What’s New in Competency-Based Higher Education?

CBEinfo is hosting its final webinar in a series on competency-based education for community colleges:

• Tuesday, May 3, 3:00 p.m. ET: Sustainability Challenges. Register here.

FYI: If you missed the prior webinars in this series, you can access the recorded archives here.

CBE Higher Ed Programs

• National Louis University is expanding its competency-based, blended education pilot, called Harrison Professional Pathways, to increase access to Chicago-area students. (Learn more here.)
• The University of Texas is rolling out the first of nine competency-based degrees and certificates across regional campuses. Once up and running, these programs will represent the largest-scale CBE degree offered by any public university system in the U.S.
• Purdue’s new competency-based bachelor degree, blending technical disciplines with the humanities, has been accredited.
• Valdosta State University developed an online CBE initiative that adds a science endorsement to the professional credentials of 10 elementary teachers.
• MyPath, an online program that offered accredited bachelor’s degrees, allows students to master competencies on their way to graduating with a degree.

Thought Leadership

• Experts discuss the need for innovations in higher education and the challenges of student success.
• In this Op/Ed article, Richard Sense calls for starting with faculty when beginning the shift to competency education.
• Professor James M. Lang describes three way to improve learning by giving students a measure of control.
• Dean of University of Wisconsin-Extension David Schejbal champions competency-based education to create flexible, affordable and accessible learning opportunities for non-traditional higher education students.
• This article offers key considerations for implementing alternative higher education programs, such as competency-based education.

Accreditation & Credentialing News

• Accreditors and associations are coming together to create a new group for quality assurance for higher education online courses, boot camps, corporate training and nontraditional education providers.
• Six universities banded together to form a new, non-degree credentialing service through the University of Learning Store.

Resources

• The Competency-Based Education Network (CBEN) released a planning resource to help IT professionals ensure that CBE programs are designed and offered effectively and successfully.
• The Lumina Foundation published five new policy briefs exploring outcomes-based funding models in Tennessee and Texas.
• The Christensen Institute released a new report that explores the severe vulnerability of law schools and provides recommendations to include competency-based structures and online programs to renew energy and relevancy.
• This article describes the development of a competency-based social work curriculum in Vietnam and discusses collaborative strategies with U.S. partners. This project can be a reference from which to develop social work education in other countries in regard to global collaboration for the development of social work curriculum based on the CBE model.

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