Please feel free to post substantive comments, questions, etc. I'll be happy to respond. No, I'm not going to go through another dissertation defense, but there is a lot to talk about regarding the findings in my dissertation. But, for those who know who they are, let's put the ad hominem comments aside. Rich Douglas, MBA, Ph.D.
Rich, I found it counter-logical that HR professionals find state accreditation above RA. Can you explain (in your experience) why you think was so. Also, do you see this a trend, or is there a change coming in the future. Also, do you know anything about the trends about tuition reimbursement? Is this trend going up or down? It has been a while since i have read the dissertation, so you may have answered these questions in the findings, but just a few questions I remember thinking as I read. Thanks, and I hope my dissertation gets as much publicity - it is nice going through all the work has gotten attention. (I hope somebody reads mine!)
"State Approved" predominated only until an explanation of that category (along with all the others) was given. Then it dropped in a significant manner. I believe it was because HR managers simply didn't recognize the North Central Association. They didn't know what it was. Once I provided an explanation of each category, regional accreditation (in this case, the NCA) prevailed. GAAP was supported.
Regional Accreditation is so wide spread, it covers such a huge percentage of the higher education system in the USA that many people just assume that it's run by the government or at least required by law. For example, I knew that there was such a thing as accreditation but until I read Bears' Guide, I had no idea how it worked. The point I'm trying to make is that I'd guess that Rich's study of HR managers would apply very closely to the general population only probably even a little bit worse understanding.
From personal experience: Managers of European or Asian firms operating on US soil have no clue about what is involved in accreditation in the US educational system. There are also some HR people in Asian based hi tech firms that think an H-1 visa is a US requirement for ANYONE to work in the US.
By the way, this is a bit of the "ticking time bomb" metaphor we often use (and coined by Bear). Take CCU, for example. A legitimate, unaccredited, state-approved school awards you a degree. Your employer is impressed. (After all, it is "state approved.") Then the media gets ahold of a story about, say, Dr. Ianni from "The Swan." Suddenly, your employer becomes much more aware about the difference between accreditation and other forms of recognition. (Not to mention that the general media likes to toss around terms like "diploma mill" when discussing schools like CCU.) Your stock drops like a lead balloon. That's a dangerous situation indicated in both my research and our anectodatal findings.
I've only got through the first chapter. I am a total nerd because I thought that it was very interesting and even exciting. Does anyone know of a book or paper that goes into the early medieval development of education? Thanks,
Just Finished Reading The Dissertation! Rich graciously e-mailed a copy of his dissertation for my perusal, which I read over the past three days. The dissertation was informative, well documented and certainly contributed to the body of DL literature. In the main, well done!
The thing I found disturbing about the Swan situation was every keeps saying "fake online school"....how about fake school, as all schooled (even high schools) have some online component to them, so the online is not descriptive, it gives online degrees a bad name.
For me, the most important finding was that just a little bit of training about accreditation was all that it took to completely change the opinions and actions of the HR professionals. This is one of the most clear-cut cases of training needs assessment that I have seen in quite a while. If we were to infuse some information on accreditation into the human resources curriculum, the professionals in this field would be much better prepared to deal with the different kinds of schools (and diploma mills) out there. The professional associations that influence the undergraduate and graduate curricula in this field would do well to pay attention to these findings. You really ought to do a presentation on your research at their professional conferences. Maybe you can get an influential member of the profession to buy into it. Tony Pina Faculty, Cal State U. San Bernardino
