Education as a Commodity
Type “education” and “commodity” into a search engine and you will find a plethora of fascinating articles and futuristic blogging entries. Some of my more progressive friends in the higher education community believe the concept and value of university degrees will dramatically change in the next 25 years due largely to the fact that so much information is out there for free which might lead to the ‘commodification’ of education or at least educational content.
First, I want to establish our working definition of a commodity. I went to Merriam-Webster Online and believe definition 4 best matches the context of this discussion: “a good or service whose wide availability typically leads to smaller profit margins and diminishes the importance of factors (as brand name) other than price”.
As I researched this topic I began with a university library search and found an intriguing article by Christopher Nelson, President of St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland entitled, “Accountability: The Commodification of the Examined Life”. It’s important to note that St. John’s College has only one academic program for all undergraduates and takes liberal arts education to the extreme. This provides the backdrop for Nelson’s staunch opposition to universally imposed standards-based education.
Nelson explains the desire for consumers to quantify any experience in a market-based economy but argues that education is a service and requires interaction and effort from the consumer (student) which makes it different from a true commodity. The central purpose of his article appears to be to make a case against the centralized accountability for a core set of student learning outcomes which was promoted by the U.S. Department of Education 2006 Spellings’ Commission on the Future of Higher Education report. I think the solution here lies somewhere between Nelson’s position and the strict standardization that some fear would result from carrying out the Commission’s recommendations.
I then read through the intellectual property rights and Creative Commons License sections on MIT’s OpenCourseWare (OCW) website which reaffirmed my belief that the consuming public (students and employers) continues to legitimize colleges and universities via accreditation standards and various ranking systems which purport to justify the value add of certain institutions over their peers.
Certainly, the future will bring change to higher education but are we likely to get to the point where educational content is a commodity? Clearly the answer is no if we continue to rely on institutional prestige and accreditation. MIT states that anyone is allowed to use their OCW content as long as it is for ‘non-commercial’ purposes but emphasizes that interaction with OpenCourseWare content does NOT come with an MIT transcript which is what holds the real value among today’s consumers, nor can other universities leverage this content if they charge tuition for the course.
While there may be prophets out there hailing a new age for higher education I have a hard time seeing how degrees become a commodity. In this sense I agree with Nelson because there are too many ways that individual institutions add their own value to the educational experience regardless of whether they are a traditional brick and mortar or an online school. Don’t look for degrees to be exchanged on the Chicago Board of Trade any time soon.
References
Nelson, C. (2007). Accountability: The Commodification of the Examined Life. Change, 39 (6), 22-27.
Brian McKay Epp, M.Ed.
Academic Trainer and Consultant
Implementing Competency-Based Learning
Over the past few months I’ve been reflecting and writing about assessment accountability and its intersection with workplace competencies. I believe today’s post on competency-based learning nicely integrates these two topics and provides academic leaders with a progressive assessment model that dovetails nicely into learning outcome management systems which support the more rigorous demands of accrediting bodies.
The figure below, taken from a 2002 U.S. Department of Education report, is a graphical representation of a pedagogical model showing the progression of learning from the engagement with one’s prior knowledge to the demonstration of acquired skills, abilities, and knowledge following a learning experience.
Source: U.S. Department of Education, 2002.
Many traditional, course-based learning models stop after conducting some form of assessment to verify that basic knowledge transfer from faculty to student has occurred. More progressive programs extend this assessment to a more granular level and actually prove that students can demonstrate performance of required competencies. An additional benefit of the more granular, performance-based learning outcomes is that it forces faculty to write specific, observable, and measurable learning goals.
One of the key barriers faced by institutions who are considering a move to competency based learning is the challenge of moving beyond the course-based assessment model along with the subsequent issue of how competency based learning units transfer into traditional academic programs. Western Governors University (WGU) has moved the furthest along this path by defining competency domains required both for general education and major area studies. While WGU is widely recognized as being at the forefront of this movement, other institutions such as Rutgers University, Alverno College, and Maricopa Community College have chosen their own paths and provide alternate implementation strategies (A. Voorhees, 2001, p. 84-86).
Dr. Richard Voorhees, a published author in the field of accreditation and assessment of both distance education and competency-based learning models, provides a twelve point list of actionable best-practices for those considering a move into this paradigm. It includes suggestions that range from obtaining senior level management support to ensuring that multiple assessment points are embedded within a degree program so that meaningful data analysis can inform curriculum enhancements (2001, p. 12).
While many may be reluctant to embrace a degree that didn’t come with a traditional course-based transcript, I believe employers would be impressed with how these graduates could both demonstrate general knowledge as well as the ability to perform required workplace competencies at a higher level than traditional program graduates. Has anyone been directly involved with implementing a competency-based learning model? I’d be interested in your comments on what you learned and how students responded.
References
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Defining and Assessing Learning: Exploring Competency-Based Initiatives, NCES 2002-159, prepared by Elizabeth A. Jones and Richard A. Voorhees, with Karen Paulson, for the Council of the National Postsecondary Education Cooperative Working Group on Competency-Based Initiatives. Washington, DC: 2002.
Voorhees, A. (2001). Creating and Implementing Competency-Based Learning Models. New Directions for Institutional Research. 2001(110), 83.
Voorhees, R. (2001). Competency-Based Learning Models: A Necessary Future. New Directions for Institutional Research. 2001(110), 5.
Brian McKay Epp, M.Ed., Academic Trainer and Consultant
Actualizing Assessment Accountability
The higher education community has been rumbling for several years about whether and to what extent government will pressure accrediting bodies to figure out how to hold institutions more accountable for demonstrating student achievement and growth. Tuition increases have consistently outpaced inflation for years which has led to public pressure to figure out why and subsequent calls for schools to justify their value to students, parents, and employers.
Legislators responding to public discontent began to increase calls for colleges and universities to actually prove their academic programs were meeting learning outcomes and to demonstrate their value add. The 2006 U.S. Department of Education report A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education created quite a buzz as the committee’s conclusions started to reach campus leaders. What is yet to be determined is whether it was a temporary blip that stirred up emotions and fears or whether it will truly be an impetus for significant reform.
A February 2007 meeting of the federal accrediting panel is an indication that increased accountability will likely come eventually but it will take time and may continue the U.S. tendency toward voluntary compliance. The most likely scenario is that we will gradually move toward standardization of outcomes beginning with general education which will in turn lead to a growing number of institutions who implement standardized achievement tests.
There are three assessments today that are being administered on campuses and have been approved by the Voluntary System of Accountability, a program that is being piloted by 239 early adopters in the public system under the auspices of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. A similar program is underway for over 700 private, non-profit institutions (U-CAN) sponsored by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities and the Transparency by Design initiative is yet another effort that includes a range of private for-profit and non-profit institutions.
Schools that achieve top scores on these assessments will tout their success which will lead to new categories among prominent ranking systems as evidence that students should attend their programs because of their proven track record of achievement. Eventually the accreditors will then push for similar accountability within undergraduate professional majors and before long most institutions will be on-board.
eCollege is prepared to collaborate with institutions in the efficient management of learning outcomes which includes reporting of successes and challenges to stakeholders. Our teams are developing tools that will track outcomes and link them to course content so faculty, department chairs, and deans will have the information they need to assess program and course effectiveness both for curriculum enhancement and for reporting out to accrediting bodies and employers. We will also be able to show students how well they’re doing against the learning outcomes set by their institutions, degree programs and courses. Imagine the power of being able to pinpoint which assignments or test questions are most effectively contributing to student learning.
Brian McKay Epp, M.Ed.
Academic Trainer and Consultant
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