Moving Past Time as the Criteria: The Application of Capabilities-Based Educational Equivalency Units in Education

For nearly a century, the standard for determining the equivalency of academic courses and degrees has relied on time in the classroom as the primary indicator. Though widely accepted and convenient, time as the standard (i.e., the Carnegie unit) offers little utility for today's institutions of higher education. With the introduction and proliferation of instructional technologies and distance education, equivalency based on time in the classroom is of minimal relevance to students and instructors who supplement educational opportunities through technology (e.g., asynchronous online discussions, computer-based instruction). Unfortunately, proposed alternative models of equivalency that merely build complex relationships between new delivery systems and the conventional standard (e.g., two hours of interactive chat equals one hour in the classroom) will only continue to strengthen the misperception that time-in-the-classroom or time-on-the-Internet is the goal of instruction (Watkins & Schlosser, 2000a).