Well, it had to happen sooner or later--all the talk of the credit hour system being outmoded have finally made it into the headlines. Even though the credit hour system makes life comfortable for the parasitic bureacracies associated with it, modern educators are finding it incompatible with modern views of how students learn. So what's the replacement? "Competency-based" programs in which students design their own curriculum and are assessed with portfolios.

The article makes the point that the imminent death of the credit hour system is linked to the rise of the internet and e-learning.

I've often talked about this subject with my students, pointing out that it'd make more sense to "hold students back" until everyone mastered the material of a course, rather than let people slide by with a semi-understanding. However, one factor that will certainly come into play here is funding and accountability. What if a student is simply not a "self-starter," and procrastinates or goes forward at such a slow pace that the taxpayers funding his/her education feel jipped?

This talk of letting students "work at their own pace" sounds like the flunking and "holding kids back" system dressed up in a new rhetoric. Whereas Johnny may be "held back" two or three years because he couldn't master geometry, now he's "holding himself back" because he is a "differently-adapted learner." Hmmm...New boss same as the old boss?