Founding vision by Professor Steve McCarty in Japan
The vision of WAOE began with the opening Keynote Address of the Third Annual Teaching in the Community Colleges Online Conference (7 April 1998), which included a digital video Steve made on a seashore in Japan that was hosted by the University of Hawaii. From the Abstract: "This presentation is a call for action as well as interaction. By what academic standards and ethics can online teaching be developed into a professional discipline? Does it need a pan-disciplinary guild? Is a new world association for online education needed? For online teaching to be professionalized, practitioners must be duly rewarded, and the vast amount of voluntaristic research necessary to reconstitute Academia in cyberspace must be recognized by academic institutions. A global and multicultural perspective is also needed for a new century that should be a co-creation of Westerners and non-Westerners."
22 Objectives and Purposes from the WAOE Bylaws as an NPO
The primary objectives and purposes of this corporation shall be:
(a) to organize a worldwide professional association of educators who use or wish to use online computer technology for education,
(b) to advance the development, implementation, evaluation, and administration of online education in all fields of learning,
(c) to advance technical and institutional support for practitioners,
(d) to encourage the dissemination of online education, its related technologies, needed skills, and perspectives as a discipline,
(e) to promote scholarly activities which systematically apply educational theories and research to online education,
(f) to sponsor both voluntary and professional activities, providing online communication forums, online conferences, an electronic journal, and other online publications,
(g) to organize ongoing asynchronous and synchronous online communication channels by which members exchange ideas and engage in scholarly discussions of issues related to online education and in pan-disciplinary subject areas at all levels of true education,
(h) to serve the need for online education to become a professional discipline based on sound pedagogical principles and humanistic ethics,
(i) to promote the deserved enhancement of the professional status of online educators, technology specialists, and administrators who implement online education responsibly in terms of pedagogical principles and humanistic considerations,
(j) to promote professionalism and high quality in online education so that such educational methods merit recognition as equally valid as pre-World-Wide Web approaches to sharing reliable knowledge, conducting specialized training, and certifying educational attainment,
(k) to develop sites referencing educational resources in various fields based at servers throughout the world and providing information on sources of reliable knowledge or discussions in various fields of learning, with annotations and links to sites recommended for research and to educational programs partly or wholly online after review for pedagogical effectiveness,
(l) to organize expertise in online educational issues to serve the professional needs of practitioners,
(m) to assist practitioners in the conceptualization, planning, construction, administration, and evaluation of online instruction, as well as in the selection and use of academically reliable online resources in face-to-face courses,
(n) to be supportive of beginning practitioners and those with little choice but to offer elements of courses online,
(o) to apply time-honored academic standards and ethics to new educational media,
(p) to guide the development of standards for online education, which in turn provide criteria for the evaluation, certification and accreditation of online learning programs,
(q) to defend the integrity of the online educational profession by rectifying misinformation about the Internet and education, and by condemning unsubstantiated claims and practices judged to constitute a misuse of educational technology for purposes ulterior to education,
(r) to provide channels for educators in similar fields or for interdisciplinary projects, whether the educators or students are in proximity or geographically distant, to join in collaborative and cooperative development and delivery of online courses and resources,
(s) reflecting the global potential of Internet technologies, to fill the need for an organization of worldwide educators, one that is unencumbered by geography, physical travel, paper publications and other material means of production that must be subsidized by members,
(t) to maintain a global perspective as a world organization, supporting multilingualism and multiculturalism in online education, preserving human rights to diversity and mutual respect despite differences, and encouraging intercultural sensitivity and world reconciliation through intercultural communication among global citizens,
(u) to be as inclusive as possible in scope, serving the aspirations of all members and working for equitable access to online education and to membership,
and,
(v) as world civilizations become digitized, to create an organization that can function entirely with digital technologies and thus provide worldwide access to its activities, research, and support.
(a) to organize a worldwide professional association of educators who use or wish to use online computer technology for education,
(b) to advance the development, implementation, evaluation, and administration of online education in all fields of learning,
(c) to advance technical and institutional support for practitioners,
(d) to encourage the dissemination of online education, its related technologies, needed skills, and perspectives as a discipline,
(e) to promote scholarly activities which systematically apply educational theories and research to online education,
(f) to sponsor both voluntary and professional activities, providing online communication forums, online conferences, an electronic journal, and other online publications,
(g) to organize ongoing asynchronous and synchronous online communication channels by which members exchange ideas and engage in scholarly discussions of issues related to online education and in pan-disciplinary subject areas at all levels of true education,
(h) to serve the need for online education to become a professional discipline based on sound pedagogical principles and humanistic ethics,
(i) to promote the deserved enhancement of the professional status of online educators, technology specialists, and administrators who implement online education responsibly in terms of pedagogical principles and humanistic considerations,
(j) to promote professionalism and high quality in online education so that such educational methods merit recognition as equally valid as pre-World-Wide Web approaches to sharing reliable knowledge, conducting specialized training, and certifying educational attainment,
(k) to develop sites referencing educational resources in various fields based at servers throughout the world and providing information on sources of reliable knowledge or discussions in various fields of learning, with annotations and links to sites recommended for research and to educational programs partly or wholly online after review for pedagogical effectiveness,
(l) to organize expertise in online educational issues to serve the professional needs of practitioners,
(m) to assist practitioners in the conceptualization, planning, construction, administration, and evaluation of online instruction, as well as in the selection and use of academically reliable online resources in face-to-face courses,
(n) to be supportive of beginning practitioners and those with little choice but to offer elements of courses online,
(o) to apply time-honored academic standards and ethics to new educational media,
(p) to guide the development of standards for online education, which in turn provide criteria for the evaluation, certification and accreditation of online learning programs,
(q) to defend the integrity of the online educational profession by rectifying misinformation about the Internet and education, and by condemning unsubstantiated claims and practices judged to constitute a misuse of educational technology for purposes ulterior to education,
(r) to provide channels for educators in similar fields or for interdisciplinary projects, whether the educators or students are in proximity or geographically distant, to join in collaborative and cooperative development and delivery of online courses and resources,
(s) reflecting the global potential of Internet technologies, to fill the need for an organization of worldwide educators, one that is unencumbered by geography, physical travel, paper publications and other material means of production that must be subsidized by members,
(t) to maintain a global perspective as a world organization, supporting multilingualism and multiculturalism in online education, preserving human rights to diversity and mutual respect despite differences, and encouraging intercultural sensitivity and world reconciliation through intercultural communication among global citizens,
(u) to be as inclusive as possible in scope, serving the aspirations of all members and working for equitable access to online education and to membership,
and,
(v) as world civilizations become digitized, to create an organization that can function entirely with digital technologies and thus provide worldwide access to its activities, research, and support.
Further Links
Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation submitted to the State of California in becoming a non-profit public benefit corporation (NPO) in 1998.