More changes for KEISIE

I recently received some interesting news from the graduate school that will hopefully provide more utility for me in the future. A decision was made to move the base of operations for the school from Korea to the US. The school is now incorporated in Arkansas, and it is hoped that US accreditation will be approved in the near future.

The ultimate goal is to gain accreditation that would give teacher certificate approval to the courses, so that any person taking them could swiftly move into teaching in the US. This aspect doesn’t appeal to me so much as the opportunities it would provide me with international schools in Korea.

Dr. Bottiger is confident that full accreditation can be gained before my course of study is finished. This is a nice touch, and is much more than I had hoped for when I signed up for the course.

Dr. Bottiger is committed to keeping fees low even after US accreditation has been awarded, though looking at the costs for accreditation I am not sure if this is feasible. Whilst he seems confident that there will be no increases in cost, I would suggest that anybody considering the course sign up now, and beat any increase though could come from the additional expense of accreditation. Even at double the current prices, the cost of studying at the school would be much cheaper than the alternatives!

Even if accreditation is not achieved before the end of my course, I would suspect that the school would be willing to transfer in most of their old credits to allow an accredited degree to be awarded with minimal fuss.

Rumbled!

I had an interesting conversation with Dr. Bottiger recently. It seems he has stumbled across this blog and figured out (with little difficulty as Mike is my real name) who the author is. Whilst this was to be expected, I am still surprised that he came across it whilst the blog is so young.

Thankfully he is not annoyed and is quite happy for me to continue with what I am doing. Libel laws being what they are in Korea, he could have easily requested that I close down the site, just for mentioning his name! He considers an independent evaluation of the course to be useful for any students who wish to gather information from informed sources, especially with all of the negative, uninformed information currently floating about.

Hopefully, as readership increases, we can work on getting any news out on this site as soon as it becomes available. I know that Dr. Bottiger is working with some US accreditation agencies at the moment so that KEISIE can become a better choice for people looking to work towards credit to be applied at other institutions, as well as to offer the degrees more utility outside of Korea (where they are Government recognised) and India (where ICAATS provide accreditation).

Perhaps we can invite Dr. Bottiger to make contributions in the future, and to clarify any incorrect information that I may post. Whatever he decides is best for this blog, I would like to welcome him to the audience, and I hope he has a happy stay here.

Changes

I recently finished up the first module of the KEISIE M.Ed program, and have feeling quite pleased with myself. The grades were good, and the content had given me a lot to consider. Despite my initial reservations about the religious content, I finished the module satisfied that I had just completed a module about education, rather than a module about religion.

After completing the final assignment and exam, I spent some time reflecting on what I had accomplished in 10 weeks…

• 20 course readings
• 50+ additional readings
• 5 short assignments of 1-2,000 words
• 1 large Group assignment
• 1 large individual assignment
• 2 exams

The real question is, did it feel like more or less than I would expect from a quality course of instruction? At first it felt like more. A lot more! With the new baby in the house, and the new job, I was worried that I had taken on too much. As this was really just a ’sample’ of the course, I really should have thanked Dr. Bottiger and re-enrolled when I was better prepared to do the work, but I have never been one to give up so easily!

Whilst these outside pressures did undoubtedly make the workload seem increased, I have since come to the conclusion that my perceptions were reality. The work was indeed more than I would have expected. At first! The content was structured so that there was a clear progression. At first, I was doing a lot of additional reading, yet by the mid-way point (when the first large assignment was introduced), my reading had dropped significantly as I was able to call upon past readings to supplement my arguments. New readings were reduced to around 4 or 5 per assignments, and most of my citations were pulled from older course readings, or works I had already used.

So, in the first few weeks, the readings were significant, and coursework was light. Towards the end, readings were lighter and coursework was increased. As a result, the course was well balanced and very well structured. I can only guess that the same could be true when I am sitting 2 or 3 courses together – I would expect significant overlap between courses that would allow me to complete courses with less reading, which will then enable me to concentrate on the increase in assignments.

So what does this have to do with change? Well, the time has come for me to officially enrol as a student. Dr. Bottiger sent me out a copy of the course catalogue (which you can now download from the front page of the KEISIE website), and I have noticed a LOT of change! Whilst you can often expect some changes with a new organisation, (and indeed I was told to expect some by Dr. Bottiger) the amount of change to the programs on offer is much higher than I could have anticipated.

