The New Breed of Competency-Based Education Degree Programs: A Trend or Fad? (Part 1)

By Robert Hill - EvoLLLution. Education, both at the K-12 and post-secondary level, is certainly susceptible to trends. There is a long litany of modern innovations that were prophesized to revolutionize the way we teach (“deliver instruction” to use the current jargon) or the way our students learn in college. Some of them include service learning, study abroad, dual credit, prior learning assessment of experiential learning, open admissions, clicker devices, distance learning, learning communities, freshmen seminars, the flipped classroom, low-residency and accelerated formats (even three-year bachelor degree programs), outcomes assessment, anti-plagiarism software, fully online and blended/hybrid courses, and of course, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). More...