Sal Khan On The Future Of Credentials
Sal Khan writes an insightful Op-Ed for CNN discussing his views on the future of credentials in regards to education. He asks the reader to consider what would happen if there was rigorous, standardized, international accreditation for specific domains of knowledge-- anything from history to software engineering -- to prove you knew the material just as well as someone with a diploma from a name brand school.
With our hypothetical assessments - microcredentials, if you will - people could prove that they know just as much in a specific domain as those with an exclusive diploma. Even more, they wouldn’t have had to go into debt and attend university to prove it. They could prepare through textbooks, the Khan Academy or life experience. Because even name-brand diplomas give employers limited information, it would be a way for elite college graduates to differentiate themselves from their peers, to show that they have retained deep, useful knowledge. In short, it would make the credential that most students and parents need cheaper (since it is an assessment that is not predicated on seat time in lecture halls) and more powerful - it would tell employers who is best ready to contribute at their organizations based on metrics that they find important. College would become optional even for students pursuing prestigious and selective career tracks. Think about the implications. The academic purity of a university experience would no longer be strangely mixed with student career ambitions - no more obsession with getting an “A” in a philosophy class to get a job interview at a consulting firm. Even better, pedigree and selectivity of school would no longer be artificial barriers to entering competitive fields.Read the rest at CNN What do you think about Sal's accreditation idea?
