Liberal Arts and self-paced learning--can they coexist? Come discuss best practices for building a strong liberal arts core into a CBE program.
One of the innovative pedagogical strategies of competency-based degree programs is the self-paced nature of the student's course of study. While individualized programs are not new, pairing self-paced learning with remote and mobile access to the material is, and it can have many benefits for learners.
The questions that often arise about competency-based learning are generally not about what is gained by allowing a student to move forward at his or her own pace as the material is mastered. Instead, the questions are about what is lost.
The liberal arts focus not on industry knowledge, but on interdisciplinarity, interconnection, communication, and many other essential qualities. As a result, group discussion and interpersonal connection is considered essential. How is it possible to replicate a small classroom dynamic in a remote, self-paced setting when so much relies upon community? Studies of the factors important to online student retention have long concluded that in addition to "student self-discipline, quality of faculty and student interaction, and institutional support to students" are key (Gaytan, 2013). The need for these elements in any online program are increased exponentially when one considers the potential for isolation of the CBE student. Penetrating this isolation and forging ties to other students, the tutorial faculty, and the institution poses a challenge that curriculum developers and administrators, especially those in the liberal arts, must address as they plan at both competency and program levels.
One model is not to merely convert a traditional or online course into similar CBE modules, but instead to break traditional courses down to their component parts and rebuild the program from the ground up. In this case, institutions need subject experts to work together to create the connections students may rely on others to make in person, and instead, embed them in the subjects students will study. CBE programs often require students to complete courses in some prescribed order. Because of this, curriculum developers might collaborate to use a lesson about rhetorical terms from an earlier competency, and repeat it, adding more content or going into more depth on topics students have already encountered. Perhaps the research conducted for an essay in a writing competency might be set up to be of use in the speech required in the next term. Students thus begin to see that rhetoric and research are concepts that cut across competencies, and that work done for one can help serve as a foundation for the work that comes later. This helps create connections between disciplines.
Assignments can also be built in to encourage self or community-examination (and can use practices from other disciplines), such asking students to create a SWOT analysis of their own goals, or requiring students to go out into their community to interview artists, writers, museum curators, directors of local theatres, or historians (or locals who have lived through historical events).
Finally, the program itself might offer synchronous events where students and faculty can gather onlineóbrown bag lunch events, disciplinary symposiums, lectures, small group discussion of particular competencies, "competency" meetings for particular subjects where students can ask questions of both the tutorial faculty and the competency developer, and regular "drop-in" hours for any questions students might have, all of which may increase student connection. Using the curriculum as a draw, faculty and administrators must work to create a culture of academic rigor and vitality while on budgets much tighter than those for purely residential campuses.
This presentation would offer both a history of current CBE and offer examples of the ways in which relationships essential to the study and mastery of liberal arts can be built for students in a CBE program. About 15 minutes will be reserved at the end to allow participants to ask questions and ideally to discuss some of their ideas. CBE degree programs are still new enough that best practices and principles are still being researched and developed.
Provided for Participants: The presenters will post contact information, a .pdf copy of the presentation slides, and a synopsis of the post-talk discussion for all participants to access online after the conference.
Note: While unable to attend herself, Dr. Corrine Gordon of Northern Arizona University's Personalized Learning program has agreed to assist with the development of this presentation to offer another viewpoint, that of a lead faculty in a humanities CBE degree program at another institution.
References
Gaytan, J. (2013). Factors affecting student retention in online courses:
Overcoming this critical problem. Career and Technical
Education Research, 38(2), pp.147-155. DOI:
10.5328/cter38.2.147.145
Who might benefit from the presentation? Liberal Arts, humanities, and other faculty as well as administrators engaged in building or exploring competency-based education programs.
Session Type: Education Session
Media: Standard as listed on call