Many colleges, particularly community colleges, view competency-based
education (CBE) programs as a way to improve learning opportunities while
lowering costs for students. One problem has been finding ways to use CBE
programs in an environment dominated by the use of credit hours to reward
student achievement.
The solution may lie in an integrated and transparent
competency management framework, according to a report from Tyton Partners. The
report, Evidence of Learning: The Case for an Integrated Competency Management
System, found that colleges and universities should focus on ways that allow
students to reach college and career goals and that knowledge, skills, and
experience an individual achieves during their lifetime should be part of the
process.
“As the bridge between students and the workforce, postsecondary
institutions are uniquely positioned to find and deliver the best tools and
resources to capture and communicate evidence of learning,” Adam Newman,
co-founder and managing partner at Tyton said in an article for eCampus News. “Colleges and universities must rise to this opportunity or
risk erosion of a core value proposition in linking learning and employment and
lifelong development.”
The way to begin, according to the report, is for
institutions and business to work together to provide students the skills that employers
need. Colleges and business must also find ways to award proper credit for accumulated
skills and maintain files to record that progress.
There should be ways for students to promote the skills
they have already accumulated, along with access to feedback, coaching tools,
and services so they can see how they are progressing. Schools need ways to
evaluate that progress and employers must be willing to provide feedback to the
institutions so they can adequately prepare their students.
“There’s no quick fix to this,” Newman said.
“Institutions need to think internally about how connected their own
departments are to one another in order to provide an effective learning
experience and about whether or not outside experiences are valued. That’s the
first wave of this: Institution-centric discussion.”
