Advocates of competency-based education say they believe public opinion is also shifting their way. They point to a recent national poll showing that 74 percent of voters think the lack of personalized learning in schools is “a problem.”
Learning Unbound: Student Centered and Competency Based Programs
Thursday, December 17, 2 PM ET
Core tenets of student-centered learning – competency-based, anytime-anywhere, personalized, and student ownership – can be used as the basis for creating customized learning plans that match the interests, talents, and passions of students. During this session, attendees will learn how a new model at New Hampshire’s Virtual Learning Academy Charter School (VLACS) provides students with an almost limitless number of opportunities, including early college courses, experiential learning, learning through projects, and with a team of peers.
The Glossary of Education Reform, “Competency-based learning refers to systems of instruction, assessment, grading, and academic reporting that are based on students demonstrating that they have learned the knowledge and skills they are expected to learn as they progress though their education.”
The benefits, or drawbacks, of competency-based learning (CBL) — also known as competency-based education, mastery-based education, performance-based education, standards-based education and proficiency-based education — are up for debate. Regardless, there are an increasing number of these types of programs, particularly in for-profit colleges.
Competency-based education, in short, focuses on mastery of content, not on how long it takes to learn it. ++++++++++++++++++
What’s the Difference Between Project- and Challenge-Based Learning, Anyway?
Problem-based learning is a category of experiential learning that involves students in the process of critical thinking to examine problems that lack a well-defined answer. In problem-based learning, students are given a problem with only preliminary information. They work towards solving the problems themselves, rather than reviewing how others have resolved the situation or problem as in a case study. They do not produce a product as in project-based learning, and students are not necessarily working in the community unless they are gathering data.
Problem-based learning fosters students’ metacognitive skills. They must be consciously aware of what they already know about an area of discovery as well as what they do not know.
Project-based learning is a category of experiential learning where students are presented with a complex problem or question that has multiple potential solutions and possibilities for exploration. However, after studying this problem or question in their teams, students are challenged to develop a plan and create a product or artifact that addresses the problem.
TCC 2016 cordially invites you to join a FREE special pre-conference webinar on competency-based education (CBE).
Unpack CBE
During this session, Diane Singer from Bandman University, and Susan Manning from the University of Wisconsin at Stout, discuss the meaning and processes behind CBE, with a specific eye to how the assessment and recognition of competencies benefit various stakeholders, including business and industry.
The 21st Annual TCC Worldwide Online Conference: April 19-21, 2016
TCC, Technology, Colleges and Community, is a worldwide online conference attended by university and college personnel including faculty, academic support staff, counselors, student services personnel, students, and administrators.
Join us as we explore hosting a virtual makerspace. During this session, we explain and discuss makerspaces and how to leverage the maker movement in online education.Do you have an activity, project, creation or game that you’d like to share? Show your ideas and creations by sharing your links, favorite tools, and wonderful stories.
Recorded on February 25, 2016
Presenter
Dr. Cynthia Calongne CTU Doctoral Program | ccalongne@ctuonline.edu Twitter and Skype: @lyrlobo
How Nightingale College Moved 70 Students to CBE in Just 2 Weeks
WEBINAR | December 8, 2015 | 1:00pm ET
Chances are, you’ve heard of competency-based education (CBE). Your institution may be just starting to explore CBE, or you might already be developing some courses or programs and would like to learn more. That’s why we’ve invited Nightingale College to talk about how they got started with CBE and how they were able to roll it out to 70 students in just two weeks.
Nightingale College wanted to start offering competency-based courses but quickly ran into problems because their LMS couldn’t support it.
Join us on December 8 for a live webinar with Nightingale College to find out:
• Why CBE is an ideal model for their “nontraditional” students • How they support self-paced learning and use tools to track student progress • What the initial program results are, including feedback from students and faculty • Why they chose Brightspace as their technology platform for CBE course delivery
Say a newly minted graduate with a degree in history realizes that in order to attain her dream job at Facebook, she needs some experience with social media marketing. Going back to school is not a desirable option, and many schools don’t even offer relevant courses in social media. Where is the affordable, accessible, targeted, and high-quality program that she needs to skill-up?
it will help you visualize better the issues discussed in the article, if you haven’t visited the CAVE lab with Mark Gill yet.
