The Journal of Competency-Based Education最新文献

As we wrap up summer, this issue of JCBE spans the globe and the process of CBE. The first two articles highlight factors in and indicators of student success. What a great way to welcome the fall issue with a focus on student success!

In their manuscript entitled Factors that Contribute to Student Success and Satisfaction at Brandman University, Dr. Gilmer-Echols and her colleagues identify factors that are most influential in student success for Brandman's model of Competency-Based Education (CBE). Defining success as program longevity, the authors explored the results of student satisfaction surveys of various student services, such as academic coaching and the writing/math center. The discussion section offers a number of opportunities for further study that may be of interest to CBE researchers.

In their article, Learning and Individual Differences in Skilled Competency-Based Performance: Using a Course Planning and Learning Tool as an Indicator for Student Success, Dr. Sean Gyll and his colleague at Western Governors University used a course planning and learning tool (CPLT) to identify factors in student success, such as the use of resources or the summative assessment. They defined student success as measured by planning and learning (using the course planning tool), knowledge, and confidence/experience (using a course preassessment). Implications for supporting student success include the importance of assessing the learner profile by using the CPLT.

The third article, The Teacher Education Curriculum and its Competency-Based Education Attributes, comes to JCBE from Tanzania where Dr. Tarmo and his colleague at the University of Dar Es Salaam provide an analysis of the Diploma of Secondary Education to establish its integration of CBE attributes. Using a qualitative content analysis of documents and arguing that implementation of the CBE approach now mandated in K-12 schools is dependent upon teacher preparation, the author(s) found contradictory attributes in the Diploma that constrain CBE implementation in K-12 classrooms.

The fourth article opens up the conversation about how to support widespread adoption of CBE, Implementing Competency-Based Education in Multiple Programs: A Workshop to Structure and Monitor Programs' Priorities Using ADDIE. Dr. LaFleur and his colleagues from Laval University Faculty of Medicine in Canada report on their support of the transition of 29 medical residency programs to CBE. They describe nine workshops they offered and how the ADDIE instructional model was used to assess and monitor levels of CBE implementation. Implications of their work extend to training faculty for CBE adoption.

The fifth and final manuscript explores a new approach to developing CBE models, Developing competency frameworks using natural language processing: An exploratory study. Dr. Garman from Rush University and colleagues from Oak Park, Illinois, as well as Ida

Competency-based education (CBE) is essentially an approach to teaching and learning featuring flexible pacing, robust competencies, and an emphasis on student completion. CBE differs from traditional education that focuses instead more on seat time and credit hours. Though CBE has existed on college campuses in many forms, faculty are often inexperienced in teaching CBE. Facing growing demands for CBE, institutions must find ways to prepare faculty to take part in CBE. This mixed methods study explored faculty views of CBE, their self-efficacy, and beliefs about support mechanisms needed for those teaching and delivering CBE. Findings suggest faculty have mixed though balanced views of CBE, generally high self-efficacy due to the importance of mastery experiences, and believe in the importance of specific learning opportunities in an environment built on collaboration to ensure CBE faculty are supported and can thrive. Findings can help institutions with CBE or those considering it to support faculty and ensure they are trained in teaching courses in this modality.

With student loans escalating out of control, yet the need for college degrees increasing for entry-level jobs, competency-based education (CBE) is gaining traction with students, universities, and the government as one solution to reducing costs and accelerating degree completion. Universities typically work with specific industry leaders and employers to define competencies geared toward marketable skills, as one goal of CBE is to focus learning on knowledge and skills students can utilize immediately upon entering the workforce (Voorhees, 2001). The flexibility of competency-based education allows students to quickly finish courses through direct assessment of competencies that they may have prior learning experiences in or spend extra time beyond the regular semester if needed for mastery while saving substantially on tuition (Selingo, 2013). Many of these programs target non-traditional students who may have started a business degree but never finished it (Dragoo & Barrows, 2016).

At the same time, accounting organizations, accreditors, and businesses are calling for accounting curriculum changes to incorporate core competencies reflecting the skills that accounting graduates need in the twenty-first century. Lawson et al. (2014), citing the need for accountants to play more significant roles in organizations, emphasized that competencies should be integrated into the curriculum much as they are in organizations. However, competency-based education and curriculum require a paradigm change in teaching and learning that comes with challenges for accounting faculty but also provides opportunities. Knowledge of best practices for CBE from the literature, including experiences of other accounting educators who have developed and implemented competency-based learning into their courses, can ease the transition and foster dialogue about the use of broader CBE concepts in accounting courses.

Burnett (2016) emphasized that CBE focuses on the individual student with interdisciplinary content informed by industry needs. CBE programs, as defined by the Department of Education (DOE), can take different forms. For example, they can include traditional courses, provide a direct assessment of competencies after enrollment, or permit simultaneous enrollment in both a traditional and a CBE course. For example, a course can be administered very much like a traditional course with competencies embedded in the course and achievement based on time and credits earned. However, CBE programs can be radically different, involving direct assessment without regard to seat time or credit hours (Cunningham et al., 2016).

Accounting educators are being urged to focus on competencies learned rather than principles taught. The American Accounting Association (AAA), an organization of accounting educators, has called for the integration of core competencies across the accou

Competency-based institutions eager to improve student outcomes would be wise to consider research-based measures, such as a course planning and learning tool (CPLT), as one step in the student life cycle. Recent research has indicated which assessment practices tend to be most successful in an online competency-based environment while hinting at which specific study characteristics are likely to lead to superior performance. Our objective was to develop a more successful and scientifically measurable process than any other method that currently exists by reducing the gap between the uncertainty and subjective randomness that currently detracts from educating students and increasing institutions' ability to engage with students in a meaningful manner. We investigated students' prior Knowledge, Confidence level in completing the course, and Experience with course content, and their relationship to the use of online Learning Resources, frequency of Formative Assessment Practice, Formative Assessment Performance, frequency of Course Mentor interactions, and Course Pace. Results showed that students' Knowledge, Confidence, and Experience have notably different impacts on study behavior and performance outcomes. Specifically, students with higher Knowledge perform well despite less studying, students with higher Confidence also perform well, but students with high Experience struggle more with the course material and performance. Implications for academic planning in an asynchronous environment are discussed.