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Akshay Baraik

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Acceptance of Credentials from Open Courses.

There have been a lot of efforts to democratize Education. What can be the reason behind which many Credentials from such Initiatives are struggling for acceptance in Universities and Organizations?

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    Linda Taylor 50+

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    Aug 21 2012: 1. Cheating
    2. Lack of consistent programming and accreditation.
    3. Huge variety in the measurement of course and program outcomes - inconsistently applied.
    4. Residency requirements of most institutions.
    5. Lack of payment structure for granting of credit. Which institution grants credit?

  • Akshay Baraik

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    Aug 20 2012: Initiatives for Education is to democratize Education. As students have studied for free, Education has been democratized quite well. But, the work is not complete without it's acceptance. There are some initiatives for Credit. University of the People is not open to all. What would you like to say about Degreed?
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    Fritzie Reisner 100+

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    Aug 20 2012: Some open courses do not evaluate performance (whether you learned the content or just listened). Few have any controls to verify that the person registered for the course actually did his own work. Many are not at the level of a university course at the university whose professor's lectures are used.

    Coursera, for example, says explicitly that it makes no claim that its courses are equivalent to the course by that title either at Stanford or at any of the universities in the consortium and that they will not assist registrants in bids to get the work accepted anywhere for credit..

    These are some reasons the letters of completion are not accepted places for course credit.

    What these open courses now provide is a fantastic, democratized opportunity to learn from some of the most effective lecturers in the world. It is gratifying to see how many great universities are involved in these new offerings as well as with other forms of "on the street" outreach.
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    Debra Smith 200+

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    Aug 20 2012: It will take time for everyone to adapt. It will also take the sincere demonstration that the skills attained are as valid (or more to overcome pre judgements). ONe must be willing to be challenged and to overcome that challenge with the learned skills, I think.
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    James Zhang 30+

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    Aug 20 2012: Universities and schools are also businesses too. They need to make money so that they can continue their services, so they do this mainly through tuition fees. A university may also want to maintain a standard of excellence so that more excellent kids would want to come to their school too, and thus more tuition money for them.

    So they need some kind of pretty accurate measurement tool like a Grade Point Average to tell how smart you are or how hard working you are. Universities also give out scholarships because they want excellent students to go to their schools as one of the many representative students to show off the the school's excellence. Scholarships mainly attract excellent students who pretty much can't afford their school.

    As for open courses, they are not yet reliable enough to be measured so most universities are distrustworthy of them for the time being.
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