By Paul Fain. Everyone from politicians to provosts seems to have an opinion on how to “fix” accreditation these days. That’s because the wonky accreditor plays a big role in shaping emerging models of higher education and how they are funded. Paul L. Gaston knows the accreditation process inside and out. A Trustees Professor at Kent State University, Gaston has served as a peer reviewer for regional accrediting agencies and has long been involved in the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. In a recently released book, Gaston tackles big questions about accreditation while also giving plenty of detail about how the agencies work. Read more...

By Carl Straumsheim. Liberal arts college, 161, seeks scalable, highly customizable online education solution. Must like Socratic method, small group settings. Let's enjoy Great Books together. Shimer College in Chicago, where classes of about a dozen students and an instructor pore over Great Books, will this spring pilot as many different technologies as possible in an attempt to create an all-online version of its discussion-based classroom. Read more...

By Scott Jaschik. The largest study of students at colleges that do not require SAT or ACT scores has found that there is "virtually no difference" in the academic performance (measured in grades or graduation rates) of those who do and don't submit scores. The study -- involving 123,000 students at 33 colleges and universities of varying types -- found that high school grades do predict student success. Read more...

By Chris Parr for Times Higher Education. The first British massive open online course to offer students the option to pay for academic credit has ended, with none of its participants opting to fork out for official recognition. The Edge Hill University MOOC, entitled Vampire Fictions, was announced in May last year and attracted about 1,000 students. Of these, 31 reached the end of the course, with none opting to hand over the £200 ($330) that Edge Hill was charging in exchange for 20 credits at level 4 – the equivalent of a module on a first-year degree course. Read more...

By Michael Stratford. A 15-person panel appointed by the U.S. Education Department on Wednesday began a months-long negotiating process aimed at developing a package of regulations relating to student aid programs. Negotiators began to tackle an ambitious regulatory agenda, first announced by the Obama administration last year, that includes new rules for distance education, Parent PLUS loans and campus debit cards. Read more...

By Elizabeth Redden. A theme at this year’s Association of International Education Administrators conference was the need to do a better job of integrating international students on American campuses in order to maximize the potential for global learning. The overarching message: student mobility alone won't cut it. Read more...

By Carl Straumsheim. Three elite universities’ debates about whether they should join -- or stay with -- the massive open online course providers Coursera and edX have brought familiar concerns over revenue and intellectual property rights to the surface, even though those issues overshadow many faculty members’ and most administrators' pragmatic approach to distance education.
For Cornell, Princeton and Yale Universities, MOOCs represents a shiny new toy in the toolbox that is their online education offerings. Yale, for example, has run Open Yale Courses, a catalog of free introductory courses. Princeton publishes free lectures through iTunes U, YouTube and its Media Central, and creates programming through its alumni association. Cornell has extended its reach through eCornell, a spinoff that offers corporate training and online certificates. Read more...

By Paul Fain. Scores of colleges are gearing up to offer new competency-based degrees. But some college leaders are confused about whether the U.S. Department of Education remains supportive of a new form of competency-based education that does not rely on the credit hour standard. This approach is called direct assessment -- as in directly measuring student knowledge and learning, rather than linking it to seat time and grades. Read more...

By Amy E. Slaton. At best, so-called competency- and proficiency-based higher education is a world of good intentions and uncritical enthusiasms. At worst, it seems to be the fulfillment of conservative cost-cutting visions that will put our most enriching higher education experiences still further out of reach for many Americans. In the U.S. these programs are aimed at sidelining the familiar credit hour in favor of personalized and flexible learning experiences for enrollees. They push the idea that some students will achieve mastery with fewer instructional hours than others and should thus be spared that expenditure of time and money. Read more...