Forging new pathways of research and innovation in open and distance learning

Credit, Trust and Open Education
Katherine Sutherland
Definitions of credit
According to John Harris in a Brief History of American Academic Credit System (2002), in the
18 th and 19 th centuries, “Students stood comprehensive examinations, which were often oral
and public.”
E.M. Coulter describes these public exams: “The senior examination was guarded with
particular care because the Bachelor of Arts degree was given [to] those who were successful.
This examination was a ‘general one, upon all the studies of both the two last years and many
of the preceding years,’ or, as the rules ran, it should be ‘rigid, and extend to the whole of
collegiate literature’” (p.52).
This style of exam is still undertaken at the graduate level in North America and in some
European contexts.
The key point here for the purposes of this study is that trust in the quality of the credit to be
granted was established in a highly public way: the public could scrutinize the performance of
the candidate and thus be assured of the quality of learning. This is a performative, embodied
approach to quality assurance. As A. Lee Foote writes, “in the United Kingdom, Scotland,
Germany, and a few other European countries, the more common term for the PhD oral exam
is viva voce, literally translated as ‘living voice’ or ‘word of mouth’” (2015; p.5).
One of the pressing concerns for the traditional academy about open education is that
technology gives the impression of a disembodied learner in the virtual learning environment:
this leads to distrust of quality of the learning, the credit granted, and by extension the
credential. This is closely linked to concerns about increased violations of academic integrity.
The first question to be addressed in this work, then, is how to establish trust and assure
quality in an open education context.
Questions of Credit and Trust
Defining credit
Notably and interestingly, the definitions of credit and trust overlap in English. The 1542
English definition of credit is: “Belief, credence, faith, trust. To give credit to: to believe, put
faith in, credit” (OED).
Questions to be considered here include the following:
• How does this definition pertain to the concept of academic credit?
• Have we lost faith in academic credit?
• Does this historical notion of credit as faith or trust apply to academic credit?
Reaching from the roots – 9 th EDEN Research Workshop Proceedings, 2016, Oldenburg 319
ISBN 978-615-5511-12-7