Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments The next great edumacation disaster?

Oh dear.

The New York Times has an article about a new trend called competency based learning. That means you pay to enroll in an online university and you keep taking tests until you pass. This proves your competency. At a certain point, you do enough to get a degree.

It seems that this model is great because it cuts down on that pointless (read: expensive) time waster, instruction by experts and class time. Faculty members become "mentors" (presumably via email).

Reading this article is giving me a stitch in my side. It's that painful. I'm hoping that this is all an exaggeration, but knowing the education industry (Pearson is getting involved; did I even need to write that?), this is just the latest scheme to soak students.

Here are some highlights:


This one is even worse:


In the Competency-Based(tm) Virtual College there is apparently no need for pesty little things like factual knowledge or the use of sources to support what you write (unless a few pictures count as all you need for legitimate sources of historical information). ETA: Let alone discussions about nuances in a subject with an expert. Oh no. That is so last century.

Honestly, mastery-based learning is an AWESOME-- really, fabulous beyond words-- thing for gifted learners.

It really is.

HOWEVER, just like calculus for everyone in tenth grade, or analyzing Shakespeare's villians in context for middle schoolers, it's probably not a great idea for everyone.

{sigh}

I do wish that some of this stuff could just BE for the sake of all of our kids who need it... without educrats jumping on the bandwagon and striking up a rousing rendition of We're in the Money with it.

No, sorry, but just because it's a great thing and gifted students make GREAT use of it, it does NOT follow that forcing everyone to DO things that way makes everyone gifted.



You know how we were talking about the teaching of logic and fallacies in that other thread? Yeah-- that.

This is coming from much the same place (well, okay, on the non-profit side, anyway) as "Algebra for ALL 8th graders" did.

With non-gifted students, I think that primarily, there won't be much mastery.

With Pearson involved, it also strikes me as highly likely that there won't be much depth to "content" either, though, so that probably works out just fine. It's Choose Your Own Adventure for grown-ups.

LOL.

I think you are too pessimistic. There are many experiments going on higher education. Some will work, and some will not. It's not as if the current system works so well for everyone, especially if financial and opportunity costs are considered. The current Education Life section of the New York Times has several articles on "disrupters":

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/education/edlife/index.html

Innovation Imperative: Change Everything
By CLAYTON M. CHRISTENSEN and MICHAEL B. HORN
Online education is beginning to show itself as a disruptive innovation, introducing more convenient and affordable services that can transform sectors.

Are You Competent? Prove It.
By ANYA KAMENETZ
College leaders say that by focusing on what people know, not how or when they learn it, and by tapping new technology, they can save students time and lower costs.

For Profit and People
By ANYA KAMENETZ
At UniversityNow, adaptive learning and low tuition replace lecture halls and federal financial aid.

The Value in a Free Degree
By LAURA PAPPANO
Four years in, students are beginning to graduate from the nation’s first free online university. What is their credential worth?

Harvard-Size Ambitions
By ANYA KAMENETZ
Building a new global model from scratch.

There may be a dichotomy, but some may place this dividing line between those who may be autodidacts and others, rather than between gifted and others.

Some individuals are highly skilled in the types of focused research which help them develop depth, breadth, and understanding (ie: competency, mastery) of a topic, whether they are enrolled in a course or not.

To encourage growth mindset, life-long learning, and a society supporting innovation and job creation, all interested persons need to be affirmed in their quest for additional knowledge... whether this may be reading library books, earning advanced degrees, studying at local community colleges, online, or some combination of these varied types of learning.

For many years, accredited brick-and-mortar universities have offered advanced degrees to select individuals with corporate sponsorship, for part-time attendance in "executive" weekend programs. Knowing individuals in both the "regular" advanced degree programs and the "executive" programs raised awareness of a great disparity in rigor, time commitment, volume of homework, type of assessment, and grading. Those paying for their own educations and of whom many more deliverables were required received a regular advanced degree which was often not as highly regarded as the same advanced degree from the same institution's "executive" program. Which leads me to the point that unfortunately our society may be more focused on maintaining a status quo rather than valuing a growth mindset, effort, grit, and results. (This manifests differently in conflating achievement with giftedness in developing gifted programs for students in elementary/middle/high school.) As this applies to the online colleges: those students learning or providing proof of prior knowledge by this economical means, may unfortunately find that accreditation of the institutions may be withheld out of a sense of fear on the part of established brick-and-mortar institutions who may not want a portion of the population of potential university students to forego college debt while cobbling together a unique collection of courses which fuels their pursuit of a potential career. The focus being on an institution's and industry's financial wealth rather than being on the amount of knowledge imparted and application of the knowledge inspired in students.

While some may rest on their laurels, or benefit from opportunities made available through nepotism, or boast of credentials, or exaggerate their contributions to sound a bit grander than they may be, others may be modestly pulling themselves up by their bootstraps, providing the solid foundation of knowledge, application, team building, and communication which propels many organizations and communities forward.

There may be a common misconception that the gifted are a top tier of individuals resting on their laurels, described with terms like elitist... when in fact they may also be the disenfranchised, seeking knowledge through every means possible, to better themselves and their communities.

In looking at many aspects and viewpoints regarding higher education, the future may be brightest if all forms of education are encouraged and valued, including online colleges.