West Coast University Panamá BASIC PROVISIONS

The main thing to have in mind, in order to comply with the Panamanian law for distance education is the fact that the main regulation covers all the educative offers in which are used the information and communication technologies, such as: E- Learning, tele-teaching, telematics teaching, distributed education or a combination of this variants and others. In that sense, Executive Decree No. 949 offers guidelines and standards that will allow to promote a organize development of the teaching – learning at a distance process, in the scope of university education or others higher education institutions, to reach quality academic levels.

BASIC PROVISIONS

1. The universities and other distance higher education institutions that offer courses, careers or distance study programs, should include in their General Regulation, the relative procedures to this modality used individually or as a combination of various; this being: blended, no-presence, virtual or telepresence. These procedures should include the following aspects: the planning, management, administration and evaluation of these programs, the entry, permanence and discharge of the participants, as well as the selection criteria and performance evaluation of the teaching staff.

2. The universities and other distance higher education institutions that offer courses, careers or distance study programs in the blended, no-presence, virtual or telepresence variants, taught by universities and other higher education institutions established outside of Panama, shall have the documentation that legalizes and recognizes such study plans and programs in their country of origin, complying with the current legal provisions in our country on this subject.

DESIGN REQUIREMENTS

1. The distance study plans and programs can have variants according to their coverage, which must be clearly explicit for the records, among others:

• Courses and Programs not requiring attendance with technological support (traditional technology, such as printed media, radio use, television or modern technology).

• Blended courses or programs, with or without virtual components.

• Virtual courses or programs.

• Telepresence courses or programs.

To comply with the creation and execution requirements for plans and programs in the blended, no-presence, virtual or telepresence variants, the universities will send the Technical Control Committee the following information with their respective components for their approval:

For the Academic component:

• Description of the pedagogic model that sustains the program.

• Characteristics of the student population that will be served, selection, admission, permanency, discharge and graduation regimen of the program.

• Permanent orientation and capacitation program for all the participants.

• Methodological strategies for the attention of the participants.

• Policies for the instructional design, areas and investigation lines, the creation of investigation groups or projects associated with the program, intervention model and/or the professional practice and the elaboration of didactic materials or resources: printed, digital, audiovisual or multimedia.

• Study plans and assignments programs with the curricular design in the proposed modality.

• Evaluation criteria of the blended, no-presence, virtual or telepresence learning.

• Permanent training in pedagogy and technology for facilitators.

• Evaluation policies for facilitators.

The Technological component:

• Description and evidence of the technological infrastructure and of the interactive educational platform, installed and operational.

• Description and evidence of the technical support requirements for the performance of the participants and facilitators, among others: means for the didactic and administrative interaction, servers, bandwidth, information security and contingency plans, basic and virtual libraries, data base, audio systems, print or video conference, satellite transmissions and virtual classrooms, radio, television, computers, specialize and computer science laboratories, internet, among others.

The Management Component:

• Description of the administrative program, with the specifications of the functions of all the attached personnel: facilitators, technicians, administrative and service personnel.

• Location, endowment and administration of the headquarters, extensions, associated centers and university facilities, if applicable.

• Description of the basic and complementary resources that ensure the operation of the distance higher education process.

• Definition of the indicators, standards and internal policies for the evaluation and the assurance of the quality of the distance higher education system.

• Authentic copy of the national and international conventions, if they exist, that would support the program.

The information that this article refers to can be presented in PDF format or an equivalent, in a CD or any other storage device.

The approval of the study plans and programs of these variants will be subject to evaluation and supervision on-site by specialist evaluators of the course, career or study program.

OF THE DISTANCE PROGRAMS

1. The programs, subjects or courses that use the distance modality must be evaluated and approved with the corresponding study program and the guides and instruments considered necessary and indispensable for its development.

DIDACTIC GUIDES

The universities or other distance higher education institutions that offer distance courses or study programs must have internal regulations that establish their operation, and the guide elaboration process, their validation, as well as their review period.

TECHNOLOGICAL PLATFORM

The technological platform of a university or other distance higher education institution must contain the following elements:

• Synchronous and asynchronous communication tools such as: forums, chat, e-mail, bookmark, instant messages, contacts, among others.

• Interaction and collaborative work, auto-evaluations, co-evaluations and hetero-evaluations tools, participants’ profiles, calendars, aid, among others.

• Course administration tools that allow access, navigation and collaborative and productive work between the participant and the facilitator or tutor.

PERSONNEL THAT WORKS IN UNIVERSITIES OR DISTANCE HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

1. The universities or other distance higher education institutions that offer distance courses or study programs must have a technical team of specialists with an academic coordination, responsible of following up and promoting the development of the courses that make possible the achievement of the objectives provided in this module.

2. To be a facilitator or tutor in an undergraduate, grade and graduate program in the blended, no-presence, virtual or telepresence variants, it is require besides what is establish in the in person modality, the following:

• Accredit basic training in the distance modality, certified by a competent institution.

• Show confirming documentation of his pedagogical and technological competence to perform as a facilitator in this modality.

PHYSICAL STRUCTURE

1. The universities or other distance higher education institutions that offer distance courses or study programs must have facilities conditioned for the development and maintenance of the academic, technological and administrative functions required for the impartation of this study modality.

Finally, The Universities must submit to the institutional accreditation, and the careers and the programs in their distance modality, blended, no-presence, virtual or telepresence variants according with the guidelines of CONEAUPA, based in Law 30 of july 20th of 2006 and provisions concordant and regulatory of the Law.

ALEXANDER GARCIA LOPEZ

ATTORNEY AT LAW