Paradigm Shift

Ever ask yourself exactly what a college degree means? Does it mean verified knowledge of the relevant subject matter – competence – or simply that the person holding the degree spent enough time in class, writing papers or taking tests to qualify? How would the world change if people were accorded degrees on what they know versus a course of training, much like some home-schooled kids take the GED exam to generate the equivalent of a high school diploma?

“IN 1893, Charles Eliot, president of Harvard, introduced to the National Education Association a novel concept: the credit hour. Roughly equivalent to one hour of lecture time a week for a 12- to 14-week semester, it became the basic unit of a college education, and the standard measure for transferring work between institutions. To be accredited, universities have had to base curriculums on credit hours and years of study. The seat-time system — one based on the hours spent in the classroom — is further reinforced by Title IV student aid: to receive need-based Pell grants or federal loans, students have had to carry a certain load of credits each semester.” Anya Kamenetz writing for the October 29^th New York Times.

Online education is gently tugging at this standard, but still, time watching online courses is still measurable and can meet the Pell and general degree requirements. Giving people a degree based completely or significantly on their knowledge is a startling departure. We see visiting professors who have held prominent positions in government and industry, without regard to either teaching credentials or even whether or not they hold a college degree. You wonder if that system might be applicable to students as well. We’ve seen people taking advanced placement exams to get by basic college credits, sometimes just “testing-out” for required curricula, and clinical programs and special projects that are given coursework equivalents. Executive MBAs minimize classroom time with online study, team-learning and project evaluations. There are ways.

With about 37 million American college dropouts, the potential for rounding out their educations or providing them with job-enhancing degree endorsements has never been more important. As the increasing cost of college has been a multiple of the cost of living rises, too many are forced out of higher education because of money. Scholarships are fewer, loans have become impossible burdens in an uncertain job market, bankruptcy from student loans is almost impossible, but people need to have verified skills to move ahead in too many careers. The system is broken, it would appear. Is it time for a change?

“In March of this year, the Department of Education invited colleges to submit programs for consideration under Title IV aid that do not rely on seat time. In response, public, private and for-profit institutions alike have rushed out programs that are changing the college degree in fundamental ways; they are based not on time in a course but on tangible evidence of learning, a concept known as competency-based education.

“The motivation for ditching time is money. This August, at Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pa., President Obama issued a call to improve college affordability that went beyond boilerplates about loans and Pell grants. He proposed a rating system that would attach federal higher education dollars to a college’s cost effectiveness and student performance. ‘Colleges have to work harder to prevent tuition from going up year after year,’ the president said. ‘We’re going to encourage more colleges to innovate, try new things, do things that can provide a great education without breaking the bank.’” NY Times.

New structures, with both student and faculty mentors, allow students to learn by doing rather than by sitting in classrooms. These are the updated clinical programs of old but with a little more student centric awareness. Costs drop somewhat, and the course of study is anything but standardized. And there is still much resistance in the trenches. Old line professors wonder where the interactivity of the classroom, the eye-to-eye contact with in class dialectics, finds a comparable solution in self-study. They argue at least for a strong mix of self-study and actual interaction.

There are big issues as well as to the criteria for the equivalency tests, which are still all over the map. “[T]he newer programs rely entirely on assessments created in-house, and the quality will surely vary widely. For example, [Zach] Sherman completed his College for America degree without writing anything longer than a 1,500-word research paper; other ‘deliverables’ included PowerPoint presentations, blog posts and ‘Internet Scavenger Hunt’ results.” NY Times.

Other universities and educators are concerned that these part-time, self-directed students will dilute the reputation of the school itself, perhaps of the value of their degrees in general. “‘It’s a red flag to me, the idea that this is going to be more personalized, more flexible, more accountable to the consumer,’ says [Amy E. Slaton, a professor of history at Drexel University, an outspoken critic of competency-based education]. ‘If you are from a lower socioeconomic status, you have this new option that appears to cost less than a traditional bachelor’s degree, but it’s not the same product. I see it as a really diminished higher education experience for less money, and yet disguised as this notion of greater access.’” NY Times.

In the end, there will be solutions, but that we are experimenting with alternative programs is a good sign. The ultimate test for the system? Employers, the global marketplace and society in general will be the judge.

I’m Peter Dekom, and the sheer pressure of contemporary economic realities dictate a deep and necessary change in our overall educational methods and processes.