CROSSING THE CHASM: A BRIDGE BETWEEN CONTENT

AND CREDENTIAL

Presenter: John F. Ebersole President

Excelsior College Albany, NY

A Presentation to The 2012 World OER Congress

June 20 – 22, 2012

AMERICA’S HIGHER EDUCATION PROBLEM

Growing need

Falling rates of completion

Increasing cost

Shifting focus

ONE RESPONSE

Assess prior work

Match accepted work against approved

degree requirements

Independent study using vetted OER

materials

Completion of nationally normed

assessments

Capstone online course

ELEMENTS OF QUALITY

Faculty vetted OER

Assessments created by a national board of

subject matter experts and PhD

psychometricians

All assessments administered at secure facilities

by a third-party

Required completion of same capstone course as

for instructional students (must display

knowledge/skill expected of degree holder)

COST FACTOR

All content = free

Assessments = $150 - $200* (usually 3 units of

credit)

Annual fees which cover

- Advising

- Tutorial support

- Library access

Tuition for capstone (4 units) = approximately

$1,500

COST COMPARISON

Courses required for bachelors degree = 40

(x 3 units for each = 120)

Tuition for Instructional Model = (120 x $355) or

$42,600

Costs for Assessment Model (assumes no credit

in transfer and a need for all 120 units to

complete) = $10,000 or less

ROLE OF FACULTY

Map existing assessments to vetted OER

Create new assessments

Present and evaluate capstone courses

Monitor tutoring and tracking learning

outcomes

FUTURE PLANS

Introduce a bachelors of business (July)

Develop assessments for the MIT

curriculum in electrical engineering (Sept)

Create interactive simulations to assess

decision making and content integration