{"id":146,"date":"2014-10-28T17:49:08","date_gmt":"2014-10-28T17:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/innovationinjection\/?p=146"},"modified":"2014-10-28T18:31:10","modified_gmt":"2014-10-28T18:31:10","slug":"competency-based-education-the-next-blended-learning-for-adult-higher-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/innovationinjection\/2014\/10\/28\/competency-based-education-the-next-blended-learning-for-adult-higher-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Competency-based education, the next blended learning for adult higher education?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/innovationinjection\/files\/2014\/10\/back-to-school1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-154\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/innovationinjection\/files\/2014\/10\/back-to-school1.jpg\" alt=\"back-to-school\" width=\"162\" height=\"70\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Isn&#8217;t competency-based education just skills certifications or is it the next step of blended learning targeted for adult higher education and workplace education?<\/p>\n<p>Three Big Ten-affiliated institutions (University of Michigan, Purdue, and the University of Wisconsin System) recently announced they will be offering a new competency-based bachelor\u2019s degree. This degree is specifically targeting \u201cadults with some college credits but no degree.\u201d One goal for this offering is to give businesses concrete proof that these students have specific skillsets (competencies) that has real-world application rather than just theoretical ones.<\/p>\n<p>These degrees are flexible online offerings. Users set their own pace and participants can test out of some skills based on what they already know. Students will have mentors and \u201ceach student\u2019s experience and learning are reviewed by a \u201ccompetency assessment panel,\u201d which assigns credit for existing competencies.\u201d Degrees will be earned by satisfactory credit completions along with performance reviews of sample works from the student\u2019s portfolio. Learners will \u201clearn through doing relevant, education-related activities and not by sitting through a series of lectures.\u201d The process \u201caffirms the emphasis on student learning outcomes,\u201d said Michelle R. Weise, a senior research fellow with the Clayton Christensen Institute.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s interesting is that this type of learning has been around for decades. It\u2019s a common practice in certain professional industries to get vendor certifications. In information technology, it was and still is a method for individuals to get Microsoft, Cisco, Solaris, etc. certification as a way to demonstrate to potential employers that they have the appropriate knowledge to advance their careers. However, what is unique is that competency-based degree is being adopted by three Big Ten-affiliated institutions. Their initiative is worth keeping an eye on as they are re-imagining and tinkering with existing models (degree accreditation and financial aid, to name two) to integrate this type of offering targeted towards adult higher education.<\/p>\n<p>Fain, Paul. \u201cBig Ten and the Next Big Thing\u201d, October 28, 2014.<br \/>\nURL: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidehighered.com\/news\/2014\/10\/28\/competency-based-education-arrives-three-major-public-institutions\">https:\/\/www.insidehighered.com\/news\/2014\/10\/28\/competency-based-education-arrives-three-major-public-institutions<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Isn&#8217;t competency-based education just skills certifications or is it the next step of blended learning targeted for adult higher education and workplace education? Three Big Ten-affiliated institutions (University of Michigan, Purdue, and the University of Wisconsin System) recently announced they will be offering a new competency-based bachelor\u2019s degree. This degree is specifically targeting \u201cadults with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6468,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,1290],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-ramblings"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/innovationinjection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/innovationinjection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/innovationinjection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/innovationinjection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6468"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/innovationinjection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/innovationinjection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/innovationinjection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions\/156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/innovationinjection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/innovationinjection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/innovationinjection\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}