College has become too expensive and too complicated. We at Newlane University have worked hard to get at the core of what a high quality college degree entails, and to simplify the process of earning a college degree, so you can earn a degree at an affordable price, at a schedule that works for you, from anywhere in the world.
The process for earning a degree with Newlane is straightforward and includes the following: reviewing your course learning objectives; accessing instructional resources relevant to mastering those objectives; mastering the objectives; and completing the assessment process to demonstrate mastery of the objectives.
Here’s how we do this:
When you take a course, you can view the course goals, and lesson objectives. These are the learning objectives that you’ll need to master in order to pass the course (an example of a learning objective is: “Explain the process of photosynthesis.”). As you navigate through each objective, you’ll access instructional resources that have been curated by an expert specifically for that objective. For example, you might see a youtube video, a website created by a professor, an article from an online journal, etc. You’re also free to use other resources. The objective gives you sufficient structure so you can find appropriate resources.
For example, in the course “Introduction to Philosophy” one of the lessons is titled “Intro: I Think; Therefore, I am.” This is a lesson about Descartes’ famous argument. When you open this lesson, you’ll view two objectives that read:
- Summarize Descartes’ Argument That Concludes With The Claim: “I Think, therefore, I am.”
And:
- Explain Why Descartes Is Considered By Many To Be The Father Of Modern Philosophy.
If you click on the first objective (Summarize Descartes’ Argument That Concludes With The Claim: “I Think, therefore, I am.”) you’ll see the following instructional resources:
- A video produced by Wireless Philosophy on Descartes’ argument
- An entry on Descartes from Philosophy Basics–the entry includes basic biographical information, and key points in his famous argument
- An electronic copy of Descartes’ works: Meditations on First Philosophy and Discourse on Method–these are the works where Descartes develops his argument that concludes with the famous claim.
- A Yale Open course lecture on Descartes’ argument.
Each of these resources was curated and selected because they will help you master the objective; that is, if a student engages with these media, they should be able to summarize Descartes’ argument. Each objective on each course includes instructional content appropriate to mastering the particular objective. And note again that the objective specifies exactly what you need to know, so you can also find your own appropriate resources if you like.
Every objective includes relevant media resources that are accessible by simply clicking on the objective. Each objective also includes assessments specific to that objective. This means that we can document to the objective level what a student has mastered.
To earn your degree simply means that you demonstrate mastery of the learning objectives of the degree courses. In a follow up post, I’ll discuss our assessment process, but I’ll give a little teaser here. Our assessment process has three phases: Self-assessment; Computer-scored assessment; and Expert-verified assessment.
Welcome to Newlane! We’re excited to support you as you earn your degree.
