What’s New in Higher Education Competency-Based Education

We recommend reading A Higher Ed Journey Into K-12 Innovation by Bryan Setser, Julie Goff and Patrick Sellers.   The authors highlights themes and organizations at  the iNACOL Symposium we wll as emerging issues between K12 and higher education as competency education expands.

We all know that networks are one of the best ways to build the knowledge and expertise for re-designing institutions of higher education and K12 to be competency-based. The Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN) has issued a call for new membership applications. with applications due by January 15, 2015.  Click here to download the application.

Also in the news:

• Senate Higher Education Bill Focuses on Affordability in U.S. News and World Report provides a quick overview of the elements of the bill.

• Experts See Traditional Campus, Online Education Mix Becoming the Norm by Jamaal Abdul-Alim in Diverse summarizes the conversation at National Education Week “Thought Leader Summit” in November.

• Making competence-based education a reality in schools across Europe describes a new effort called KeyCoNet (Key Competence Network on School Education) to strengthen key competence development in policy and practice.

• 

  Students explore new models of higher education with Dean Pritchett highlights a course at Penn Law called New Models for Post-Secondary Education to engage students in re-thinking ways to design higher education.

• Mobile Bachelor’s Degree highlights Brandman University’s bachelor’s program. According to the article, “The degree is also completely severed from the credit-hour standard.”  There are no textbooks and “[a]bout 60 percent of the required 80-plus “competencies” are linked to performance-based assessments, like writing a paper, working on a group project or creating a portfolio. The rest of the work is objective-based, such as test-taking.” Currently 44 students are enrolled.

• Flexible Option: A Direct-Assessment Competency-Based Education Model describes University of Wisconsin (UW) launched its Flexible Option (UW Flex).

• Competency-Based Education Gains Momentum in the AACC 21st Century Center provides an overview of initiative and expansion of community-based education in higher education.

• WGU Launches New Online Master’s Degree for Aspiring English Teachers  is designed for  middle school or high school English teachers who have completed an undergraduate degree in English but still need a teaching credential. The WGU Master of Arts in Teaching English program, which prepares graduates for teacher licensure in all 50 states.

• Competency, Texas-Style discusses University of Texas’ plans for personalized credentials.

• Got Skills? Why Online Competency-Based Education Is the Disruptive Innovation for Higher Education by Michelle Weise in Educause Review Online

• 3 Ways to Lower Crazy High College Costs in the Brookings Institute blog recommends more information on cost and quality, how to describe quality more specifically and new business models.