California Bill Brings Online College One Step Closer

In California, public college students are used to waiting to try to enroll in popular or required courses. But if a recently introduced state bill passes, those students will soon be able to take classes online instead of waiting in line.

The bill, introduced by California Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento), would allow students at public universities to take web-based “Massive Open Online Courses” (MOOC) to obtain academic credits in lieu of certain courses required to complete the degree. if places are not available in the campus sections of those courses. The credit would be awarded based on the recommendations of the American Council on Education. While faculty panels would have the opportunity to review courses online and choose appropriate replacements for overregistered tutorials, schools would no longer be able to withhold credit entirely for students seeking online alternatives.

The bill addresses a statewide problem of over-enrollment for introductory courses in core subjects, particularly at the community college level. The state’s community college system has been matched between budget cuts on the one hand and a growing demand for higher education on the other. As a result, last fall, three-quarters of California’s 112 community colleges were forced to turn away students. School waiting lists averaged 7,000 students. Even those students who can enroll often find themselves unable to enroll in the classes they need to graduate or continue their studies. Sometimes they have to spend additional semesters in school, just waiting for places to open in required classes.

The online replacement courses promoted by the bill would be offered by third-party providers, some of which are for-profit companies, such as Udacity, Straighterline, EdX, and Coursera. The program would be combined with an existing state effort to promote the use of free and open source textbooks, according to a press release from the 20 Million Minds Foundation, a California nonprofit that focuses on reducing costs. from textbooks. (1)

Using online resources to fill the course gap makes perfect sense. Allowing students to study introductory-level material in virtual classrooms can keep them on the path to graduation, while freeing up space and time in the classroom for more advanced classes.

On the surface, letting online programs take over for introductory-level instruction may seem like a teacher’s dream. My guess, however, is that California public university instructors and administrators will not be pleased. In fact, if it weren’t for resistance within academia, there would be no need for the bill, because students could already take online courses for credit.

The reason students need the bill passed before they can click “Enroll” is accreditation; so far, very few online programs have received it. The university accreditation process, which is run by private organizations dominated by academics and administrators, serves to entrench existing institutions at the expense of competitors that could be more profitable. Rather than applying objective, results-based standards, accreditors, who are mostly affiliated with traditional schools, judge potential newcomers based on whether they adhere to established methods. This automatically blocks innovation and has kept most of the online programs out of the accredited club.

By retaining accreditation, the powers found in academia have effectively prevented newer online programs from competing for students. Most students must show that their degrees come from accredited schools before those degrees are considered legitimate. Accreditation is also used to determine eligibility for federal financial aid. While accredited universities may choose to award academic credit to students who complete courses through unaccredited online programs, few do. This is why students expect to enter face-to-face classes at accredited schools, despite the availability of online programs capable of providing the same knowledge and skills.

While university professors and administrators maintain control over the accreditation system, financial pressure will ultimately make change inevitable. The mounting tuition bills and mounting student debt that are the by-products of the current academic fix simply cannot be sustained for much longer.

The California bill is a sign that those financial pressures are working. The proposed arrangement in the bill effectively overrides accreditation agencies by forcing public schools to lend the force of their own accreditation to high-level online classes. This type of legislative manipulation may not be enough in the long run, but it is at least a step in the right direction, approaching the day when students can choose from a multitude of accredited programs that are online, on campus, or a combination of both.

The proportion of high school graduates who go to college has risen from 45 percent in 1959 to 70 percent in 2009. In that span of half a century, employers who once accepted candidates with only a high school diploma now They use college degrees as their standard hire. However, we continue to rely on academic models that were developed when only a minority of students were in higher education. It’s no wonder those systems are overwhelmed. We owe it to the students to make sure the educational infrastructure is fixed before it breaks down under them. If universities themselves are unable or unwilling to do this, then legislators, particularly at the state level, will need to intervene.

If the California bill is successful, it will offer a valuable lesson to the rest of the country. I hope educators are paying attention.

Source:

1) Yahoo! News, “New California Legislation to Grant Full Academic Credit to MOOC Courses”