For the M.Ed course, there are not numerous options available. The choice between the Department of Educational Administration and the Department of Teaching and Instruction decides the core courses (either admin or teaching based).

When I enrolled on the course, I expected to be completing 3 religious modules, 1 of which dealt with religious content, and the other 2 on Religion in Education. For the M.Ed from the Dept. of Teaching and Instruction, the requirement has been dropped to 1 religious courses, and that is the course I have already completed, the one dealing explicitly with education. As I have already completed one of these, it leaves me just 1 to complete. As much as I enjoyed the previous course, I am looking forward to focusing on the educational courses, as I am an educator looking to become better at his job!

So, the core courses I must complete are:

• SOC 6525 Culture and Education
• EDU 6250 Comparative Issues in Education
• EDU 6700 Introduction to Educational Theory
• REL 6601 Philosophy of Religious Education (completed)

Now I must choose my Major. I wish to study International Language, and so I must study two courses that are considered the core of my selected area:

• EDU 6005 Principles of Teaching
• EDU 6020 Curriculum Theory and Design

Then I get to supplement my area of concentration with and 2 of the following(bold indicates my my likely choices):

• EDU 6400 The Teaching of Language
• EDU 6405 Applied Linguistics
• EDU 6410 Second Language Teaching Strategies
• EDU 6415  Strategies for Teaching Reading
• EDU 6440  The  Adolescent L earner

And then there are 2 course electives.

• PSY 6800 Educational Psychology
• EDU 5350 Educational Interaction with Parents and Officials
• EDU 6030  Effective Classroom Practices
• EDU 5910 Problem Solving in Education

The catalogue indicates that it is possible to take any one of a number of courses from the School of Psychology, so I am tempted to change to Child Psychology, to help me better understand my daughter, or perhaps social psychology.

After all of that, I will be writing a These. Ouch! To be honest, I am afraid of this, but I do have some good ideas for research, and I have a few contacts who could help me out.

The previous incarnation of the Graduate School, whilst offering good value, was limited and there was some course content that I was settling for in order to get access to the courses I really wanted to study. The new catalogue shows that there is a much greater vision for the school, and allows Students to personalise their degree to their needs.

A quick summary of the courses offered (this was a quick count, so I may have missed one or 2 from the Education courses):

• 3 Business courses
• 70 Education courses
• 5 Information Technology courses
• 9 Psychology courses
• 10 Religion courses
• 7 Humanities courses

Impressive!

Unit 3 (and 4) completed!

Thanks to my PC troubles, I did not post the unit 3 update upon completion. I managed to hand in the assignment on time, but the difficulties with the old PC meant that I could not bear to spend the time updating this site. Instead, I wrote most of it as a draft which I have adapted for this larger post.

The deadline 2 weeks ago was a busy one. I had 2 assignments to hand in at this time – a typical unit assignment, and a larger group assignment.

The unit assignment (Unit 3)dealt with issues of choice in the context of Religious Education. The course readings dealt with a number of issues including different interpretations of Christianity (and the conflicts that arise from this), and the issue of ‘forcing’ a particular religion upon people as experienced by the Native Indians of the US through the boarding school experience.

There were also a number of readings dealing with the legalities of including religion in the classroom, and these were based upon court cases in the US and the UK. Finally, there was a piece that considered the merits and pitfalls of home-schooling as a choice for parents.

All in, there were some long readings that pulled together a number of issues relating to the difficulties of introducing religion in the classroom, and my paper dealt with these issues and more in finding a way to introduce religion into the classroom in a way that would not alienate students or parents.

The group assignment was a holdover from the previous unit (Unit 2), but due to the fact that it involved a lot more work than a typical assignment, a 4 week deadline is given. This is an exercise in co-operation and so it is different from the typical assignment.

The KEISIE class software automatically allocates students a group, and gives them have a reading to download. (My reading was about a successful Christian school in the US that manages to draw enough private funding to be able to offer an excellent package to students in the area, and can afford to charge fees based on ability). The assignment involved writing a large proposal for a system of RE that would be implemented in the public school system.

The assignment had a lot of overlap with previous assignments, yet obviously required further research. I ended up doing a lot more research into the UK and Irish models for religious education before making my submission, and I completed over 3,500 words for this piece.

