With support from a nearly $1 million U.S. Department of Education FIPSE grant, OLC is leading the creation of the Digital Learning Accreditation Agency (DLAA), a new programmatic accreditor focused exclusively on online, digital, and hybrid postsecondary programs.
Online and hybrid learning have become central to how postsecondary education is delivered—but quality signals in digital environments can be harder for students, institutions, and the public to interpret. DLAA is being built to meet that moment: a specialized, program-level accreditation model designed specifically for online, digital, and hybrid programs, with an emphasis on evidence that reflects how learning actually happens in technology-mediated settings. DLAA is in development and not yet operational, and it does not claim recognition or accrediting authority at this stage.
DLAA is being established by OLC with support from a four-year, $999,679 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s FIPSE program. Over the project period, the work will focus on developing and validating standards; creating governance, policies, procedures, and reviewer training; running pilot accreditation reviews with diverse institutions; and using evaluation findings to improve clarity, reliability, and effectiveness—supporting readiness for a potential future federal recognition application. DLAA is designed to complement—not replace—existing institutional accreditation by offering a program-level pathway focused specifically on digital learning quality.
This project is supported by the U.S. Department of Education under Grant No. P116J250429. The content does not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and endorsement by the Federal Government should not be assumed. DLAA is funded through the U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) program under CFDA 84.116J (as listed in the grant award documentation).
Over the grant period, DLAA will produce a coherent, usable set of building blocks: (1) standards designed for digital learning quality, (2) processes and governance policies that support fairness and due process, (3) reviewer preparation and calibration methods that support consistency, and (4) supporting infrastructure for evidence intake, documentation, and transparency.
The scope is intentionally focused on building a model that can be tested, refined, and understood—so that claims about rigor, reliability, and feasibility are backed by documented artifacts and evaluation evidence (not marketing language).
Year 1 focuses on the foundation: establishing draft standards, core operating structures, and early readiness planning so the work is organized, traceable, and transparent from day one.
Year 2 expands into process design and operational tooling, including evidence guidance and reviewer preparation components.
Year 3 centers on pilot implementation and measurement—testing feasibility, consistency, and the experience of institutions and reviewers.
Year 4 focuses on final refinement, packaging, dissemination, and recognition-readiness preparation (including assembling documentation and evidence trails that demonstrate procedural integrity and defensibility).
DLAA is being developed by a dedicated project team supported by the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), which provides administrative, operational, and project infrastructure to ensure the work stays on schedule and is managed responsibly.
As the project evolves, the site will reflect both core leadership roles and the broader ecosystem of contributors—while keeping the emphasis on transparency about roles, decision-making, and accountability.
The DLAA initiative is led by designated project leadership responsible for coordinating development, managing timelines and deliverables, and ensuring the work aligns with recognition expectations over time. The leadership team’s role is to keep the project grounded—connecting standards development, process design, evaluation, and governance into one coherent system.
Executive oversight from OLC leadership provides fiscal monitoring, operational support, and continuity across the full grant period. This structure is designed to ensure the project is not only innovative, but also well-managed, compliant, and able to sustain progress across four years.
DLAA is being built with field participation. Working groups and volunteer contributors help pressure-test drafts, identify practical constraints, and improve clarity so outputs are usable across different institution types and contexts.
There will be multiple pathways to contribute, from low-lift feedback (commenting on draft artifacts) to structured participation (working groups, pilot participation, reviewer preparation pilots, or research/evaluation support). As opportunities open, this site will publish time expectations, participation criteria, and what contributors can expect in return (e.g., visibility into outcomes, learning community, published acknowledgments where appropriate).
Participation is designed to be feasible and scalable—recognizing that institutions and individuals have different levels of capacity. When engagement requires a heavier lift (like pilots), DLAA will provide clear guidance about effort, timelines, and what participation does—and does not—mean during development.
Trust is built early through governance clarity. DLAA is designing governance structures that emphasize independence, procedural integrity, conflict-of-interest controls, and transparent decision-making—so the model is defensible and understandable to the public and to federal reviewers.
This site will publish governance documentation as it becomes available, including committee purposes, decision rights, and how recommendations are dispositioned. The intent is to make it easy for stakeholders to understand who decides what, how disagreements are handled, and how the project protects fairness while it evolves.
DLAA will use advisory structures that bring diverse expertise into the build process—ensuring the standards and processes reflect real institutional contexts and meet the expectations of a broad field. Advisory groups help refine domains, indicators, evidence expectations, and feasibility considerations over multiple revision cycles.
Advisory input strengthens “field acceptance” by making the work better, clearer, and more grounded—while maintaining a clear boundary between advisory recommendations and final decision authority.
From the start, DLAA is designing its work to be traceable: versioned drafts, documented rationales for changes, and clear records of approvals. This approach is meant to reduce ambiguity, prevent drift, and make it easy to understand what changed, when, and why.
Over time, the site can publish a “public record” view—showing what’s public, what must remain restricted (privacy, security, integrity of review tools), and how the project balances transparency with responsible handling of sensitive information.
DLAA is building a program-level quality assurance model designed specifically for online, digital, and hybrid postsecondary programs. This work is in development and will be tested and refined through pilots and evaluation during the grant period. The goal is a coherent, usable system—standards, processes, governance, and supporting infrastructure—that helps the field evaluate digital learning quality with rigor, transparency, and consistency.
This site will maintain an ongoing build log to share progress in a way that is useful to the field—not just promotional. Updates will include what changed, what we learned, what’s next, and how feedback is shaping revisions.
You can frame it as “learning in public”: publishing milestones, drafts, and revision rationales so stakeholders can track how the model becomes clearer and more defensible over time.
DLAA’s commitment to access and equity is not a sidebar—it’s part of how quality is defined and evaluated in digital learning. The project is designing standards, evidence expectations, and processes that reflect diverse institutional contexts and the needs of students who rely on digital access for participation.
This includes an emphasis on accessibility, transparency, and feasibility—so quality expectations are rigorous while still being realistic and fair across varying institutional capacities.
DLAA is committed to identifying and reducing barriers to equitable participation in project activities and access to project outputs. This includes designing materials and public resources to be accessible, and taking practical steps so stakeholders with different needs can engage meaningfully.
Accessibility is also a near-term compliance reality in the broader higher education environment. DLAA intends to publish and distribute materials in accessible formats and to treat accessibility as a core quality expectation—not an optional enhancement.
If you’re an institution, researcher, practitioner, or community member interested in the work, we welcome questions and engagement. The fastest way to connect is through the contact pathways listed on our Contact page; we also periodically publish opportunities to participate in feedback cycles, working groups, and pilots.
As DLAA evolves, we’ll keep this page updated with clear options for how to engage—whether you want to follow along, provide input, or participate more directly.
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