BUZZ
Fast-paced online degree programs are raising concerns about competency
The rapid pace at which some students are earning bachelor’s degrees online – one told the Washington Post she got hers in just three months – is prompting concerns from academic leaders.
The president of the New England Commission of Higher Education, an accrediting group, said he is making inquiries into the University of Maine Presque Isle’s online program as a result, according to the report, published Sunday.
“If students are getting a baccalaureate degree in a few months, the commission could certainly inquire, ‘Is there integrity to the degree to be awarded?’” commission President Larry Schall told the Washington Post.
Christie Williams, of North Carolina, told the newspaper that she earned her bachelor’s degree through the program in three months by taking classes online after work.
Williams, who works in human resources, said she later earned her master’s degree in five weeks, and now teaches others how to do what she did.
“Why wouldn’t you do that?” she said. “It’s kind of a no-brainer if you know about it.”
The YourPace program, offered through the Maine public university, is designed for non-traditional learners, such as older adults who need to balance school with jobs and families.
According to the report, “Of the nearly 300 students who earned a bachelor’s in the YourPace program in fall 2024, the vast majority finished in less than a year. More than 1 in 4 finished their entire degree course load in a single eight-week session, half the length of a traditional academic semester.”
The University of Maine’s program is just one example.
Western Governors University in Utah also promotes its fast-paced online degrees, noting on its website that “WGU students finish online degrees in 2.5 years on average” but “many … finish significantly faster even than that!”
Some of the students do begin these programs with credits from previous college courses.
Often, programs also “let students transfer in as many as three-quarters of the credits from nontraditional sources,” such as “past learning on the job; passing tests that show they already know the material; or completing tutorials from online learning platforms such as Study.com, Sophia Learning and StraighterLine, which can often take less time to complete than traditional college courses,” according to the report.
Raymond Rice, who teaches a philosophy class through YourPace at UMaine, told the Washington Post that the program uses a “competency-based education” model that allows students to learn at their own pace.
“The students demonstrate how much they can learn as quickly as they can,” Rice said. “They take as long or as short as they need to get there.”
For his class, students must submit five five-page essays and one 10-page essay to earn credit, but there are “no class meetings,” “group discussions,” or “weekly assignments,” according to the report:
The phenomenon — sometimes referred to as degree hacking, college speed runs or hyper-accelerated degrees — has spawned a cottage industry of influencers making videos about how quickly they earned their degrees and encouraging others to follow suit. …
“We want diplomas that mean something,” said Marjorie Hass, president of the Council of Independent Colleges, which represents more than 600 liberal arts colleges and universities. “I would prefer to have some of these degrees called something other than a bachelor’s.”
Nationally, it’s hard to know exactly how many students are graduating so quickly. The National Center for Education Statistics estimates that 44 percent of students finish a bachelor’s degree within four years but doesn’t offer numbers for shorter time periods.
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