This is a large-ish article in the NY Times that touches on a number of subject familar to our members. Part of the article is the concept of "badges," and other ways to try to make learning "official." http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/08/upshot/true-reform-in-higher-education-when-online-degrees-are-seen-as-official.html?hpw&rref=education&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region®ion=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0
This is an interesting article. I think it highlights a few current issues beyond the rise of MOOCs. For starters, the concept of "being educated" is tied to possessing a degree. I realized the other day that I was even playing into this ridiculousness. When an applicant with an incomplete degree comes in for an interview, I am ashamed to say that I have asked things like: "Do you have plans to go back and finish your education?" It's a really stupid thing to say. Going back and finishing a degree is one thing. But one's "education" is not necessarily incomplete. What if I am a student at Cornell University and I complete all of my coursework but neglect to pass my swim test? I walk away without a degree. Now I'm labeled as a "college dropout." I have completed all of the coursework associated with the degree, yet, in the open job market someone with a B.S. from UofP or Kaplan University has an advantage over me. They actually have a B.S. while I simply have the equivalent number of credits. However, does that make me "less educated" and the Kaplan grad "more educated?" No, it makes one of us a degreed alumnus and the other a non-degreed alumnus. But that's a more charitable characterization than the job market will afford a person. A big issue is that so many jobs require a bachelors degree even when that may not be appropriate. I once interviewed for a job as the HR guy at this small locomotive parts distributor. They had about 50 employees total. The owner/hiring manager kept telling me how proud he was to have the most "educated" company in the area. Everyone, from the warehouse workers up to the CEO, was required to have a bachelors degree. He wasn't kidding either. If you wanted the $8/hr warehouse job, you needed to have a bachelors. His reasoning was that it "showed you were able to at least commit to completing college." His warehouse staff seemed split between recent college graduates who needed the job and middle aged men who had lost better jobs and were trying to avoid unemployment. But why? If I want to lift boxes for a living, why should I be required to earn a bachelors degree? How can I possibly move up from the warehouse? Do I need a Masters just to answer the phone? If I get a Ph.D. can I one day become a receivables clerk? Many employers require a bachelors degree because we have arbitrarily decided that any job worth having should require a bachelors degree. This didn't send more kids to college following high school. It just gave rise to a new market of colleges offering to help you get that degree. This pushed everything else upward. When I was growing up, physical therapy was offered as a bachelors degree at my local college. A few years passed and it became a combined B.S./M.S. Now they are actively pushing a doctorate. I think we need fewer degrees, personally. And I think the private sector should take a hard look at what their job requirements are and how best to meet them. A more technical (degree or non-degree) education would likely help a lot of companies fill some key positions. But insisting that those individuals with technical skill need to run out and score a quickie B.A. in Liberal Studies just to be considered makes very little sense. I would also dispute the author's assertion that "employer's don't know what a verified certificate is." When you complete a certificate track on coursera, your certificate says "Certificate in Data Science" (or whatever track you've completed). And employers DO know what certificates are. One problem is that your certificate is co-branded. Having a certificate from "Johns Hopkins University via Coursera" or "Coursera, in partnership with Johns Hopkins University" is not the same, in the eyes of many, to having a certificate from "Johns Hopkins University." But I think that problem is starting to subside as more and more people are using MOOCs to get ahead. I'm finding hiring managers, who were previously opposed to online education, are now recommending MOOCs to their employees for professional development. Some are taking the courses themselves to stay current. MOOCs are approachable, affordable and it's hard to argue with the caliber of course providers offering the coursework. But will a Coursera/JHU Certificate in Data Science plus a B.A. in Liberal Arts score me a job? Probably not, to be honest. Especially if you have zero experience in data science up to that point. But it's a step in the right direction. MOOCs make education available to everyone. But they don't really help you with getting a degree. Part of what would be most helpful would be if we began to separate the notion of "education" from the notion of a "degree." A degree is a verification that coursework (and other requirements) is completed. But an "education" can, and should, be much more than a degree and it shouldn't stop at graduation.
Just as the author was wrong so too are you. The author suggests that no employers know about certificates and you are suggesting that all employers have this knowledge. Clearly neither is correct because some employers know while others do not. Absolutes are rarely true and besides, there's no good way to prove either assertion.
Kizmet: "... some employers know while others do not. Absolutes are rarely true and besides, there's no good way to prove either assertion." John: For his PhD dissertation, Rich Douglas conducted long in-depth interviews with over 100 corporate HR managers. The great majority were alarmingly ignorant about matters of accreditation and certification.
Unfortunately, although I have no specific data to give percentages, more than a few remain alarmingly ignorant about matters of accreditation. There was a time--23 years ago--I was in the same scenario. It was your book, John, that awakened a sleeping giant within me to pursue all I could learn about accreditation. And since my field of study is religion/theology/ministry, Steve's book NIFI was a companion volume. Since the early '90's I have been diligent in learning the in's/out's of accreditation. Thank you, John, for whetting my desire to understand this subject.
Two things: 1. I never said the author was "wrong" I said I disagreed with an assertion. That's a very different statement. I think most of the author's points are great, but I disagree with the premise that verified certificates are not accepted because they are so new that employers simply never heard of "verified certificates." Colleges have been awarding non-credit certificates for years. And people have been including them on their resumes. I'm not saying that employers know the difference between a non-credit certificate, an undergraduate certificate and a graduate certificate. But to say that if I walk into an interviewer's office with say, a Certificate in HR Management from Villanova University, and that interviewer will be spinning it in his hands looking confusedly at me saying: "Sir-tee-fee-cott? What is this sir-tee-fee-cott? I've never come across this concept before!" is a bit of a weird assertion to make. Certification and having a certificate are two different things. If I start a new certification program called "Credentialed Expert in Accreditation" most employers are going to be ignorant of it. If I earn a Certificate in Accreditation Studies from Brown University, the employer doesn't need to know anything about the specifics of the program. They are seeing that I have a credential from Brown University. Now, as I said, that doesn't mean that my certificate is going to meet the requirement for a degree. If the position requires a B.S. in Accounting, having ten certificates in Accounting related subjects isn't going to help me if I don't have the B.S. that is required. 2. I fail to see how I suggested that "all employers have this knowledge." I said: Employers DO know what certificates are. If I said: Human Resources professionals read resumes That is factually correct. The sentence does not imply that ALL HR professionals read resumes (which would not be true) or that no one other than HR professionals read resumes. Again, while a hiring manager dumbly fumbling around with the word "certificate" would make for an interesting SNL skit, it is a bit silly to assert that any reasonable hiring manager would look at the words "Certificate in Data Science - Johns Hopkins University" and say "Certificate? What the hell is that?" The word "certificate" is well engrained in our vocabularies well before we get to the workforce. And, I would argue, the word is much more engrained than the new usage of the word "badges" that the author discusses. But knowing, in general terms, what a certificate is is different from understanding what the certificate represents. We have a general expectation that a bachelors degree is awarded for roughly the same amount of coursework regardless of the institution. A certificate can be an $8,000, two year endeavor at Stanford University online or a $100 two week course at my local community college. The certificate title can be helpful. The awarding institution can us establish the scope of studies. But ultimately, there is no general guideline for how one earns a certificate.
