What is the Higher Education Opportunity Act?
The Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) (PL 110-315) enacted in 2008, a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) of 1965, is a comprehensive law that includes many new provisions that improve the access to higher education for all types of students.
Higher Education Opportunity Act & Online Education
Section 602.17, Subsection G of the Higher Education Opportunity Act includes requirements for distance education programs in higher education receiving Title IV funding to verify the identities of distance education students. Programs must ensure that the student registering for a course is the same student who participates in the course or receives course credit by using at least one of three methods:
- A secure login and password, such as a Learning Management system username and password.
- Proctored exams.
- New or other technologies and practices which are effective in verifying student identification.
ProctorFree provides a solution for programs that verifies the identity of learners with all three methods listed by HEOA. During the ProctorFree experience, students access ProctorFree through their LMS login and password and take a proctored exam with our automated software that continuously verifies the identity of the test-taker.
You can learn more about HEOA on the U.S. Department of Education’s website.