RESOLUTION by the World Association for Online Education (WAOE) Board of Directors, April 2006.
Whereas WAOE's Bylaws, membership and affiliation policies are in public view at
the http:/waoe.org Website,
Whereas WAOE is a membership organization consisting only of individual members,
Whereas WAOE has no organizational or legal relationship with any group entities
other than those specified at the above Website, which are the few and sole
exceptions to the provisions herein,
Whereas WAOE does not accredit, recognize, affiliate with, evaluate the
legitimacy or quality of any organization including those having to do with
online learning,
Whereas the role of WAOE in international society as an academic organization
where members express informed opinions may be misunderstood as legally or in
any way binding either as encouragement or censure of particular practices in
the online education field, therefore the purely scholarly nature of WAOE may
need to be reconfirmed,
Whereas its Articles of Incorporation state that WAOE "is not organized for the
private gain of any person. It is organized under the Nonprofit Public Benefit
Corporation Law" of the State of California,
Whereas, whether due to misunderstanding or for private gain, there have been
cases where the logo and/or name of WAOE have been misused to imply
accreditation or recognition by WAOE of entities purporting to provide online
learning or degrees, and membership privileges of individuals joining WAOE do
not extend to groups or organizations they belong to outside of WAOE, while
WAOE is able neither to know and therefore pass judgement on the nature of
other entities nor in some cases to stop online learning or degree providing
entities from displaying WAOE's name and/or logo to imply a relationship or any
form of approval where in fact there is none,
And whereas, WAOE officers are often contacted by underprivileged individuals
particularly in developing countries hoping to improve their educational
credentials, but who have evidently been deceived by the juxtaposition of
WAOE's name and/or logo by other entities without the permission of WAOE, and
given the limitations of WAOE in enforcing and publicizing the policies
outlined above,
Be it resolved that WAOE Directors shall at least summarize the nature of WAOE
in the above respects by way of announcements on related professional networks
and as prominently as possible on WAOE Websites.