Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Focus Area
CompetencyBased
Education
Prior
Learning
Assessment
CompetencyBased
Degrees
Activities
The Competency-Based Education Network is a group
of colleges and universities working together to address
shared challenges to designing, developing and scaling
competency-based degree programs the cohort
includes 18 institutions and two public systems serving
42 campuses.
CAEL is a nonprofit that works with higher education,
public and private institutions in education to codify
and create alternative credentialing beyond the
Carnegie Credit Hour.
College for America is an initiative by the nonprofit
Southern New Hampshire University that works in
partnership with employers through competency-based
learning in the form of project-based learning with the
Additional Resources/Links
http://www.cbenetwork.org/
http://www.cael.org/
http://collegeforamerica.org/
http://collegeforamerica.org/e
mployers/entry/about-ourpartners
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International License.
Capella University**
CompetencyBased
Degrees
Western Governors
University
CompetencyBased
Degrees
Learn on Demand at
Kentucky Community
& Technical College
System
CompetencyBased
Degrees &
Modular
Courses
Flexible Option at
University of Wisconsin
System
CompetencyBased
Degrees
http://www.capella.edu/about/
competency-based-education/
http://www.wgu.edu/about_W
GU/overview
https://www.insidehighered.c
om/news/2012/08/06/compete
ncy-based-online-programkentuckys-communitycolleges
http://learnondemand.kctcs.ed
u/About
http://flex.wisconsin.edu/uwflex/
http://pl.nau.edu/
** As of 2014 they are members of two experimental sites approved by the USDOE to offer federal financial aid for competencybased degrees.
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Worldwide Implications
o Possible fusion of previously uncredentialed experiences like MOOCs (see Kaplans Open College).
o Increased emphasis on universal federated ID, possibly on biometric signature technology and/or proctoring.
o Increased access for developing nations, increased mobility of students, faculty, and definitions of what higher
education is.
o Increased development and interoperability of Open Educational Resources.
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How Competency-Based Education Intersects with Digital Badging, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), Open
Educational Resources (OER) and Prior Learning Assessment (PLA)
Competency-based education intersects and interacts with other new learning models in a variety of ways. Understanding what those
other learning models are is key to understanding their overlap and interaction. Find definitions below:
Term
Digital Badges
MOOCs
Open
Educational
Definition
A digital badge is a virtual and visual representation of a competency, skill,
achievement, or membership. Digital badges can be verified by the issuing
organization, and used as micro-credentialing for lifelong learning and
workforce skill development.
MOOCs are Massive Open Online Courses. They are free online courses that
can enroll tens, or even hundreds of thousands of learners. Their formats and
pedagogies are constantly evolving. There is no one size fits all MOOC. The
salient components are 1) free (though there may be a charge for certificates,
micro-credentialing, or proctoring), 2) huge enrollment numbers and potential,
3) online (though blended models are being developed with institutions), and 4)
courses, not just resources. There are two primary types of MOOCs cMOOCs
(connectivist based), and xMOOCx (more like traditional online courses).
Open Educational Resources (OERs) are any type of educational materials
that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license. The nature of
Resources
http://openbadges.org/about/
http://www.macfound.org/pr
ograms/digital-badges/
http://www.educause.edu/lib
rary/massive-open-onlinecourse-mooc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Massive_open_online_cours
e
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Open_educational_resources
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International License.
Resources
Prior Learning
Assessment
these open materials means that anyone can legally and freely copy, use, adapt
and re-share them. OERs range from textbooks to curricula, syllabi, lecture
notes, assignments, tests, projects, audio, video and animation from the
UNESCO website: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-andinformation/access-to-knowledge/open-educational-resources/what-are-openeducational-resources-oers/
Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) is the process of codifying previously
obtained competencies, whether through work experiences, military
experiences, or lifelong learning. PLA is typically conducted via various direct
assessment forms, or ePortfolios.
http://www.unesco.org/new/
en/communication-andinformation/access-toknowledge/openeducational-resources/whyshould-i-care-about-oers/
http://www.cael.org/pla.htm
https://www.insidehighered.c
om/news/2012/05/07/priorlearning-assessment-catchesquietly
Additional Resources
https://www.diigo.com/list/sashatberr/gaming (collection of links on Gamification, Digital Badges, and PLA)
https://www.diigo.com/list/sashatberr/Competency-Based-Education (collection of links on Competency-Based Education)
http://www.educause.edu/library/competency-based-education-cbe
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/08/06/competency-based-online-program-kentuckys-community-colleges
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MOOCs the Snapshot Version by Sasha Thackaberry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0
International License.
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MOOCs the Snapshot Version by Sasha Thackaberry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0
International License.