March 31, 2008

Ohio Proposal Would Offer College Credit for Courses in Adult Literacy and Work Skills

A dozen technical colleges and adult learning centers in Ohio will offer college credit for basic academic and technical courses under a pilot program that is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, The Columbus Dispatch reported.

The proposal, which would take effect this summer, is part of a 10-year plan unveiled by state higher-education officials today. Officials hope the plan will increase college enrollment in Ohio and raise the state’s sagging number of college graduates.

A recent study found that many adult students start in noncredit, skills-related courses and do not make much progress toward earning associate or bachelor’s degrees. The Ohio pilot program would try to fix that problem by allowing adult students to “stack” academic and technical certificates to count toward an associate or bachelor’s degree. —Libby Sander

Comments

1. “No potential undergraduate left behind,” it seems.

   But I hope that someone tries to make sure that the “stacking of certificates” amounts to a real college education and not just a politician’s sleight of hand to make Ohioans merely appear better educated.

   — dionysos    Mar 31, 03:52 PM    #

2. As long as an institution has evaluated the “stacked” courses and confirmed that they actually contribute to a goal, I’m all for this. Universities have been much too reluctant about approving credit for courses just because they didn’t teach them.

   — Al    Mar 31, 04:14 PM    #

3. For Al—Universities have long awarded a choice of upper level undergrad or graduate credit for all kinds of activities including forums, travel, professional meetings, in-service education, and so forth. It’s proven to be a real money maker and has little to do with the intrinsic or academic value of the event.

   Vocational and remedial credit have long been given in the 2-year sector but it generally did not “count” or apply to a “real” academic degree. That’s why the Applied Science degrees are coming into vogue. They provide alternative paths to a “college” degree. These include the AAS, BAT, BAS, MAS, etc. Some universities even offer the BUS (university studies) for any collection of any courses to help the 2-yr. student get some award for years of effort.
   Where is all of this heading? It depends on the purpose of higher education—then vs. now!

   Clearly, the times are changing and the real value of a college degree may be going the way of the high school diploma.

   — Cal T    Mar 31, 11:00 PM    #

4. I don’t think this is anything new. Many colleges are now offer college credit for experiential learning. Politicians are really demonstrating how little they know about higher education opportunities in Ohio. They could help promote the colleges and universities that are already doing this, rather than making a name for themselves on a so-called “pilot program.” That having been said, it is a great idea that will give opportunities to those that haven’t had them previously.

   — Carolyn    Apr 1, 09:49 AM    #

5. Our corporate & community education division is working on a proposal for people learning industrial maintenance skills to get college credit at a freshman level. We are getting a lot of resistance from the credit side, even though our students would feed into their programs, which are losing students. Our training is rigorous, and includes electricity, computerized controls and robotics, not fluff. Getting people into class, and in many cases, overcoming the students’ resistance to schooling is a boon to eveyone involved.

   — Charlotte Babb    Apr 8, 09:16 AM    #

6. I worry this is a race to the bottom – I see state restrictions on number of credits for a degree, along with “mandated” courses that politicians require of all students thus squeezing out the credit hours that should have been reserved for core courses.

   Students already get credit for basic academic skills – its called a high school diploma.

   — Patt    Apr 8, 09:39 AM    #

7. Why the continuing pretence that pieces of paper, including many “university” degrees, mean anything more than the recipient has met the three basic requirements, namely: —-
   1] Did not die during course.
   2] Did not forget to enroll.
   3] If enrolled, did not burn down the institution —- although even this is no barrier provided either it was in support of a socially acceptable cause, or the result of a disadvantaged background, e.g. your maternal grandmother walked under a ladder during her pregnancy.

   I accept the death criterion may seem a tad harsh; but even this no doubt wouldl soon be overcome by the introduction of posthumus degrees.

   I understand there are moves afoot at this very moment for the introduction of retrospective posthumous degrees for all those from past generations who died before our current progressive approach to “higher” education came into effect.

   The only significant barrier to it being implemented is that since the one benefit of our vending machine approach to education is that it allows us to claim the current generation is better “educated” than ever before,so giving away posthumous degrees would take some of the shine off our current splendid figures.

   In the meantime, let’s look ahead, and start working on the next worthy project —- granting pre-emptive posthumous awards to ourselves. The benefits are obvious. It will, for example, mean that Socrates and I could have the same degree, an enormous boost for my self-esteem. After all, boosting self-esteem seems to be the only value of many of the pieces of paper currently passing as drgrees.

   — Norman Hanscombe    Apr 10, 07:59 PM    #

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