Comments on College Withdraws Credits Awarded in Distance Education Scheme

• Related case
• Posted by B.J.S. on September 2, 2005 at 5:08am EDT

• Consider this ..

  http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040505/news_1n5bogus.html

  Why is this happening, teachers and other public employees buying college degrees? Because, with America's rampant creditialism, in public sector employment, get a higher degree, automatically get a raise. That is usually not done in private sector employment.

  In such cases -- would a common body of professional knowledge, be helpful? To help create professional standards that can acutally be measured? Rather than soft, brown-mushy statements about "human development" and the latest "cool thing?"

• Posted by Larry on September 2, 2005 at 8:17am EDT

• BJS, You raise a good point, but I would not put it so harshly. I think most academics and professionals known from looking at someone's CV or degree whether it came from a diploma mill. We are all acutely aware of where our school (and everyone else's) is ranked. This is the kind of credential ism that I see.

  Therefore, at least to me, it seems crazy that anyone could get any serious job with a diploma-mill degree. But, I know it happens.

• Posted by David Durbin on September 2, 2005 at 8:41am EDT

• B.J.S. makes a good point. Ron Dore wrote a book called "The Diploma Disease" (published back in 1976) in which he described a phenomenom in which credential-earning had become more valued than learning. Unfortunately the trend has continued over the ensuing 3 decades.

• Posted by Dr. Don Hecht , President at Northcentral University on September 2, 2005 at 4:36pm EDT

• Had the folks at Otterbein and Eastern Oklahoma State checked to see whether American Academy was an accredited institution recognized by the US Dept of Ed. or had their courses approved by the American Council on Education (ACE), they would have easily determined that the Academy's programs were not approved. They would have avoided all contact with these "questionable" entities. In the US we have a system of accreditation and recognition whereby legitimate schools are continuously checked out and given recognition when they pass muster. Somebody should have checked!
  Dr. Hecht

• Credentialism is our new god
• Posted by George Brown , Director at HigherEd Consulting (Australasia) on September 2, 2005 at 7:49pm EDT

• Dore got it right. Credentialism is on the rise, and the the 'less-than-wonderful' institutions prey on the desperate and vain in order to peddle their wares. Degree mills and diploma mills have come of age - vigilance is the key.

  Cheers,

  George

• Fake Credits
• Posted by Dean Hughson on September 2, 2005 at 8:40pm EDT

• This is not only a US problem but worldwide. Many of these schools prey on foreign students also though somehow if you don't go to college one would assume they don't get credits? Call me skeptical.

• Attacking symptom not the disease
• Posted by geoff on September 7, 2005 at 1:10pm EDT

• I agree that the immediate problem is one of "credit getting" to obtain certification, and thereby a larger paycheck. But, this case is symptomatic of the larger problem in Academia.

  Professors; please note the name - "one who professes" [a teacher] are evaluated as academics by the material that they publish! In the quest to publish we often write articles for journals with laughably limited subscriber lists. These "Professional Journals" are then published by publishing houses and sold back to academic libraries and the academic community at exorbitantly expensive prices.

  In my estimation the entire Academic system needs to turn the system around and base pay rises, etc on teaching merit, not supposed credentials or "publish or perish."

  However, this does not mean that the newest fad of having the "students grade the teacher" is a more realistic a measuring tool. It should be obvious to a moron that students will harshly grade a teacher who actually expects them to learn and do real academic work!

  The long-term answer lies in colegial, honest , caring work by all professionals in the teaching community. Academia needs to rid itself of those "academics" who spend the majority of their time questing after administrative postions. It seems that most of the people in academia who quest after these positions are motivated by power, not the pursuit of intellectual excellence.

• College withdraws credit
• Posted by Bennett Packman on September 24, 2005 at 6:22pm EDT

• As the whistle-blower in this scandal, I have followed this case with great interest and have requested many public records., It should be noted that we currently know of five colleges involved that have had arrangements with William McCoggle. We currently know of 189 and 657 students at Eastern Oklahoma and Otterbein respectively. It should be noted that according to the Oklahoma Regents report this has gone on for 18 years. We have only touched the tip of the iceberg. The Grand Jury seems to have been shielded from the size of this scandal as they have called the report " A Few Bad Apples". Ihis case is only in it's infancy. Stay tuned.

  Bennett Packman

• Posted by Heather Browne on September 28, 2005 at 5:38pm EDT

• Mr. Packman, Please email hbrowne@fox23.com in Tulsa, OK. Am working on a story about diploma mills.

  Thanks,
  Heather Browne, Producer

• Honesty, Not Credentialism, The Problem
• Posted by Ted Heiks on November 19, 2005 at 2:05pm EST

• Credentialism is most definitely NOT the problem. In many jobs, particularly professional jobs, having an appropriate credential is, and should be, the admission ticket to said job, and bigger and better pieces of paper should translate into more pay. The simple problem is one of HONESTY. If it seemed a bit too easy (pay money, no work, get credits), shouldn't something in the back of your mind be saying, "But Mama always told me: 'If it seems too good to be true, it probably is!' "?

• Credential Inflation and Accreditation
• Posted by Glen McGhee , Director at Florida Higher Education Accountability Project on November 20, 2005 at 9:02pm EST

• Randall Collins, the sociologist and author of "The Credential Society: An Historical Sociology of Education and Stratification" (1979) described exactly the kind of "credential inflation" that we are seeing now.
  As long as additional credentials are thought to give an advantage to the holder of that credential, and there is competition for a limited number of positions, the quest for credentials will go on. As the advantage conferred by the lower credentials begins to diminish, the competitive context encourages the pursuit of higher credentials.
  We estimate the about half the dual enrollment classes taught in Florida, and for which college credit is awarded by local community colleges, are taught by instructors without 18 graduate credits required by the accreditors. This, of course, is completely analogous with the McCoggle fraud (take note Mr. Packman). There were 34,732 dual enrollment students in 2002-2003 in Florida. But FCA doesn't apply, because the accreditors "cover" for their members, the individual institutions.
  By rights, what should happen if an institution loses control of its operation (as in this example), they should lose their accreditation. But this rarely happens, since the institutions make up the accrediting guild! See my WSJ Oct 15, 2005 letter on this issue.
  Glen McGhee, FHEAP

• Academic fraud
• Posted by Jean Morris on November 21, 2005 at 11:54am EST

• Professor Packman,
  Since you have seen this situation unfold, could you elaborate on one thing? What was the awareness level of the faculty when Otterbein entered ento this association with the Florida operator? I am interested in the faculty role in academic governance, a role that seems to be increasingly diminished in higher ed. Thanks.