Online Learning Consortium Awarded Nearly $1 Million Federal Grant to Establish the Digital Learning Accreditation Agency (DLAA)

New initiative will advance quality assurance for online and hybrid postsecondary programs nationwide

January 2026 — The Online Learning Consortium (OLC), a global nonprofit organization shaping the future of high-quality digital learning, has been awarded a four-year, $999,679 grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) to establish the Digital Learning Accreditation Agency (DLAA).

The DLAA will be a new programmatic, or specialized, accreditor dedicated exclusively to evaluating the quality of online, digital, and hybrid postsecondary programs. Its scope is intentionally centered on program-level review rather than institutional oversight, with an emphasis on the instructional, organizational, and strategic elements that define effective digital learning—including instructional design, learning environments, faculty preparation, assessment practices, learner support systems, and program governance, mission, and strategy. Together, the DLAA’s defined focus and the grant initiative behind it position the project to respond to growing national concerns about how quality is defined, evaluated, and communicated in rapidly evolving digital learning environments.

Administered by the U.S. Department of Education, FIPSE supports projects that strengthen quality, accountability, and innovation across higher education. The FY 2025 Special Projects competition emphasized accreditation reform as one of its priorities—particularly efforts that respond to new instructional models, emerging technologies, and the evolving needs of today’s students. OLC’s selection reflects both the national demand for improved quality assurance in digital learning and the strength of the DLAA vision.

“Digital learning now serves the majority of postsecondary students in the United States, creating an opportunity to strengthen quality assurance for online and digital programs,” said Jennifer Mathes, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of the OLC. “This grant allows us to collaborate on the development of a programmatic, or specialized, accreditation model that reflects how students learn today while supporting continuous improvement and maintaining rigor, transparency, and accountability.”

For more than two decades, OLC has served as a national leader in digital learning research, professional development, and quality frameworks. The DLAA initiative builds directly on this work, translating OLC’s evidence-based approaches, such as its widely used Quality Scorecards, into a formal accreditation model that supports continuous improvement across institutions and programs. The DLAA is designed to complement, not replace, existing institutional accreditation by offering a program-level pathway focused specifically on digital learning quality.

“The DLAA gives the field an opportunity to rethink how quality is defined and evaluated in online and hybrid environments, and importantly, how we both communicate and demonstrate that to public stakeholders,” said Madeline Shellgren, Ph.D., Project Director for the DLAA and OLC’s Director of Accreditation and Strategy. “We look forward to working collaboratively with institutions to develop an accreditation model that is rigorous, evidence-based, and genuinely useful for improving digital learning experiences for students.”

Over the four-year project period, grant funding will fully support the development of the DLAA, including the development and validation of digital-learning-specific accreditation standards; the establishment of independent governance, including a Board of Commissioners and Advisory Committee; the creation of accreditation policies, procedures, and reviewer training; and a series of pilot accreditation reviews conducted with diverse postsecondary institutions. An evaluation will assess the clarity, reliability, and effectiveness of the standards and processes, informing refinements throughout the project and supporting preparation for a future federal recognition application.