Popping the Next Bubble
February 28, 2009 – 7:10 pm On the subject of the coming tectonic shift in higher education, Excelsior College is not alone in challenging the status quo.
From Western Governors University, operated by a consortium of 17 western states, plus the State of Illinois:
(for one of their graduate IT degrees)
How This Program Works
WGU offers degrees, not classes.
WGU does not rely upon classes in the traditional sense. We don’t base your progress on accumulating credit hours, but rather on completing challenging assessments that measure your knowledge and skills in a subject area. We ask you to “prove you know your stuff.” You’ll study. You’ll write papers. You’ll take tests. You’ll complete assignments.
Here’s how it works:
- Your degree requirements are carefully developed to give you high-level competence in information security, assurance, and other IT subject areas.
- You must pass or complete rigorous assessments (tests, papers, assignments) which will require you to demonstrate your competence in each subject area.
- You will work with your assigned mentor on your personalized Academic Action Plan (AAP) that establishes the pace at which you prepare for and tackle the required assessments in your course of study.
- Each term is a full six months in length. During each term, you can complete as much of your degree as possible.
- Progress is measured through Competency Units (CUs), which are credit equivalents that track your completion of the required assessments. To maintain full-time status, you are expected to complete at least 8 CUs in a term; more are possible.
- You and your mentor will determine the learning resources (online courses, textbooks, tutorials, etc.) that will best serve you in your competency development.
- With few exceptions, you will be able to choose when and where you study, and together with your mentor, you’ll schedule your assessments.
It’s your program.
Online learning isn’t easy. You should expect to work hard and spend 20 hours or more per week on your studies. Your program, however, will be flexible enough to fit into your lifestyle, not the other way around.
******
WGU may be one of the next-generation equivalents of the Ivy League. (We can turn Harvard and Yale into theme parks…)
2 Responses to “Popping the Next Bubble”
One of the burrs under my life’s saddle is that brainless suited weenies judge people on their pieces of paper rather than any demonstration of skill and experience. Where would Abe Lincoln (or Madison or ……) been if no one thought him credible because of some lack of worthless sheepskin.
You hard science people are exempted in many regards from this burr.
By Nik on Feb 28, 2009
That’s why I support non-traditional education. I was turned on to CLEP (the “College Level Examination Program”) by a 1980 commercial featuring Abe Lincoln in an advanced American History class. As the Professor asks questions, Lincoln’s hand is always up. the Prof. asks, “Hmm,, Lincoln, I see that you’re a feshman; how did you get into my advanced American History class?” Lincoln’s reply is that he had some experience, and…
CLEP is all about what you know, not how you learned it. without CLEP, I would not have a college degree. I agree that, hard science excepted, credentialism is generally a bad thing. But since we are living in a society that insists on credentials, then Excelsior, WGU, and programs like CLEP allow us autodiadacts to show what we know.
I have more to say on this subject in a future post. For now, let me recommend Ivan Illich’s “Deschooling Society” as one of the best reads I’ve found on the subject.
CLEP website: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/clep/about.html
By ssgconway on Mar 1, 2009