26.1 Evolution to education 3.0  (Page 8/19)

Dave, you raise interesting questions, and answering them I am sure will help me understand my own thinking better. So let me explain accreditation of learning. Currently, many institutions offer a serviced to prospective students who may wish to study at a level higher than their formal qualifications would permit. For example, doing a Masters without doing an undergraduate degree. This process is something that we are quite good at at UWC, and Alan Ralphs is one of our professors who conducts research on it. In such a case we would typically ask the prospective student to submit a portfolio that demonstrates their learning (not their experience, their learning) as well as go through an interview process, and various other things.

Now imagine that you are interested in the evolutionary biology of bacteria inhabiting the left legs of fleas on the back of a duck (perhaps a bit too specific, but a metaphor for something out in the long tail of the curve). You discover some resources on flea biology, listen to some lectures from Stanford on evolutionary biology, and you start to come to understand the selective pressures that affect bacteria on the left legs of fleas in general, and also within the broader environmental conditions of a duck’s back. As you delve into this, you also learn the basics of the discipline, and build up a learning portfolio. You realise that you have a gap in that you do not understand how mutation happens, so you decide to enroll in a course at the University of Zambia, where they have a good professor who teaches it via online methods. You join an online study group of people who are discussing the ecosystem of a ducks back, and you add all of that to your portfolio.

You then approach an institution that is accredited as being aligned to a framework of openness, and whose recognition of learning processes are internationally acclaimed. I would like it to be the University of the Western Cape of course. You submit your portfolio, and you go through the recognition of learning process, and that September you graduate with a bachelors degree in Science with a major in Duckback Ecology or something like that.

This would be what I mean when I talk about accreditation. What I find silly is the notion that the content that you use to accomplish all of this needs to be accredited because accrediting infinite possibilities will require infinite funding.

Hope this makes some kind of sense. Its a bit train of thought stuff, but this IS a blog, and I am not seeking accreditation :-)

11. derek keats - june 3rd, 2008 at 12:41 pm

Hello again,

Let me reply to Leigh, and then I have to go chase kids and stuff. Will come back in a bit to respond to the rest, if not, then tomorrow morning.

I agree with you that we need people with internationally recognized qualifications, and certainly have not advocated doing away with accreditation. I just don’t think that the RESOURCES themselves (i.e. the digital equivalent of textbooks) are the things to accredit. Rather accredit the PROCESSES, which is typically done by accrediting the PROGRAMME or the INSTITUTION.