Online courses and virtual learning are gaining ground, supported by the idea that learning can happen anytime, any place, anywhere. Stanford, Columbia, and many other leading universities are now offering free online courses. Individuals (many of which are distinguished professors) have launched their own platforms such as Coursera and edX. Already, 33 institutions such as Stanford and are using Coursera to provide their free online courses. Other institutions, such as Berkeley, have chosen the non-profit edX. Now, Google has created an open-source course-building site that allows anyone to offer online courses.
Since online learners will be taking courses from a mix of platforms and sites, I predict the formation of a transcript institution. Per a fee, this institution will create an official transcript that may be shown to potential employers or universities. Eventually, enough online courses will be offered from universities, organizations, and even individuals worldwide that anyone will be able to take a number of courses equivalent to that required for a degree. Thus, another institution will come into being: an official degree-granting institution, which does not offer courses but simply has the power of accreditation. Let’s call it the American Accreditation Institution (AAI).
Those offering online courses will submit a proposal to the AAI for their course(s) to be approved to contribute toward a certain degree. Then when students check out which online courses are offered (possibly by going to Google’s Course Builder), each course will have an indicator of being approved by the AAI to contribute to a certain degree. Thus, a student’s resume might say, “BA History, American Accreditation Institution, 2020.”
What implications would these developments have for learning? As learning becomes increasingly virtual, there is less and less in-person interaction. Communication and collaboration is essential in the working world and this is one of the most important opportunities that traditional education provides. However, online collaboration between colleagues, supervisors and employees is growing in importance. If virtual learning allows for similar collaboration, perhaps this novel approach will better prepare students for the 21st century workforce.
From what I’ve seen of it so far, I’m thrilled with the migration of education to a free and easily accessible format. And while personally I’m content with just the educational materials being available, I certainly understand that for people just entering or just about to enter the job market, some sort of accreditation is very much needed. So, I hope that problem can be resolved soon.
But I feel there is another gap that needs filling. Online classes allow people to very specifically tailor their education, and so I think it would be great if employers would eventually start fine-tuning their job requirements in a similar way. For example, rather than saying job candidates should have a bachelors degree, they could list specific courses the candidate should have a certificate for. And, if a company feels there aren’t enough candidates having one or more particular skills, maybe they could contribute their own courses and certificates for that skill. Right now, there seems to be too much of a disconnect between the people doing the educating and the people doing the hiring. Maybe the ease of creating and taking online classes can allow for much more collaboration between these groups.