We’ve noted for some years now that the big kahuna of change in learning options and access and employment opportunities is “Accreditation”. Assuming access becomes less and less of an obstacle, what will be left in the way of OTL will be accreditation “gatekeepers” wanting to charge a hefty toll to pass GO.
Here’s a 3 part series on Accreditation by Ben Miller at New America Ed Central:
As we saw in another recent post, online learning business models are sometimes based on the idea of not charging for content at all, but charging for accreditation for “learning that content”. That was the MIT approach, which still stuns: get all the world class content they have to offer for free, and only pay if you want their diploma and certificates.
So it’s a very “hot” question as to who is going to be the gatekeeper for recognition of learning activities and skills acquired? How much is it going to cost? Will it be effectively regulated? Will it serve the interests of those trying to accomplish career foundations, and workforce development?
What is presently in place has the classic signs of an “industry” or “institution” ripe for “disruption”. Higher Education costs are way beyond the “absurd level”, like the price for Tulips in Holland back in the day…..and college or other degrees from educational institutions are increasingly viewed as unreliable indicator to employers of “learned and capable” employees.
With learning tool accèss now spreading rapidly through the cloud, and various agents of change out there trying to create a new way of doing accreditation… something apparently has got to give. Here’s another article on how it might be transformed from Slate.