Education for a Digital World Advice, Guidelines and Effective Practice from Around Globe, 2008a

12 – Articulation and Transfer of Online Courses
There are two situations in which it is acceptable to
award “no credit”.
• The course is not taught at the post-secondary level.
A course which appears to be English composition,
but which is really English as a Second Language, will
be evaluated as being preparatory. Many courses are
not designed for transfer (e.g., purely vocational
courses such as welding, or preparatory courses such
as high school algebra) except to similar programs at
other institutions. Occasionally such courses are
submitted for articulation in error.
• A "no credit" is appropriate when it is clear that there
is no possibility of the student applying credit for the
course towards any program at that institution. For
example, a specialized course in a technology, a practicum
course for a professional program, or a studio
or field course in a subject not congruent with the
programs at the receiving institution may not be applicable
to any credential.
A word about pedagogy: normally, how a course is
taught is assumed to be immaterial to the assessment of
equivalence, but there are some cases where the manner
in which a course is structured and taught is integral to
content mastery. For example, at one university, in order
to assign a W (“writing intensive”) designation to a
course, a committee assesses the nature and number of
opportunities for students to write and revise. In some
First Nations courses culturally sensitive pedagogy may
be inextricably linked to course content. In such cases,
best practice requires the receiving institution to communicate
its expectations clearly.
Assessing student success
In the British Columbia Transfer System, as in many
other systems, the effectiveness of the transfer system is
subject to intense examination. One approach to this is
to assess the performance of students after transfer, to
evaluate the extent to which their sending institution has
prepared them well for more advanced courses, and by
extension whether the articulation process can hold up
to scrutiny. Numerous research approaches have demonstrated
consistently that the transfer system in British
Columbia is very effective indeed. Students graduate at
similar rates to those students who enter universities
directly from secondary school (direct entrants), and
achieve comparable grades. Five years after graduation,
transfer students are virtually indistinguishable from
direct entrants.
In one case, however, research into student performance
pointed to an issue affecting an online course: students
were enrolling in suspiciously large numbers for a
English course offered online by a college, and achieving
higher grades than appeared warranted by their scores
in English placement tests. Due to effective communication
between the institutions involved, the issue was
addressed immediately by the responsible institution
and steps were taken to rectify the situation, caused by
insufficient oversight of student assignments and exams.
However, such instances can shake the faith of many in
the system in online course integrity and contribute to
the hesitancy with which some evaluators approach the
awarding of transfer credit for online learning. It is imperative
that, in an articulated system, both sending and
receiving institutions are open to scrutinizing the effectiveness
of their transfer agreements, and the integrity of
their course delivery methodologies.
Summary
Best practice in articulation refers equally to online
courses as to face-to-face courses. Course developers
should ensure that they do their homework in advance of
requesting credit or offering the course, to ensure that the
course, and the students who take it, will receive appropriate
transfer credit. Once the course is underway, instructors
must ensure that all possible safeguards are in
place to maintain the integrity of evaluation of student
performance. Evaluators, on the other hand, need to make
decisions based on sound principles, and to judge a course
by what is really germane to its equivalence, and not allow
themselves to be inappropriately influenced by its delivery
mode. Working with the institutional research office to
keep track of the subsequent performance of transfer students,
including those with online courses, will build faith
in the articulation process and help it stay on track.
As online learning increases in popularity and availability,
it will become more and more important to ensure
that descriptions of online courses are honest, detailed
and accurate, and that decisions regarding transfer credit
are sound, transparent, fair, and defensible. Paying close
attention to both sides of the articulation equation will
ensure that students can use online learning most effectively
as they progress towards their educational goals.
“The new electronic independence re-creates the
world in the image of a global village”. – Marshall
McLuhan
188 Education for a Digital World