Distance Education Accrediting Commission's 93rd Annual Conference

On April 7-9, 2019, Christi Okuma, CCU’s Director of Compliance and Operations attended the 2019 DEAC - Distance Education Accrediting Commission’s 93rd Annual Conference in Miami, FL. As the accreditor for California Coast University, DEAC holds a conference and workshop each year in various locations around the country. The purpose of the meetings is to keep member institutions up to date on quality standards, governmental regulations, and on-going requirements for maintaining accreditation. CCU regularly attends all the workshops and conferences, along with completing online training.

The conference featured a keynote presentation from best-selling author and award-winning columnist Jeffrey J. Selingo, who helps parents and higher-education leaders imagine the college and university of the future and how to succeed in a fast-changing economy. The author of three books and a regular contributor to the Washington Post, Jeff is a special advisor and professor of practice at Arizona State University and a visiting scholar at Georgia Tech's Center for 21st Century Universities. He is the former top editor of the Chronicle of Higher Education, where he worked for 16 years in a variety of reporting and editing roles.

During the conference, there were presentations on the annual reporting process, student achievement, and data analysis. Throughout the workshop, there were multiple break-out sessions focusing on various accreditation standards designed to assist member institutions in the delivery of quality educational programming. The information presented is so valuable, as the U.S. Department of Education and the recognized accrediting agencies are increasingly requiring institutions to conduct internal research on student completion rates, satisfaction, retention and quality improvement processes and to report their findings.

Moving forward, it is imperative for California Coast University to keep up with the changing educational climate and DEAC helps us to do that. Thank you DEAC – Distance Education Accrediting Commission for another informative and helpful conference. Next up is the 2019 Fall Workshop to be held on October 6-8, 2019 in Chicago, IL. We will keep you updated!