The student experience: How competency-based education providers serve students

Key Points

• Competency-based education (CBE) programs tend to serve students with previous professional or academic experience. This audience affects how the programs are structured and designed.
• CBE inverts the structure and choice of traditional higher education. The most clearly defined components of traditional higher education programs are much less structured in CBE programs, and the components of traditional higher education programs that are typically the most flexible and able to be personalized are often fixed in CBE programs.
• Striking differences exist between CBE and traditional higher education programs in how students are recruited, admissions and credit transfer policies, how credits are earned, and interactions with peers and faculty.
• The differences between CBE programs and more traditional higher education have important implications for student success and scalability. We need more information about how students experience these programs.

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Executive Summary

The rise of competency-based education (CBE) has redefined what college looks like for a growing number of students. The basic idea underlying CBE is simple: programs award credit based on demonstrated student competencies rather than on the amount of time a student has spent in a given course. Recent advances in technology, including online courses, computer adaptive education, interactive tutoring and mentoring, and the analysis of big data, have only added to CBE’s potential. But CBE models have dramatic implications for how schools serve students, and those changes can affect student success and scalability. Unfortunately, we still do not clearly understand how students actually experience education in a CBE model—that is, the day-to-day process of learning, assessment, and progression.

In this paper, I describe how some of the most prominent CBE providers have designed their programs to meet students’ needs. I examine CBE models in comparison to the familiar phases of the traditional college experience at four-year institutions: recruiting students, starting a program, earning credits, and interacting with others.

This paper highlights how CBE programs invert the structure and choice of traditional higher education. The most clearly defined components of traditional higher education programs (like schedule and timing of classes, time to degree, course materials, course requirements, and the number of credits that must be earned at the institution) are much less structured in CBE programs. In contrast, the components of traditional higher education programs that are typically the most flexible and able to be personalized (like choice of major, choice of classes within majors, and learning objectives within individual courses) are often fixed in CBE programs.

These differences are important for a few reasons. First, recent research has convincingly shown that the structure of academic programs can have large effects on students’ performance and success. More intensive examination of how these factors affect student success is necessary as CBE programs expand. Second, the unique structures of these programs mean that they can reach traditionally disenfranchised groups of students. We need to examine how successful these programs are at reaching new markets. Finally, these programs can increase efficiency in the sector by providing credit for prior learning. This paper provides an in-depth look at the promising features of these programs and the potential shortcomings of this new form of higher education.

 

Introduction

Almost every American is familiar with what a “typical” college or university looks like, from attending college, observing a close friend or relative who has, or even just watching enough movies set in the college years. In this traditional model, most students take four or five semesterlong courses on a physical campus each fall and spring until they have collected enough credits (usually, two or four years’ worth) to graduate. The traditional rhythm of the college experience—the start of classes, midterms, reading period, and final exams followed by winter or summer break—is often taken for granted, and the emphasis on fixed periods of time is even enshrined in federal and state policy.

But not all colleges fit within this traditional mold now. Specifically, the rise of competency-based education (CBE) has redefined what college looks like for a growing number of students. The basic idea underlying CBE is simple: programs award credit based on demonstrated student competencies rather than the amount of time a student has spent in a course. Instead of having each student march through the same 15-week course and awarding credit at the end (with grades that supposedly capture mastery of course material), CBE models award credit as soon as students can prove that they have mastered a particular set of content and skills. Students move at their own pace toward clear learning goals through a series of assessments designed to measure competence. These assessments are often linked to employer-identified competencies, ideally providing students with a clear link to the labor market.

Recent advances in technology, including online courses, adaptive learning, interactive tutoring and mentoring, and the analysis of big data, have only added to CBE’s potential. But CBE models have dramatic implications for how schools serve students, and those changes can affect student success and scalability. Unfortunately, how students actually experience education in a CBE model—that is, the day-to-day process of learning, assessment, and progression—is still not particularly well-understood. But basic research on how students actually navigate these new models will be important as reformers and practitioners seek to take them to scale.

In an effort to shed some light on the student experience, this paper describes how some of the most prominent CBE providers have designed their programs to meet students’ needs. I focus on the way that CBE providers have catered to students. In contrast to traditional colleges, which can often rely on students’ general understanding of the structure of the college experience, CBE programs must market and sell their product to prospective students who may not be familiar with it, and to current nonconsumers who were not aware that more flexible options are available to them. This raises some rather fascinating questions about how some of the first movers and biggest providers have attracted students to their programs.

In that spirit, I examine CBE models in comparison to the familiar phases of the traditional college experience at four-year institutions:

1. Learning about Programs. What types of potential students do providers target and market to? How do programs provide information to students?
2. Starting a Program. How are admissions, enrollment, and orientation structured? How do students obtain credit for prior learning?
3. Earning Credits. What do course plans, course materials, and resources look like, and how are they delivered? What kind of schedule are students on, if any? And how do students pace themselves through the modules and assessments?
4. Interacting with Others. How do students interact with faculty and staff? What about peers who are also in the program?

The analysis is based on interviews with administrators at four of the largest CBE programs in the country: Excelsior College, Western Governors University (WGU), Colorado State University’s (CSU) Global College, and Capella University’s FlexPath program. In addition to these in-depth interviews, I also examined institutional documents and other resources that are publicly available. These four programs were chosen because they are well established and offer a range of student experiences. While some of these schools offer programs that are not competency-based, I will focus exclusively on their CBE programs.

One more important note: the paper is designed to describe the way institutions have endeavored to design the student experience, not necessarily the students’ actual experience, which may differ dramatically. However, in keeping with most existing research, which has focused on the design and implementation of educational programs, I focus here on the different student-facing elements of CBE programs. Future research should interview or survey alumni of CBE programs to examine how students actually experience different types of programs.

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