Abstract
Recognition in education is the acknowledgment of learning achievements. Accreditation is certification of such recognition by an institution, an organization, a government, a community, etc. There are a number of assessment methods by which learning can be evaluated (exam, practicum, etc.) for the purpose of recognition and accreditation, and there are a number of different purposes for the accreditation itself (i.e., job, social recognition, membership in a group, etc). As our world moves from an industrial to a knowledge society, new skills are needed. Social web technologies offer opportunities for learning, which build these skills and allow new ways to assess them. 
 
 This paper makes the case for a peer-based method of assessment and recognition as a feasible option for accreditation purposes. The peer-based method would leverage online communities and tools, for example digital portfolios, digital trails, and aggregations of individual opinions and ratings into a reliable assessment of quality. Recognition by peers can have a similar function as formal accreditation, and pathways to turn peer recognition into formal credits are outlined. The authors conclude by presenting an open education assessment and accreditation scenario, which draws upon the attributes of open source software communities: trust, relevance, scalability, and transparency.
Highlights
Open education is the combination of open licensing and web-based social media
We introduce the roles and functions that accreditation has historically performed for students and institutions, for example as a measure of human capital or an indication of group membership
We describe forces that influence the role of accreditation, the need for new skills as we move from a service-based society to an information society, and the opportunities created by peer-to-peer learning in the social web
Summary
Open education is the combination of open licensing and web-based social media. It brings some fundamental challenges to the way we think about higher education and the institutional arrangements in which it is organized (Katz, 2008; Liyoshi & Kumar, 2008).. Scholars have considered the implications of open approaches for teaching and learning practices, for the development materials, and for the sustainability models for higher education institutions (Benkler 2008; Geith, 2008a, 2008c; Geith & Vignare, 2008; Katz, 2008; Liyoshi & Kumnar, 2008; Schmidt, 2008), but a comprehensive investigation of how an open model can provide new forms of formal accreditation, as well as allow pathways to formal credit, is missing. Accreditation applies to individuals as well as to institutions and to programs, but with respect to students, the commonly used term is “certified” rather than “accredited.” For individual learners accreditation provides formal credentials such as academic credit hours, a license, diploma, certificate, or degree. Assessment aims to be replicable and objective, and we distinguish between assessment of learning, for learning (summative), and as learning (formative) (Earl & Katz, 2006)
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