What’s New in Competency-Based Higher Education?

Accountability & Oversight

• During a LinkedIn seminar, Under Secretary of Education Ted Mitchell discussed the changing nature of higher education students and the associated need to create new accountability measures and assessment tools to gauge the new definitions of success.
• Paul LeBlanc wrote an Inside Higher Ed essay calling for new competency-based regulatory frameworks with enough latitude to provide for both innovation and learning, enough quality assurance to discourage poor programs, and enough regulatory oversight to prevent abuses.

Competency-Based Higher Education Models

• UW Flexible Option program enrollments, now in operation for about 22 months, have nearly doubled the estimated projections. This blog post highlights the data and processes used for planning purposes and the processes used to establish expectations in this upcoming year.
• Clark Atlanta University will become the first historically black college doing competency-based education with stackable credentials that can be earned on the way to becoming a subject matter expert. The new curriculum will begin with incoming freshman in January 2016.
• John Baker, CEO of Desire2Learn, discusses what competency-based higher education looks like and explores Ohio’s bill that requires public institutions to submit a competency-based program plan to the Governor by December 31, 2015.

Connecting CBE to the Job Market

• The Committee for Economic Development released What Are Essential Competencies On the Job? Which portrayed essential competencies employers are looking for, as well as specific competencies that are in short supply. This report was covered in EdWeek as well as Inside Higher Ed.
• Captain Pradeep Chawla explains the difference between education/training and competency within the shipping industry and describes potential solutions to standardize the industry across nationalities.
• The University of Maine at Farmington, in response to a need expressed by practicing educators, will begin a 4-course graduate education certificate in Proficiency Based Education (PBE) in January through University College at Rockland.

Thought Leadership

• At the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation U.S. Education Learning Forum, experts provide insights as to how personalized learning can reshape education. Daniel Rasmus reflects on the role of data, rapid technological change, and 8 lessons from the Personalized Learning Panel.
• Tom Vander Ark and Andy Calkins highlight ten examples of next generation learning in K-12 systems, which result in ten implications for higher education.
• Andrew Rikard, a Junior at Davidson College in North Carolina studying English and Computer Science, reflects on what “student agency” means to him, including individualization, relationships, and equality.

Other News in Higher Ed CBE

• A U.S. News & World Report article examines 5 signs for students to determine if a competency-based higher education program might be appropriate for their field.
• Growth in competency-based higher education has been stymied by significant technology challenges and lack of software support. The Technical Interoperability Pilot (TIP) project, founded by and for the C-BEN, is designed to incorporate vendors on finding solutions to seamlessly support the scale and operational integrity required to meet accreditor and regulator scrutiny.
• The American Academy of Arts and Sciences will be forming The Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education, which will examine the vast and expanding array of learning options available to high school graduates. The Academy received $2.2 million from the Carnegie Corporation of New York for this 3-year initiative.
• The New Hampshire Coalition for Business & Education, established by business, education and philanthropic leaders committed to improving education, calls for partnership to support increased rigor, expectations, and accountability in competency education and early childhood intervention programs.

Resources

• The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) released a paper explaining the relationship between prior learning assessment and competency education.
• WGU has developed a CBE Quality Improvement Rubric to evaluate the quality of CBE-designed courses. The rubric includes sections to evaluate the quality of Competencies and Objectives, Course Organization, Effective Learning, Content and Depth, Course Design, and Assessment.
• Earlier this year, a group of organizations came together to develop a resource that outlines the unique competencies educators need in order to create and thrive in effective personalized learning environments, the Educator Competencies for Personalized, Learner-Centered Teaching. As follow-up to this project, they will be hosting a webinar series in early December on this resource.

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