Distance Education Courses

Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) Chapter 4, Subchapter P, states that distance education is the formal educational process that occurs when students and instructors are not in the same physical setting for the majority (more than 50 percent) of instruction. Two categories of distance education courses are defined:

Fully Distance Education Course 

  • A course which may have mandatory face-to-face sessions totaling no more than 15 percent of the instructional time.   Examples of face-to-face sessions include orientation, laboratory, exam review, or an in-person test.

Hybrid/Blended Course

  • A course in which a majority (more than 50 percent but less than 85 percent), of the planned instruction occurs when the students and instructor(s) are not in the same place. 

Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS)

  • For the purposes of the Commission on College’s accreditation review, distance education is a formal educational process in which the majority of the instruction (interaction between students and instructors and among students) in a course occurs when students and instructors are not in the same place. Instruction may be synchronous or asynchronous. A distance education course may use the internet; one-way and two-way transmissions through open broadcast, closed circuit, cable, microwave, broadband lines, fiber optics, satellite, or wireless communications devices; audio conferencing; or video cassettes, DVD’ s, and CD-ROMs if used as part of the distance learning course or program.