muraPOI: January 16, 2012 — Open Courses, Accreditation and MITx
Here’s the post I was planning on publishing the evening of December 18th, right before the announcement of MITx.
I found it great that Inside Higher Ed ran two articles the week before the announcement about the Stanford open courses and accreditation. I thought it’d be a great lead in to the certification discussed as possible through MITx. (I just didn’t expect the MITx announcement at 12:01am on December 19! I thought it’d be later in the day.)
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“The value points within education are somewhat vague and shifting,” wrote Siemens via e-mail. “M.I.T.’s [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][OpenCourseWare] questioned the value of content as an economic value point. MOOCs question the value of teaching as an economic value point.”
(Google Alert “open educational resources”, December 13, 2011)
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Accreditation in an Era of Open Resources:
“We need to adopt the approach already taken in many professions of clearly articulating what students are supposed to know and be able to demonstrate at various levels of educational attainment, and create accreditation standards and metrics that reflect it.”
(Google Alert “open educational resources”, December 14, 2011)
What “certification” means in the context of MITx is still under consideration. Nevertheless it’s intriguing to think about the disruptive possibilities.
Since this is post-announcement, I can point out some of the better articles I’ve read so far on the MITx announcement.
- MITx: The Next Chapter for University Credentialing?: Audrey Watters gives the best first day summary.
- Advancing the Open Front: Steve Kolowich delves into some of the unintended consequences of MITx. What might a MITx credential mean towards a degree? In the article, William Kline of Rose-Hulman says, “Online education and distance education is going to force us to examine what we do and what we give credit for.”
And David Wiley’s post a couple days after the announcement generated some interesting discussion:
Recently this Tech article came out, probably the best so far:
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