The saga of Jerrell Powe continues. You may have read about the trials and
tribulations of the former Penn Foster student in some of my earlier blog
entries.
Powe entered Ole Miss on a football scholarship back in 2004
and has been fighting to actually play on the team ever since then. The NCAA ruled Powe was academically
ineligible to play football because he lacked the sufficient number of high
school courses to enter college.
Powe took correspondence courses through Brigham Young
University and Penn Foster
High School in order to
meet the NCAA requirements. He
successfully completed those courses, but the NCAA disallowed the majority of his
distance learning credits.
Ole Miss filed appeals on behalf of Powe, and last week two
different NCAA committees upheld an earlier decision that Powe is academically ineligible
to play football for the college. While
Powe will be allowed to continue to attend Ole Miss on a football scholarship,
the earliest he can play football for the college will be 2008.
Now, Powe may not be a good student. I don’t know the man, so it’s entirely
possible. For me, this is an issue of
the acceptability of distance learning courses and degrees as acceptable
academic credentials. If the NCAA can
disregard a significant part of a student athlete’s academic record, what does
this say about the acceptability of distance learning degrees and courses to
fulfill the requirements of a job, promotion or licensing standards?
Perhaps without realizing it, the NCAA was not only passing judgment
on Jerrell Powe, but on distance learning as a viable academic alternative for adults. I wonder if anyone working for the NCAA has a
distance learning degree? Somehow, I
doubt it.
I have actually had other distance learning students disagree
with me on this point, saying it is “too easy” to cheat at schools like Penn
Foster and others accredited by the DETC.
They overlook a couple of key points.
First, the courses Powe took at BYU were also disallowed by the NCAA,
and BYU is a regionally accredited institution.
Second, before any student can take a final exam for Penn Foster
College, they must show
an ID to the proctor to prove they are the student who is supposed to be taking
the exam. The proctor receives the exam
directly from Penn Foster, and mails it back when the student has finished
sitting for the exam.
In my opinion, the NCAA opinion only serves to reinforce the
stereotype that distance learning is inferior to “butt-in-seat” learning at
brick-and-mortar institutions.