No, I'm not talking about the status of my education plan, I'm talking about the definition of a credit-hour https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2019/03/12/more-confusion-credit-hour-definition
I don't know why DEAC needs the government to add teeth to their accreditation standards. Aren't they allowed to define a credit hour however they see fit as the accrediting body in the absence of another standard?
Texas uses 45 clock hours as the equivalent of a (semester) credit hour. At least that is in reference to my industry (safety) which is supposedly based on state educational standards. I understand Leah Matthew's dilemma since DEAC would probably want to continue having as much support from USDOE in this area as possible.
Let's continue to define our terms. What is the definition of "instructor?" https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereknewton/2019/03/18/trump-is-trying-to-change-the-meaning-of-instructor-and-its-not-good/#2f23b15d44a6
If you redefine "instructor" to include people who are not subject area experts and even other students (grad assistants, etc.) the liklihood is that the quality level of courses will decline. Combine this with the phenomenon of universities buying degree program packages from curriculum development companies. Add water and stir. What you wind up with is higher ed fast-food served by McProfessors. People who go for the lowest price degrees will be buying these Happy Meal degrees in some cases. What will be the value of such degrees? Will this be any substantial improvement over "testing out?"
That is definitely cause for concern. On the flip side, how much interaction do you have with a teacher in an asynchronous distance learning environment to begin with? You can easily pre-package a course with someone spouting information from a script regardless of familiarization, assigned reading/tasks, someone/computer grading multiple choice tests from an answer sheet, and probably only need the expert for reading/grading essays. Is this what I want the learning environment to be? Absolutely not, but I don't think it is far off from what some places are already doing except as of now they have to keep the "expert" on the payroll and they are doing the interaction, albeit sometimes minimally.
