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What is WAOE?

The World Association for Online Education (WAOE) is a nonprofit public benefit corporation registered in 1998, and in continuous operation since then. It is not organized for the private gain of any person. It is organized under the Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law for charitable purposes.

The specific purposes for which WAOE is organized are to develop, support, and evaluate computer-assisted online education as a professional discipline, based upon sound pedagogical principles and humanistic ethics, and the voluntary efforts of educators so involved throughout the world.

Specifically, the objectives of WAOE are:

(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.