Offering more entry points

In an earlier post, I mentioned that we can condense sessions by offering 8-week courses and that this would allow students to enter into school earlier than waiting 15-16 weeks. Well, better than that would be having different terms or calendars. So, for instance, you can have a calendar A and a calendar B for offering classes and even a calendar C, if you want to have more entry points. Students want to go to college now, today, right this second. The age of instant gratification is here and even though academia cannot be in that method for various reasons, we can get students started and in the education journey at different entry points.

I mean, why is it that a student that moves in the middle of their 10th grade year can just pick it right up at the school where they continue the year, but in college we make people gain a W or F for the semester and then wait until the new college at the new place starts and the student has to start from the beginning of the class? I am not suggesting that the student starts class at the new college where s/he left off, but we should be able to assess the student sooner than waiting for the next term to start in 10 weeks. Basically, we should have more than 3 or 4 entry points a year. How about 10 or 20?

Setting pre-requisites based on concepts; not courses

I wish we would revise all of our courses to identify the competencies that are being taught/learned in each course in order to pin-point the pre-requisite for the next course. Therefore, when testing a student that falls into DEVmath for different concepts than those needed for accounting we can determine that s/he can take accounting because they meet the competencies needed for accounting even though they have not mastered all of the ones needed to be above DEVmath. OR just teach them the competencies that they are lacking.

Not making students wait to earn a grade

Looking at course scheduling from a flip side: in a semester system, we are making students wait 15/16 weeks before earning a grade. Why? Why can't they complete the 45 hours of instruction sooner? 

Well, they can. It deals with having the instruction and assessment separate. As long as we can account for those hours, then it should be ok for them to assess for the student learning outcomes. 

Our students are finding alternate methods of education

Because our schools are so expensive many of our students (or to be students) are fleeing to Canada for their higher education. In many instances, tuition falls under 10k for their degree. We certainly have to figure out a way to be more efficient in order to provide a high quality level education while also saving our students money. It is certainly not an easy task. Cutting spending and maintains quality does not always fit in the same sentence. However, efficient scheduling and responsible spending are just two ways it can be accomplished.