Saylor.org & Excelsior College: Creating a path towards an affordable, accredited higher education together

Appearing Today  Mark Michalisin, Excelsior College   Devon Ritter, The Saylor Foundation 

Validating “Non-Collegiate” Learning: The Bottom Line  What does it take to make learning credit-worthy?  Alternative pathways to credit?  What learning resources should we recommend?

What is Academic Credit, Anyway?  Assurance that someone knows something appropriate for a particular academic program  The someone, the something, and the appropriateness must be verified  Both traditional college courses and Credit by Exam (CBE) do this quite well  Colleges still must decide what outside credit to accept;  CBE are often more transparent about which Learning Objectives are being assessed  Where does the learning come in?

“What you know is more important than where or how you learned it”  Excelsior College UExcel CBE’s measure what you know, independent of any particular learning experience  Convenient and cost-effective;  ACE recommends credit based on evaluation criteria;  Cover a range of introductory and upper-level topics;  Additional niche in Nursing degree exams  Independent study resources, including OER and free online courses, can prepare for CBE options

Colleges Can Use CBE to:  Relieve overcrowding, closed sections, stalled progress, and stop-outs;  Help students progress to majors and capstone experiences faster and cheaper;  Assist students who have failed a required course;  Build entire degree completion plans for motivated independent learners

The Saylor.org Model  Saylor.org is more about providing Free Online Courses than Massively Open Online Courses  Key Differences:  Saylor.org courses are available all the time;  Don’t purport to provide access to instructors, and therefore don’t have to be offered as sessions, in specific windows of time;  Saylor courses as a whole are Openly Licensed (CC-BY), and strive to use individual pieces of openly licensed content;  The result is that Saylor.org is “open” in the OER sense of the word, meaning anyone else is free to Reuse, Redistribute, Revise, and Remix;  Not the case with all (or any?) major MOOC providers

The Saylor.org Model Cont.  Benefits in Regards to CBE:  Completely cost free;  Student savings not just on text, but on credit as well;  Self-paced courses;  In line with the needs of my CBE takers;  Adaptable;  CC license allows for re-mixing and editing of courses to match multiple CBE options

For under $100 and 2 hours of your time, you get an independent evaluation of what you’ve learned, and earn college credit. OER and CBE Are Symbiotic  With Saylor:  Learners are motivated;  Flexibility and interactivity rule: access is open, free, and timeless;  Multiple self-testing opportunities exist;  Certificates give personal satisfaction  With UExcel:  Learner identity is validated;  Test security meets national standards;  Assessment of content mastery is comprehensive

Case Study: Introduction to Psychology  Background:  Saylor.org has offered an independent version of Intro to Psych;  Excelsior College offers an Intro to Psych UExcel Exam;  Saylor and Excelsior formed partnership in 2012 to align Saylor OER to Excelsior CBEs  Key to Success:  Easy matching of existing course and exam Learning Outcomes;  Availability of OER to fill any course gaps  Result:  Creation of Saylor.org’s PSYCH101-EXC: Introduction to Psychology course, fully aligned to Excelsior College PSYX- 101 UExcel ExamPSYCH101-EXC: Introduction to PsychologyPSYX- 101 UExcel Exam

Additional Course/Exam Alignments  Other Current Alignments:  MA101-EXC: Single Variable Calculus I;  ECON102-EXC: Principles of Macroeconomics  Potential Alignments to Current UExcel:  6 near term possibilities;  Additional long term possibilities  Potential for New UExcel Exams:  Developed based on existing Saylor.org courses/learning outcomes;  Full credit by exam degree option?

Student Demographics  Current Course/Exam match offerings – 3:  Students currently enrolled in Courses – 2,523 ( )  Students registered for Exams – 45  5 students registered for multiple exams  Exams taken – 30  Success rate – 90%  Estimated Cost Savings - 30 exams at $95 = $2,850 – 30 courses at $1,500/course = 45,000  Savings of $42,150

Using the OER/CBE Model  Working with Existing Model:  $12 for an Excelsior Transcript;  Student’s don’t have to be enrolled at Excelsior to take UExcel exams;  1,000’s of schools have already accepted transfer  Saylor.org courses are similarly aligned to Thomas Edison State College TECEP CBEs, and CLEP®;  Students are more likely to graduate if they enter school with credit already earned;  Similarly, this provides a legitimate degree completion option for those with previous college experience  Replicating the Model:  Schools have the expertise to develop their own nationally recognized CBE programs, or offer students challenge exams to assess free OER learning

Conclusions  Huge cost savings already due to OER, and the potential for more  Consider the millions saved using OER as textbook replacements, and multiply that number by the full cost of course tuition  The power of OER and CBE means a $10,000 degree is already feasible