What is the difference between the CAVE, Oculust Quest (the black goggles from the Jan 21 lab) and Google Cardboard? Please let me know, if you would like to discuss.
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During the Jan 28 lecture, you discussed numerous methods, frameworks and theories. This blog has plenty of materials regarding those topics. You scroll up to the search box in the upper right corner and search using the following key words:
Defining Online Education
The term “online education” has been used as a blanket phrase for a number of fundamentally different educational models. Phrases like distance education, e-Learning, massively open online courses (MOOCs), hybrid/blended learning, immersive learning, personalized and/or adaptive learning, master courses, computer based instruction/tutorials, digital literacy and even competency based learning have all colored the definitions the public uses to define “online education.”
online education” as having the following characteristics:
Students who enroll in online courses or programs may reside near or far from the campus(es) providing the course(s) or program.
A student’s course load may include offering where attendance is required in person or where an instructor/students are not required to be in the same geographic location.
Students may enroll in one or more individual online course offerings provided by one or more institutions to that may or may not satisfy degree/program requirements.
Student may pursue a certificate, program, or degree where a substantial number of courses, perhaps all, are taken without being in the same geographic location as others.
Organizational Effectiveness Research Group (OERG),
As the workgroup considered strategies that could advance online education, they were asked to use the primary and secondary sources listed above to support the fifteen (15) strategies that were developed
define a goal as a broad aspirational outcome that we strive to attain. Four goal areas guide this document. These goal areas include access, quality, affordability and collaboration. Below is a description of each goal area and the assumptions made for Minnesota State.
Access
Over twenty percent of existing Minnesota State students enroll in online courses as a way to satisfy course requirements. For some students, online education is a convenient option; for others, online is the only option available
Quality
The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) accreditation guidelines review the standards and processes institutions have in place to ensure quality in all of educational offerings, including online.
There are a number of ways in which institutions have demonstrated quality in individual courses and programs including the evaluation of course design, evaluation of instruction and assessment of student
Affordability
a differential tuition rate to courses that are offered online. If we intend to have online education continue to be an affordable solution for students, Minnesota State and its institutions must be good stewards of these funds and ensure these funds support online education.
Online education requires different or additional services that need to be funded
transparency is important in tuition setting
Collaboration
Distance Minnesota is comprised of four institutions Alexandria Technical & Community College, Bemidji State University, Northland Community & Technical College, and Northwest Technical College) which collaborate to offer student support services, outreach, e-advising, faculty support, and administrative assistance for online education offerings.
Strategies
strategies are defined as the overall plan used to identify how we can achieve each goal area.
Action Steps
Strategy 1: Ensure all student have online access to high quality support services
students enrolled in online education experiences should have access to “three areas of support including academic (such as tutoring, advising, and library); administrative (such as financial aid, and disability support); and technical (such as hardware reliability and uptime, and help desk).”
As a system, students have access to a handful of statewide services, include tutoring services through Smarthinking and test proctoring sites.
Strategy 2: Establish and maintain measures to assess and support student readiness for online education
A persistent issue for campuses has been to ensure that students who enroll in online course are aware of the expectations required to participate actively in an online course.
In addition to adhering to course expectations, students must have the technical competencies needed to perform the tasks required for online courses
Strategy 3: Ensure students have access to online and blended learning experiences in course and program offerings.
Strategy 4: These experiences should support and recognize diverse learning needs by applying a universal design for learning framework.
The OERG report included several references to efforts made by campuses related to the providing support and resources for universal design for learning, the workgroup did not offer any action steps.
Strategy 5: Expand access to professional development resources and services for faculty members
As online course are developed and while faculty members teach online courses, it is critical that faculty members have on-demand access to resources like technical support and course assistance.
5A. Statewide Faculty Support Services – Minnesota State provide its institutions and their faculty members with access to a centralized support center during extended hours with staff that can assist faculty members synchronously via phone, chat, text/SMS, or web conference
5C. Instructional Design and Technology Services – Establish a unit that will provide course design and instructional technology services to selected programs and courses from Minnesota State institutions.
Quality
Strategy 1: Establish and maintain a statewide approach for professional development for online education.
