Assess learning, not time. Anya Kamenetz, of the NY Post, reports on an emerging trend in higher education regarding how learning is assessed, and degrees are accredited. She writes,
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.
Dominate for over a century the credit hour system is finally being challenged by direct assessment (competency-based) programs. Assessing learning, rather than lecture time is not a new idea. However, the barrier to wide adoption in the past, has been that government student aid models were based on credit hour load. That is changing. In March 2013, the US Department of Education invited institutions to submit direct assessment programs for consideration under Title IV (student) aid eligibility.
“The motivation for ditching time,” writes Kamentz, “ is money.” That is, the problem is that higher education is becoming increasingly expensive. And improving affordability, requires institutions to make more radical innovations. Institutions leading the way include Western Governors University, College for America (an online arm of Southern New Hampshire University), Northern Arizona University’s new Personalized Learning Program, University of Wisconsin’s Flexible Option, and Capella University Capella’s FlexPath programs.
The emerging pressure being placed on higher education institutions to move away from the credit hour system is not merely a matter of the economics. It is also a reflection of how student learning is changing. Today, students have access to so much information, making time spent in “lectures” (or discussions) increasingly incommensurate with actual learning outcomes. The primary challenge going forward is how to effectively and consistently assess student competency. There are few existing standards of measure and those that exist seem to still vary widely. Making what a degree means, unclear.