Degreed Continues the Evolution of Education

• John Vandivier

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240"]<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/18090920@N07/5617089955" target="_blank"><img class="zemanta-img-inserted" title="education" alt="education" src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5269/5617089955_d20fe0f1ab_m.jpg" width="240" height="86" /> education (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee)[/caption]

<a href="http://degreed.com/">Degreed is another example of alternative education. In the past I have written about <a href="http://caeconomics.wordpress.com/2013/08/14/why-should-you-try-game-based-learning/">game-based learning, <a href="http://caeconomics.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/a-short-recommendation-and-defense-of-homeschooling/">homeschooling and <a href="http://caeconomics.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/economic-efficiency-found-in-new-models-of-education/">other models of education. All of these technologies increase the quality per dollar of education by leaps and strides over the status quo.

Degreed operates by aggregating, validating and valuing all kinds of educational resources. Notably, Degreed supports credits from every US university, thousands of international universities and many major <a class="zem_slink" title="E-learning" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-learning" target="_blank" rel="wikipedia">online learning platforms. It even recognized my informal course at the Mises Academy!

Degreed also considers several smaller acts of education. These activities include reading articles, watching videos and reading books. Degreed also takes advantage of game-based learning by incorporating Mozilla badges. Degree considers certain events and conferences for educational value as well. Interestingly, Degreed weights the value to some degree. I think this is done by video or article length, although the prestige of the publisher may play some role. It seems to be a bit of secret sauce.

Not only does Degreed validate education you have completed, it also recommends new resources for continued education. From physics to philosophy, Degreed can point you towards a variety of free or low cost educational materials.

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