We are in the process of re-tooling our diploma pathways program. Specifically, we are changing terminology to eliminate “diploma” and “major” and “minor”. Until we are ready to unveil the re-vamped information, our page at www.saylor.org/diplomas will redirect visitors to this blog post.

Here is the most important thing to note: this program is not disappearing. You still have the “diploma” certificates you have earned, but we have changed the wording on the issued certificates to eliminate the word “diploma”.. If you are currently working toward a pathway certificate, you should absolutely continue to do so.

In the interest of complete transparency, the issue is the word “diploma”. The Higher Education Licensing Commission (HELC) of the District of Columbia (where we are based) has informed us that our use of the word “diploma” is potentially misleading to students and must be changed.

Our talks with HELC have been entirely positive and we are making these changes quickly to show good faith with the regulations that our city has in place to protect students.

So far, in addition to taking down the Diploma Pathways page and removing other references, we have changed the templates of the diplomas to use the word “certificate” rather than “diploma”. This is a temporary change; in the coming days, we will:

• Determine a different word or phrase to replace our use of the word “diploma”
• Come up with different words or phrases to describe “majors” and “minors” in both legacy and current course pathways

Once again, please know that we love and intend to expand upon our course pathways formerly known as “diploma pathways”. The words have changed, but the facts of what students have accomplished or intend to accomplish remain the same. The issue is terminology and we simply have to make these changes in order to keep providing this program to our students.