1B. Faculty Mentoring – Provide and sustain faculty mentoring programs that promote effective online pedagogy.
1C. Professional development for support staff – including instructional designers, D2L Brightspace site administrators and campus trainers, etc.)
Mobile computing, cloud computing, and data-rich repositories have altered ideas about where and how learning takes place.
designers can find themselves filling a variety of roles. They might design large, complex systems or work with faculty and departments to develop courses and curricula. They might migrate traditional resources to mobile or adaptive platforms. They might help administrators understand the value and potential of new learning strategies and tools. Today’s instructional designer might work with subject-matter experts, coders, graphic designers, and others. Moreover, the work of an instructional designer increasingly continues throughout the duration of a course rather than taking place upfront
Given the expanding role and landscape of technology—as well as the growing body of knowledge about learning and about educational activities and assessments—dedicated instructional designers are increasingly common and often take a stronger role.
Competency based learning allows students to progress at their own pace and finish assignments, courses, and degree plans as time and skills permit. Data provided by analytics systems can help instructional designers predict which pedagogical approaches might be most effective and tailor learning experiences accordingly. The use of mobile learning continues to grow, enabling new kinds of learning experiences.
In some contexts, instructional designers might work more directly with students, teaching them lifelong learning skills. Students might begin coursework by choosing from a menu of options, creating their own path through content, making choices about learning options, being more hands-on, and selecting best approaches for demonstrating mastery. Educational models that feature adaptive and personalized learning will increasingly be a focus of instructional design.
Instructional designers bring a cross-disciplinary approach to their work, showing faculty how learning activities used in particular subject areas might be effective in others. In this way, instructional designers can cultivate a measure of consistency across courses and disciplines in how educational strategies and techniques are incorporated.
Join the Blended Librarians Online Learning Community for the second webcast in a series of conversations with Blended Librarians. This session explores the role of Blended Librarians by discussing with our panel how they developed their skills, how they obtained their positions, what their work is like, what their challenges are and what they enjoy about being a Blended Librarian. This panel conversation takes place on Thursday, March 2, 2017 at 3 p.m. EST with our guests J. Lindsay O’Neill, Francesca Marineo, Kristin (Miller) Woodward, Julie Hartwell, and Amanda Clossen.
Panelists
Lindsay O’Neill is the Instructional Design Librarian at California State University, Fullerton’s Pollak Library, where she designs and develops tutorials related to information literacy and library research using Articulate Storyline, Adobe Captivate, and Camtasia. She is also a faculty member in CSUF’s Master of Science in Instructional Design and Technology program. Lindsay regularly consults on effective pedagogy, instructional design, educational technology, open licensing, and accessibility. Lindsay holds a Master in Education, specializing in Educational Technology/Instructional Design, as well as a Master of Library and Information Science.
Francesca Marineo is an instructional design librarian at Nevada State College. She received her MLIS from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she discovered her profound passion for information literacy instruction. Currently pursuing a Master in Educational Psychology, she focuses on improving teaching and learning in higher education through innovative pedagogy and data-driven design.
Kristin Woodward is Online Programs and Instructional Design Coordinator at UWM Libraries. In this role Kristin consults with faculty and teaching staff to build information competencies and library resources into the framework of online, hybrid and competency based courses. Kristin also serves as the campus lead for the student-funded Open Textbook and OER Project as well as the library team lead for Scholarly Communication.
Julie Hartwell is an Instructional Design Librarian at the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Miller Nichols Library. She serves as liaison to the Sociology, Criminal Justice, and Instructional Design departments. She contributes to the creation of library learning objects and instruction for the library’s Research Essentials program. She is a content creator and instructional designer for the New Literacies Alliance, an inter-institutional information literacy consortium. Julie is a Quality Matters Peer Reviewer. She received her masters of library and information science from the University of Iowa.
Amanda Clossen has been working as the Learning Design Librarian at Penn State University Libraries for the past five years. In this position, she has worked on projects spanning the micro to macro aspects of learning design. She has created award-winning videos, overseen Penn State’s transition from an in-house guide product to LibGuides, and was deeply involved in integrating the Libraries in the new LMS, Canvas. Her research interests include accessibility, video usability, and concept based teaching.