Online education is among the most highly regulated sectors of U.S. higher education. IU Online provides institutional leadership in interpreting and implementing applicable laws and regulations and supports faculty and staff in understanding their compliance obligations. The University’s Compliance Office also maintains resources on its website, including summaries and links to training on federal and state higher education compliance topics.
The descriptions that follow are introductory and focus on compliance areas with particular relevance to online and distance education. While federal law is emphasized, related state laws, accreditation standards, and university policies may impose additional requirements.
The consequences of noncompliance are significant. In addition to potential institutional fines and, in some cases, disciplinary action for faculty or staff, noncompliance may affect the university’s ability to:
- participate in federal and state financial aid programs
- serve U.S. military members, veterans, and their families
- offer online courses and programs in certain states
- obtain approval for new courses and academic programs
Federal enforcement actions and oversight decisions illustrate how online education practices can conflict with complance requirements:
Title IV Compliance
The Department of Education’s (DoE) Office of Inspector General (OIG) found that Western Governors University (in 2017) and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College (in 2012) failed to adequately demonstrate “regular and substantive interaction” in its courses and recommended repayment recommended repayments of $713Mil and $42Mil respectively. These amounts were reduced after further DoE review.
The DoE continues to investigate misuse of federal student aid funds, including fraud schemes and administrative noncompliance, reinforcing ongoing Title IV enforcement risk.
ADA and Accessibility
The Department of Justice determined in 2017 that portions of the University of California, Berkeley’s online content were not accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act, leading the university to remove or restrict access to some materials.
Accreditation
Union Institute & University, a primarily online institution, closed in 2024 following loss of accreditation and financial instability affecting its participation in federal financial aid programs.
State Authorization
Olivet University lost authorization to operate in California in 2024 after state findings related to faculty qualifications, academic standards, and recordkeeping.
It’s important to note that monitoring for compliance is just the first step, and certainly not the last, in ensuring the quality of our online courses and programs. Ensuring compliance and quality starts with our faculty.
A Quick Review of Key Online Education Regulations
State Authorization
- IU must be authorized or exempt from seeking authorization in states where a student is taking online courses for that student to be eligible for federal aid.
- IU must provide certain public and individual disclosures regarding lead to licensure, and adverse actions taken against the institution or programs.
- All IU campuses are members of NC-SARA, a reciprocity agreement for state authorization that has its own policies and procedures that IU must comply with, including adherence to C-RAC guidelines for the evaluation of distance education.
- Learn more: IU Online State Authorization; NC SARA
Federal Student Aid Eligibility for Distance Education
- All online courses offered by IU campuses should meet the definition of “Distance Education,” 34 C.F.R. 600.2, to ensure individual campuses and programs do not lose Title IV student aid eligibility.
- Certificate programs comprised of “Correspondence Courses” cannot be paid for with federal student aid.
- If more than 50% of courses or students enrolled in courses are designated as “Correspondence,” the entire institution can lose Title IV eligibility.
- Having planned, instructor-initiated, regular-and-substantive interactions between instructors and all students will help ensure courses are considered “distance” rather than “correspondence.”
- Lean more: Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) Distance Education.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
- Course content must be equally accessible, meaning individuals with disabilities must be able to acquire the same information at the same time, engage in the same interactions, and use the same services as individuals without disabilities, in an equally effective and integrated manner, with substantially equivalent ease of use.
- Per IU policy, all IU webpages must comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1, level AA, which includes captioning live and previously-recorded videos, providing alternative text on all images, and ensuring content is compatible with assistive technologies (in addition to several other standards).
- Learn more: IU Non-Discrimination Policy; WCAG 2.1 Introduction; Accessibility at IU
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
- FERPA prohibits the unauthorized disclosure of personally identifiable information contained in education records.
- In digital environments, personally identifiable information is particularly vulnerable to outside threats. However, security tools as well as information privacy and security training and resources are available through several IU offices, including IU’s Data Management Counsel and the IU Privacy Portal. Please also consider completing the online tutorial on data protection and privacy, available on IU Expand.
