Faculty Experiences in Launching and Teaching In an Online Competency Based (CBE) Program

Audience Level: 
All
Institutional Level: 
Higher Ed
Abstract: 

Tammy Pao, PhD joined Brandman University as the first Tutorial Assistant Professor – Business for the development and launch of the CBE program. Join her for a detailed walkthrough of CBE program, where she will detail the program structure, lessons learned, current challenges, and future directions in this exciting new online program.

Extended Abstract: 

Brandman University has developed a Competency Based Education (CBE) program that is fully online. There are no textbooks—a proprietary learning management system and over 30,000 pages of course material were developed for the delivery of the CBE Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) degree program. In addition to the CBE BBA program, Brandman has developed a CBE Bachelor of Science in Information Technology degree program, and it will soon be launching additional CBE degree programs.

In Brandman’s CBE programs, a student pays a flat fee for a six-month session where he can work at his own pace and complete as many course units as he possible within this timeframe. Since Brandman’s adult student population primarily has students who work and go to school, the CBE program affords the opportunity for students to complete a degree in much less time than the traditional working student.

This workshop will cover the following:

  • What exactly is Competency Based Education (CBE)?
  • How does CBE compare to traditional curricula that use the Carnegie Unit?
  • The Brandman CBE program: What makes it unique?
  • Demographics and Psychographics of the nontraditional typical CBE student
  • Knowledge and experience scaffolding
  • Faculty perceptions
  • Student experiences
  • Demonstration of how a course (competency) looks in the platform 

Tammy Pao, PhD, joined Brandman University as the first Tutorial Assistant Professor in the Business & Professional Studies area of the CBE program. In this role, she helped develop best practices for tutoring and grading as well as modifications/enhancements to the CBE proprietary learning management system. Join her for a detailed walkthrough of the launch of the CBE program, where she will detail the program structure, current challenges and lessons learned, and future directions in the launch of this exciting new online educational program.

Conference Track: 
Innovations, Tools, and Technologies
Session Type: 
Education Session
Intended Audience: 
All Attendees