Dive Brief:
- Brandman University Chancellor and CEO Gary Brahm has overseen the development of one of the few competency-based programs to secure access to federal financial aid and he identifies four critical elements of the MyPath program.
- eCampus News reports the first step Brandman took was creating a program backwards, starting with the end goal and selecting competencies based on the federal job database O*NET, the Degree Qualification Profile from Lumina, and the Liberal Education and America’s Promise competencies from the AAC&U.
- Finding or developing new learning management and financial aid systems to handle the uniqueness of CBE is also key, along with evolving the role of faculty — Brandman has traditional faculty who build the curriculum as well as tutorial faculty who teach, another group who grades, and another, non-faculty, group responsible for monitoring student activity and engagement.
Dive Insight:
While there are hundreds of colleges and universities across the country developing competency-based education programs, there is a sense of foreboding in some circles over federal and accreditor regulation that may keep them from attracting as many students as they’d like. The Education Department’s Inspector General questioned the Higher Learning Commission’s approval of CBE programs based on the question of “regular and substantive” student-faculty interaction.
The University of Wisconsin, though accredited by the HLC, has moved forward with competency-based education confidently. Aaron Brower, provost and vice chancellor at University of Wisconsin Extension, which has spearheaded the UW Flexible Option, calls on peer institutions to explore their own models for competency-based education so the sector can explore together and eventually coalesce around the best one.