Despite what some may think, this course is still not pushing a particular (Christian) agenda. My Unit 3 and Group assignment work concerned inclusive religious education that gave equal rights to atheists, Muslims, Christians, Hindus and Jews alike. Needless to say, I was not penalised in any way for this and I was actually commended on my inclusive approach in private correspondence with Dr. Bottiger.

August 11th-13th was Mid-Term time. During this time, students are required to access an exam online and complete it within a set time. My exam comprised of 5 questions geared to ensure that I understood the course content so far. It took a few hours to complete, but due to their nature, were a lot less labour intensive than the regular assignments. (An exam does not offer time for research!)

The next week was when my PC decided to finally give up on me, and so I ordered some parts and waited for the delivery of my new unit. It took over a week for the parts to be delivered, and once the setup was completed, I already had a looming deadline! The upcoming Unit 4 included 5 readings, though this time there were just 40 pages in total.

The issues dealt with included religious institutions working with government, and indoctrination within religious schools. A paper was to be submitted dealing with Christian principles in the classroom. Once again, I adopted an inclusive approach that focused on similarities between the world’s religions and was not penalised for this. My research led me to look up a number of books and articles that show just how much governments and educational institutes in the US and Canada rely on Christian principles, yet do not actually label them as such. The teaching of morals, or principles for life was long the domain of religion as it does not fall within the mandate for any other subject in the school curriculum, yet we are now at a point where schools are neglecting to teach students to care about world issues, simply because educators do not want to enter the domain of religion.

As an aside, one of the biggest problems I am having with the course is keeping my assignment lengths down. The guideline is just 1,000-2,000 words, yet I find that I always have too much to say. In the end, I cut down a lot of my content in order to meet the guidelines, and also to ensure that my wife and child are not sidelined. I am sure that I could submit radically different assignments and still get good grades, thanks to the depth of material that is covered within each unit.

Unit 4 also contains an individual project that is larger than the regular assignments, and I will be honest here and say I have not had time to give it much thought. I will be working diligently towards completion for the next week, and will post my thoughts on the content in the next week or so.

Following that, I will have one more assignment to complete (the deadline is 2 weeks from today), and then my final exam. In 2 or 3 weeks I will be finished with this first unit of the Masters of Education program, and I will be able to spend some time to reflect on everything that has been covered.

KEISIE and ICAATS

If you exercise due diligence (and do a quick Google search), you will quickly discover that there is some controversy about the validity of ICAATS accreditation. Unfortunately, many people are involved are arguing from a position of opinion rather than fact. There are some people who are vehemently against any education system that does not follow the western model, and they are under the mistaken belief that ALL western education models are identical.

The people who do argue from a position of fact are those from India. Unfortunately, they appear to be connected to ICAATS in some manner. The most vocal defenders of ICAATS accreditation are those working for a university that is accredited by ICAATS.

Until very recently, I was not connected to ICAATS and I had no real interest in defending their position. I am not working towards an ICAATS accredited M.Ed, and whilst that could put my compromise my beliefs this is not the case. I will now try to outline my position.

Who are ICAATS?

ICAATS are The International Council For Accrediting Alternate And Theological Studies. They are an accrediting agency set up to accredit theological courses since 1954, and do so as an NGO. They received recognition from the Indian government in 2003 and now hold a license to accredit courses.

ICAATS are an NGO. In India, most degree courses are completed in Government approved institutions, and accreditation comes from the ministry of education. These institutions only teach and practice the national religion, Hinduism. 80% of the population is Hindi.

In order to preserve the rights of minority religions, the Government established a system whereby “All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.” This is written into the Indian constitution, and was signed into law in 1950, just 3 years after they gained independence. It was never necessary to seek accreditation, yet ICAATS was set up to offer a system of checks to ensure some level of academic integrity. Many religious institutions in India are self-accredited and their degrees are considered valid within India.

An amusing thing to note is that the Indian system of accreditation for institutes of higher education, and that of allowing religious schools to self-accredit (or seek the accreditation of an NGO) is reflected almost identically in the US education model, yet the US model followed a decade later. US Education was unaccredited until the late 1960’s. Nowadays, US educational institutes can seek accreditation from national or local organisations. As there is strict separation of state and religion, religious institutions in the US are either self accredited, or accredited by an NGO.

