The Journal of Competency-Based Education最新文献

APA Citation: Stokes, P.J. (2015). Higher education and employability: New models for integrating study and work. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press. 189 pages.

In contemporary society, colleges and universities have the burden of proving that they are teaching their students practical knowledge and that upon graduation, their students can contribute to the workforce. Higher Education and Employability discusses the correlation between college and university pedagogy and employability. The central question of this text asks: “What should colleges and universities be doing differently to assist their students in preparing for the world of work?” (Stokes, 2015, p. 1).

Colleges and universities are not job placement agencies, but almost every campus includes a career services office. This office is responsible for helping students prepare their resume and cover letters, along with helping them with interview strategies and job search techniques. Higher Education and Employability prompts the following rhetorical questions: What is the obligation of American colleges and universities? Should colleges and universities be preparing students for the workforce or should they be preparing students for the general good of society? The content of this book focuses on the practices of colleges and universities, which categorically excludes community colleges.

The author further defines the premise of his thesis as a “both/and rather than an either/or proposition” (p. 4). Stokes (2015) argues that “the responsibility to educate individuals while preparing them for the world of work is a shared responsibility between both the education providers and employers” (p. 4) and not the sole responsibility of either the education provider or the employer. In the introduction, Stokes (2015) discusses his advocacy for institutions to develop the pedagogy that includes academic rigor along with professional preparation. The author articulates Robert Reich's position that American businesses are not sufficiently involved in the development of college and university curricula.

In Chapter 1, the author introduces the reader to the concept of Drownproofing. Steve McLaughlin (as cited in Stokes, 2015) indicated that Drownproofing 2.0 is a concept that refers to a person's ability to survive under pressure. Drownproofing 2.0 was a course in water survival techniques offered at Georgia Institute of Technology. Although Georgia Tech no longer offers Drownproofing, the institution's culture refers to this class as that of a motivator, and it is a reminder that in our contemporary society, the ability for a person to create their own job tends to be an important life skill.

With Chapter 1 predicated on Drownproofing, the author discusses a prevailing sentiment among higher education that vocational education or career and technical education, as it is known today, is consi

With the development of the Competency-Based Education Network's Quality Framework for Competency-Based Education Programs, institutions offering CBE programs have the ability to evaluate the quality of their programs using a common framework. For faculty and instructional designers working to develop CBE programs in particular, an institution-specific set of quality indicators tailored to its own curriculum structure can help guide development and ensure quality of the curriculum offered to students. This article presents Walden University's curriculum quality indicators used to guide the development of high-quality CBE curriculum. The indicators are informed by CBEN's Quality framework and may be helpful to other institutions developing CBE programs in an effort to establish, measure, and maintain quality of CBE curriculum.

In the autumn of 2015, to extend its leadership in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and to reach a wider range of lifelong learners, Worcester Polytechnic Institute embarked upon a pilot program to assess the value of a competency-based education (CBE) pedagogy. The authors converted two graduate-level Systems Engineering courses to a CBE format and delivered them to students in late 2016 and 2017. Preliminary results suggest that CBE offers increased flexibility for working professionals and can extend the reach of educational institutions; that the choice of a learning management system is critical in facilitating CBE delivery; that some students adapt to a CBE format very well while others (who do not have good self-discipline) do not, so that identifying the correct target demographic is important; that working in project teams is difficult in a CBE context; that synchronous activities (such as Discussion Board postings requiring synchronous debate) are challenging; that (in the version of CBE offered) most students did not avail themselves of the substantial flexibility provided in selecting course topics and alternative assessments; and that unless incentivized to move quickly, students tend to procrastinate. Lastly, for CBE to be financially beneficial to both student and university, it is our opinion that careful attention must be paid to the choice of students, the selection of courses, and the choice of business model, all of which are intimately tied together. These preliminary observations must be corroborated or refuted in future pilots, which are currently planned to develop improved versions of CBE at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Faculty's attitudes toward and expertise in what constitutes valid assessment design has produced sizable discord in higher education. Traditionally, assessment activities within higher education have been implemented as additions to the curriculum, designed for purposes of program evaluation rather than being integral to student mastery. In this paper, we briefly explore the history of objective assessment in higher education, studying its historical antecedents, and use this information to define next steps toward building a standards-based community of practice. We operationally define competency-based education, paying particular attention to the term “competence” and what it means in the context of maintaining standards for assessment validity. We then offer 12 steps for building a best-in-class objective assessment program. We conclude with case study metrics from Western Governors University's assessment portfolio, which describes four key assessment performance indicators and documents our commitment to continuous quality improvement through a quarterly assessment review process.