What’s New in Competency-Based Higher Education?

Student Perspectives

• Keaton Wadzinski, a third year student at the University of Virginia, explains why student voice means more than choice and provides examples of authentic student agency.
• Daniel Porter, a student earning his masters in education from WGU Texas, comments on the innovative CBE model focused on mastery rather than time spent in a classroom.

Thought Leadership

• Under Secretary of Education Ted Mitchell calls for equity to drive higher education innovations. He discusses the college completion crisis, exposure to higher education and the government’s role.
• Does higher education CBE represent a viable investment of student time and money and institutional efforts and resources? What fields and types of learners thrive best under CBE programs? Read insights to these questions here.
• “Clickable credentials” in CBE programs can enable graduate programs and potential employers to assess the true skills of graduates, and it will help with remediation, but is demand high enough for CBE expansion? For more information on this topic, read this article.

Insights from the Field’s Experts

• Cathy Sandeen, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin Colleges and the University of Wisconsin-Extension, shares lessons learned from developing the UW Flexible Option.
• Brandman University Professor Diane Singer explains why CBE clicks for so many of their students, especially adult learners.

Other News

• Western Governors University released its first installment of The Journal of Competency-Based Education. Access the Journal here.
• AT&T, Google and other companies are extending partnerships with online education providers to design new educational pathways to jobs.

Resources

• What is the current state of CBE in IHE across the United States? Preliminary findings from a joint Eduventures/Ellucian survey reporting on institutions’ level of commitment to CBE can be found here.
• CBE and Prior Learning Assessment intersect in many ways, and a new CAEL resource explores the relationship between these two ideas and how they work together in higher education.
• AIR released a brief outlining 7 considerations for CBE program leaders who want to begin gathering and using rigorous evidence as they build a case for CBE to both internal and external audiences.
• CAEL released a new case study of Salt Lake City’s ambitious CBE initiative, which it launched with 10 active programs in 2015 and many more are currently under development.

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