What is accreditation?

Accreditation is a third party verification of academic integrity. In the US, it is required to secure funding for students. In the UK, it is never required as the government grants a license to issue degrees to Universities and colleges whose quality they are satisfied with.

In the UK, the government license is required in order to secure funding for your college or university. In the US, national, state, or religious NGO accreditation is required. Essentially, accreditation is only sought so that that institutes can get funding. This funding is only available for domestic (or in the case of the US, state resident) students and so international students do not benefit from accreditation in any way. The UK Universities are not formally recognised in the US, and the UK will not formally recognise US education. That being said, both countries will recognise that the degrees granted by both countries are of a high quality and a US degree will be recognised by UK universities and UK employers, despite its unaccredited status in the UK. The opposite holds true in the US.

The Indian system is a mix of the UK and US system (though it came before the US system), yet people are unwilling to consider it genuine because, dare I say it, the standards are Indian! The Indian education system is first rate. Indian people are, for the most part, bi-lingual, and they are taking jobs every day from the UK and the US in a number of important sectors. These are not people who are receiving a substandard education!

Should an International School seek accreditation?

My honest opinion here? I do not think that an international school such as KEISIE requires accreditation. They are approved by the Korean government to grant degrees and so they are able to qualify their existence with that simple fact.

I know from speaking with Dr. Bottiger, and from my research into one-day opening a language school of my own, that the Korean Ministry of Education impose a very stringent series of checks to ensure the academic credentials of any licensed educational institution. When I provided feedback for the TEFL course that I conducted through KEI, I was told that the government actually verified the system of testing that was in place to ensure that standards for a simple TEFL certification were high, and this is despite there being any standard in place.

To date, KEISIE is the only licensed virtual school in Korea. The MOE actually invented a new series of balances (and by all accounts a new tax code) for them. They are government approved, and so they do not really need any other accreditation.

That said, most of their students will be from outside of Korea and I applaud their willingness to seek external accreditation. US accreditation gives comfort to people who are unable to take a global view of education. As most US accreditation agencies require some history before they grant accreditation, KEISIE will have to be in operation for a few years before they can realise this goal. Like many US schools, they will have to operate as an unaccredited institute before they can be considered valid.

Is an unaccredited degree a fake degree?

NO! Absolutely not! Many unaccredited colleges within the US are of a high standard. In California, people from selected unaccredited institutes are eligible to take the bar exam and practice law! This does not indicate a lack of validity when a degree is unaccredited. (Whilst relatively few people pass the bar exam when they come from an unaccredited institution, this is more a reflection on the quality of applicant who are likely to be unable to study at an accredited college. Most people studying will be from a poor economic background and so opt for the lower fees of an unaccredited college, and likely to be working as well as studying).

A fake degree, such as those you read about in the newspapers, is one that is a forgery or one where you “earn” your degree by signing a cheque. A degree that is earned through study and hard work is NOT a fake degree. As long as you are honest about where you earned the degree, your degree is not considered fake.

I personally believe that a program of educational study is as valid as you, the student, make it. If you receive good quality instruction and are willing to work towards your goals, you will come out of the program with a greater knowledge of your given subject. How much greater the knowledge is depends on the work you invest. Essentially, you are paying for an education, and that education should be your measure of satisfaction, NOT the accredited status.

With KEISIE, I will receive my M.Ed and I will be happy about both the education I received, and the price I paid. After discussions with friends who are studying distance MA’s, MBA’s and M.Ed’s, I know that I am doing as much work as they are, and that I am receiving an education as valid as they are. In the end, that is all anybody should care about.

Oh to be a student again!

We all have fond memories of our days as an undergraduate, or at least we should. Academic life was one of the best times of my life. I was playing lead guitar in a rock band, out “socialising” 4 or 5 nights a week, and at the end of it all I got a degree that has served me well. Don’t kid yourselves though, it isn’t the same the second time around!

The band has been replaced by a family, and the fun has been replaced by work. Most people simply can’t manage to take time away from all of that in order to further their education. I certainly could not manage to further my studies if it were not for the marvel that is distance education and given my current geographical location, the internet is really the thing making all of this possible.

