It seems to me that a possible process for moving forward is to:
- use existing anchor partner Bachelor of General Studies program definitions as the starting point
- design an OERu Bachelor of General Studies degree that complies with anchor partner requirements while at the same time providing options, flexible specializations, and laddering opportunities
- identify courses that could comprise the OERu Bachelor of General Studies degree
- search for and correlate existing OER resources to match identified courses
- identify gaps and develop new OER to fill the gaps
- work with OER anchor partners to leverage existing student support and assessment services that could be made available to students pursuing this degree
- openly publish PLAR templates, portfolio requirements, challenge exams that match program/course requirements
- and so on …
I thought it might be interesting to visit OERu anchor partner web sites and seek out their Bachelor of General Studies program and course descriptions.
The following anchor partners have a Bachelor of General Studies program on their sites:
Athabasca University - Bachelor of General Studies
http://calendar.athabascau.ca/undergrad/page03_07.php
Thompson Rivers University - Bachelor of General Studies
http://www.tru.ca/distance/programs/general-studies/bachelor.html
The following anchor partners don't specifically have a Bachelor of General Studies but have other credentials that could fit within that scheme:
Empire State College
http://www8.esc.edu/ESConline/Across_ESC/academics.nsf/allbysubject/Undergraduate+Degree+Requirements?OpenDocument
University of South Queensland
Diploma of Arts
http://www.usq.edu.au/handbook/current/arts/DART.html
University of South Africa
http://www.unisa.ac.za/default.asp?Cmd=ViewContent&ContentID=26606
Otago Polytechnic
http://www.otagopolytechnic.ac.nz/schools-departments.html
Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology
http://www.nmit.ac.nz/schools.aspx
Another interesting suggestion made during the webinar is to design the OERu Bachelor of General Studies in such a way that anchor partners would each be responsible for at least one course. This would mean they all have skin in the game and establish a collaborative consortia approach to OERu credentials.
Paul