Letters: Class-free college can work

Re “No teaching, just tests,” Editorial, April 10

While no one disputes the learning experiences of a full campus life, a degree is a measure of a student’s learning, not how he was taught.

In 1971, the state of New York recognized that not all students had access to a university campus and established the Regents External Degree Program, granting bachelor degrees based solely on a series of exams. Today that program is the fully independent Excelsior College, offering multiple degree programs that can be completed through exams and online classes.

In addition, our society is full of exam-based “credentials” that are the equivalent of years of college-level learning. Ask anyone who has a CPA or CFP credential if they didn’t study, analyze and learn.

On-campus learning has life experiences, a wonderful thing. Still, it’s wrong to think that a degree earned by a student studying and taking “just tests” is somehow less.

Patrick Kearns

Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Calif.

Your editorial reminded me of a few students I have had over the years at College of the Canyons. Their complaints, all much alike, were that my examinations were not fair as I had “lectured on things that weren’t on the tests.”

Michael D. Mauer

Los Angeles

ALSO:

Letters: FDR, Jews and the war

Letters: A better tune Coachella

Letters: Guns, schools and safety