Competency-based education promotes student learning through progression of success and mastery rather than time. Adult learners benefit from observed progress, in turn increasing persistence and matriculation rates. Excelsior College will share a model for CBE in a capstone course and considerations for application at other institutions.
Excelsior College is a fully on-line non-profit private institution that focuses on degree completion for adult returning students. Over 1500 students each year graduate with a general BA or BS degree in Liberal ArtsAt traditional colleges across the United States, student progress is measured by semesters and years. In recent decades, the traditional four years set aside for the path towards graduation has been pushed aside. Traditional full-time undergraduates are graduating in four, five, and six years due to financial issues, registration challenges, and/or changing majors or changing schools. For part-time students the path is even longer, as these students often are adult learners with obligations of jobs, family, or military service keeping them from a full focus on classes. A competency-based education allows for institutions to measure learning, not time.
Over 37 million individuals in the United States have some college credit but did not successfully graduate from college (Mendenhall, 2012). This population, typically adult learners, found the issues preventing persistence overwhelming and chose to discontinue in their pathway to learning. In addition, these former college students now face entering or trying to improve their prospects in an unfriendly workforce. Without a degree these credit holding individuals may continue to struggle and be underutilized in the community and in their intended profession which, in turn, creates economic and personal struggles for them and their families.
Instead of a focus on counting time, competency-based education has a focus on student learning. In many ways CBE can even improve student learning with the focus on the knowledge, skill, and ability rather than the number of hours in a class or days in a semester. A CBE model can create opportunities for students to identify sequential and progressive learning, find engagement by measuring progress instead of time, and recognize mastery of sections of learning, which then allows for feelings of success and achievement (Wolk, 2015). To enhance the capstone learning experience and to further engage this population of learners, adults, the course includes a unique interactive text developed by the Faculty Program Director (FPD), Subject Major Expert (SME) and Soomo Learning ®. (http://www.soomolearning.com/)
Excelsior College has adopted the following definition of Competency-Based Education:
Competency-based education is a flexible way for students to get credit for what they know, build on their knowledge and skills by learning more at their own pace and earn high quality degrees, certificates and other credentials to help them in their lives and careers. Students in these programs show what they know and how well they know it through multiple ways of evaluating learning. This is another choice for learning offered at many institutions, through a wide variety of programs, with full support to help students when needed.
On average, for each eight-week term, we run over a 10 sections of the capstone for Liberal Arts. At the institution, we developed a competency based approach to the capstone experience, a vital and critical last course showcasing learning and assisting students in their transition to graduation. Working from the program learning outcomes of the capstone experience, we developed 13 competencies. To ensure effective practices and student learning and success, the competencies are aligned with the Degree Qualifications Profile (DQP) and the LEAP Essential Learning Outcomes.During the first module of the course, students are given a quick formative assessment of their competency demonstrationabilities, then guided to supportive materials to help them improve any areas of weakness. .
As students become aware of their strengths and the gaps in their academics in the beginning of the course, as aligned with the 13 identified success for learning competencies, they then can chart their progress through the course. Doing so provides the student with milestones for their own success marked by learning and not time. In addition, understanding the connection of what they are learning and doing in the course to their own evaluated benchmark, these adult learners can see the meaning in the work. As identified by Knowles (1990) and embedded in the theory and practice of Andragogy, adult learners must bring their prior experiences to the table and see meaning in the learning and coursework in order to be connected and engaged to the process. Near the end of the course the students have a summative evaluation of their performance on the 13 competencies. These results are provided to each student in a dashboard style report,
In developing this model, our goal was to create Competency-based degree programs by converting selected capstones and courses to a competency-based model and helping students and advisors to understand where in the degree path the competencies are developed. Competency-based programs will position students well in the job market and allow students to develop important skills needed for the career of their choice. A focus on verified competencies will help position liberal arts students in a competitive work environment where liberal arts degrees can be underappreciated. It also provides a framework for students with hugely disparate academic interests and backgrounds to share both their learning process and their results, acknowledging that the thinking/learning process is a common thread of their experiences.
Excelsior College as a whole, and the School of Liberal Arts specifically are well positioned to offer Competency-based programs, as many components of CBE are already integrated into the College’s curricular structure. Competency-based education serves the same student population that is already targeted by the college: adult students with life experience, underrepresented students, students with some college and no degree looking for multiple pathways to completion. CBE incorporates elements we currently employ such as credit by exam, prior learning assessment, portfolio assessment, credit for military service, and a generous transfer policy.
By explicitly articulating the desired competencies, the institution itself helps employers and students realize that liberal arts learning directly impacts the ability to learn both basic and advanced competencies. Such liberal arts competencies identified as necessary for successful students correlate well with the marketable skills required of successful employees. Employers can easily recognize the competencies earned by the student and translate the gained knowledge, skill, and/or ability to workplace requirements.
This student-centered approach with school certified/verified competency attainment will validate the degrees chosen in SLA and mastery of concepts at the application level will help students develop both confidence and skills needed to excel in life and work.
During the presentation, a description of competency-based education, the reasons for developing CBE at Excelsior, and the model implemented will be shared. For the presentation, evidence supporting success in the Excelsior College CBE model will also be provided. Data comparing the Student course evaluation survey responses between the CBE version of the capstone LA498 and the previous version of the same course will be disclosed. Also, we will be reporting on preliminary data from the rubric evaluation of the 13 competencies by our instructors and the student satisfaction survey comparison between the CBE version of the capstone and the previous version. Feedback from students and instructors will be shared as opportunities for consideration and application at other institutions.
Within the presentation, we will discuss the interactive text and how this facilitated student learning of some complex topics rather quickly. An interactive activity on developing competencies for non-business programs will be conducted with conference participants.
References
Knowles, M. (199). The adult learner: A neglected species, 4th ed. Gulf Publishing Co.
Mendenhall, R. (September 5, 2012). What is competency-based education? HuffingtonPost. Retrieved http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-robert-mendenhall/competency-based-learning-_b_1855374.html
Wolk. R. A. (March 17, 2015). Competency-based education is working. Education Week. Retrieved http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/03/18/competency-based-education-is-working.html