- Learn more: Protecting Student Privacy - U.S. Department of Education
Military Service Members, Veterans, Military Family
- Under Presidential Executive Order 13607, active military service members, veterans, and family members of a current military service members or veterans are entitled to specific disclosures regarding cost, financial aid, typical borrowing practices, and institutional performance data. Each IU campus devotes staff and resources to aid service members, veterans, and military family.
- In addition to submitting a complaint through IU’s grievance procedures, students protected by this Executive Order may file complaints directly with the Department of Defense. Complaints may be based on a variety of topics, including the cost of attendance, marketing practices, graduation rates, program quality, employment prospects, and course credit. IU Online describes a separate complaint process for service members, veterans, and military family.
- Learn more: Military One Source
Ways to Ensure Compliance
While IU Online is charged with providing leadership for the university’s online education compliance, ensuring compliance is a shared responsibility across many university units, campus administration, academic units, and individual faculty. We believe everyone plays a role in avoiding risk and liability. We offer several opportunities for university faculty and staff to learn about compliance issues, course design, and how to deliver coursework that meets the expectations and requirements of regulators and accreditors:
- University Technology
Secure and accessible technology is key to delivering digital education. UITS offers a suite of enterprise software provided to faculty and departments for low- or no-cost to support the delivery of online coursework. Faculty are strongly encouraged to use university-supported software for their classes. It is important for faculty and departments to understand the risks, liabilities, and costs they assume when incorporating non-approved technology into their classrooms.
For a list of the technology already supported and approved for use in online courses, please visit Technology for Teaching. However, we understand that, to provide a world-class education, faculty may wish to incorporate technology that has yet to be reviewed for enterprise adoption and support. In these cases, we encourage you to reach out to Learning Technologies to explore potential solutions.
- Course Design
The online classroom presents opportunities and risks that face-to-face classrooms traditionally have not experienced. Because attendance and engagement is not obvious through a physical presence in a brick and mortar space, faculty and students can only be determined as present and active through regular, customized interactions that support the traditional content (lectures, exams, assignments, etc.). Thoughtful course design can support compliance through creating the spaces where faculty and students are drawn together for planned and sustained discussion, evolving debate and idea-sharing, and iterative individual and group feedback. Examples might include:
Planned, regular instructor-initiated communication with individual students concerning course content through email, discussion forum, or another preferred medium
Weekly instructor feedback tailored to a specific class’s performance on an assignment (as opposed to prepared feedback that could easily be delivered to any section of a particular course)
Scaffolded assignments in which students have the opportunity to revise and resubmit assignments based on instructor’s feedback (which creates a space for student-faculty dialogue)
Assignments in which students are expected to respond to contexts that are unique to their own experience and for which they receive instructor feedback customized to their output (e.g., Political Science students jointly create interview questions, then individually interview politicians in their own local area before comparing results with classmates in an effort to evaluate the impact of differing government behaviors, getting instructor input at each step)
Course design can also frustrate or foster accessibility. Allowing students some flexibility in how they will deliver evidence of their understanding, can decrease risk around accessibility. Allowing students to choose, for example, whether to submit a final paper or record a final talk or video presentation, allows students with differing needs to select the method that avoids any access barriers they may have due to a disability. In addition to reaching out to your Campus Center for Teaching and Learning to discuss accessibility strategies, we recommend viewing the Universal Design Learning (UDL) materials offered by the nonprofit education research and development organization CAST.
Addressing compliance concerns around engagement and accessibility generally leads to higher quality course design, including fewer student obstacles (technical or pedagogical), so it benefits the students, the university, and the instructor.
Stay Informed
When in Doubt, Ask
What constitutes compliance in online education is constantly evolving. Even the information on this page may be a bit behind, and so it’s imperative that we stay in touch. If you have any questions regarding your courses or your academic programs, don’t hesitate to reach out to IU Online or your campus center for teaching and learning.