There’s a terrific e-book by Diana Oblinger called, “Learning Spaces”–previously known as classrooms. If you’re involved in classroom design this is must reading. Here’s a link to the e-book: http://www.educause.edu/content.asp?PAGE_ID=10569&bhcp=1
The U.S. Department of Education published an excellent report that helps identify quality benchmarks in distance education. Titled “Evidence of Quality in Distance Education Programs Drawn from Interviews with the Accreditation Community”, it can be found at http://www.ysu.edu/accreditation/Resources/Accreditation-Evidence-of-Quality-in-DE-Programs.pdf.