Ratings, Quality, and Accreditation: Policy Implications for Educational Communications and Technology Programs in a Digital Age

At a time when higher education is being pushed not only to increase efficiencies to provide greater value and to innovate to meet new global challenges, processes of accountability and accreditation to demonstrate quality may be leading to conformance and a one-size-fitsall model of what institutions and programs should be. Further, in the public marketplace, rankings are increasingly viewed as key quality indicators not only for students and their parents in making educational choices, but to administrators who perceive these as important for their institutions’ futures and funding. The influence of markets and accountability policy as increasingly major drivers of change impacting the field of educational technology are reviewed from historical and current perspectives. Leadership roles that the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) and its members might develop in response to these expanding pressures are proposed which may lead to higher visibility for the field, greater policy advocacy, and new research agendas. In particular, the issues of quality assessments and visibility are viewed for ensuring higher education programs in the educational technology field continue to provide excellence and value to future professionals.