Could This Be the Next Evolution in Higher Ed?

There's a movement brewing to change the way colleges and universities award degrees from the credit-hour to a model that asks students to prove what they've learned, no matter how long it takes. In her New York Times article, Anya Kamenetz describes how efforts to keep college costs down are spurring innovative ideas in higher education and spawning new colleges that use competency-based learning.

Critics say the move could diminish the value of a college degree.

Degrees Based on What You Can Do, Not How Long You WentIN 1893, Charles Eliot, president of Harvard, introduced to the National Education Association a novel concept: the credit hour. Roughly equivalent to one hour of lecture time a week for a 12- to 14-week semester, it became the basic unit of a college education, and the standard measure for transferring work between institutions.

via Nytimes