But, I digress. I managed to complete my first assignment this week. With the wife and child finally home, I managed to throw myself into the readings and figure out my own position. I tested the waters on the student forum on the KEISIE class site, and was instantly given some reassuring feedback by my Professor, Dr. Bottiger. I expected as much. Whilst he is a man who clearly holds his Christian beliefs in high esteem, he is an educator first and foremost. Unlike many Christian educators, he is an Educator taking a critical look at Christian Education, rather than a Christian looking at Education.

The first topic led me (as I noted previously) into doing further research into the Catholic model, and my position was formulated using that as a basis. I found my further research was hindered by my geographical location, in that I do not have access to a public library, and bookshops take a long time to deliver here. The KEISIE site claims that this course can be done 100% online though, so I had to test that theory. Whilst I do hold a number of texts I can refer to in the field of Education, I am forced to rely on other sources for the Religious courses.

Using the course readings as a springboard, I made much use of Google scholar and was able to track down additional works. Thankfully, many of the authorities in Religious Education tend to make their findings available for free, and so standard Google searches also provided some useful material.

I worked hard in ensuring that my position was strengthened by solid research which was fully referenced. I am happy to note that my first assignment was submitted and I was more than satisfied with the results.

The next unit was unlocked at midnight, and I immediately downloaded the reading for it. The unit is called “Philosophical Concerns of Religion and Education”, and the reading this time around are much longer. I have only had time to read one of the texts, and this is concerned with an issue that plagues all industries these days, and whilst there are a handful of references to Religion and Education, this article could have easily been read as part of my BA (Hons)Business Administration degree. From skimming the texts, it seems that another piece is related to discrimination and legal proceedings in Canada. I am sure that these pieces (and the subsequent discussions and assignments) will benefit anybody looking to take up a role in Educational Leadership, and is not only beneficial to religious educators.

((Now that I have a little more time on my hands, I will make a number of posts in the coming weeks about how I arrived at my decision to study with KEISIE, and will comment on some of the issues that other people researching the school will undoubtedly stumble upon)).

What a week!

Ongoing sagas with the newborn have caused me to neglect my studies for the past week. Whilst I have had some time to read the pieces, I have not done much else. Registering a birth via the embassy, hospital visits, and the final days at my old job have taken much of my time, and preparations for the new job have taken up what is left.

Having read the articles, I have to confess to being pleasantly surprised. The reading have been about Religious Education, yet have not been particularly heavy on the religious content. Much of the readings have been about ensuring that faith based institutions can remain relevant in the modern age. The readings have left me impressed by the approach that the Catholic Church have adopted over the past 50(ish) years, and I think I will try and do some further research into the changes that they have implemented.

Essentially this unit is, at least in my interpretation, an argument about modern educational practices (those of evidence, open discourse, and unabated criticism) working against the interests of faith based institutions in their current format. We as students are being exposed to evidence that argues both sides of the fence from a Christian perspective, and we are to decide how faith and education can work together. Does faith need to surrender some authority to academia, or should faith be considered infallible and not yield an inch?

I know which position I will be taking. I guess the KEISIE people will have to show their hand quicker than anticipated! Does their affiliation with a theological school skew their academic credibility, or will they do as I expect and view my argument on its merits? I guess I will post more on this next week!

The Beginning

My daughter was born 3 days ago, and I have just got back from the hospital to check the first unit of the first course in the KEISIE M.Ed RE Program.

The course is one that goes by the title of “Philosophy of Religious Education”, and the first unit is called “The Foundation of Education from a Religious Perspective”.

The KEISIE site uses ATutor software to deliver its content. I am familiar with this software, having used it when I studied with KEI for my TEFL certificate. As I expected, I logged in to find the instructions I would have to become familiar with.

I was presented with 5 readings, all posing questions regarding various issues in RE. We students are then challenged to prepare small pieces forming an opinion about the readings (all articles from academic journals), and those pieces are to be the basis of student discussions.

Within 2 weeks, I am to have prepared a paper of up to 2000 words to present my position on the subject.

The pieces appear to be quiet varied in the Christian churches represented, as well as the tone and issues at hand. I have just 2 weeks to do any further research that may be required, and work on my position. I have the newborn to content with and the added stress of starting a new job in just 6 days. To be fair, I have only had time to skim the content so it all seems a little overwhelming at the moment. I will hopefully make more sense of it once I have rested.