely, that students do not know the material."

-StudentIdentityVerification.com