Taking on Accreditors and Faculty

By Ry Rivard. Florida lawmakers advanced a bill this week intended to upend the American college accreditation system. The measure would allow Florida officials to accredit individual courses on their own -- including classes offered by unaccredited for-profit providers.
“We’re saying the monopoly of the accrediting system is not designed for the world of MOOCs or other individual courses,” said Republican State Senator Jeff Brandes, the bill’s sponsor. MOOCs are massive open online courses, the generally free online classes offered by a handful of groups, including some of the most elite universities in the world and for-profit companies. Read more...