Competency-based Education at MATC

The national Competency-Based Education Network: "Competency-based education combines an intentional and transparent approach to curricular design with an academic model in which the time it takes to demonstrate competencies varies and the expectations about learning are held constant. Students acquire and demonstrate their knowledge and skills by engaging in learning exercises, activities, and experiences that align with clearly defined programmatic outcomes. Students receive proactive guidance and support from faculty and staff. Learners earn credentials by demonstrating mastery through multiple forms of assessment, often at a personalized pace. "

As the demographic trend changes and we get more and more non-traditional age students, who are working adults returning to higher education, learners will demand new and innovative educational modalities. Hundreds of millions of dollars are now invested into alternative models targeted explicitly at working adults looking to upskill, retrain, and learn new knowledge that will directly impact their job prospects and career development. Thousands of employers, especially those in healthcare and technology, now understand they must take a direct and active role in developing their employees. They are sponsoring new kinds of post-secondary learning; the fastest-growing employee incentive is a tuition benefit that targets specific learning programs. In fact, the new normal is not the student who must work - it is instead the employee who needs to learn.

Competency-based education (CBE) proved one of the most popular options for working adults who need to learn with a flexible schedule.

CBE is not a new idea, we've been talking about teaching and assessing students' abilities/competencies/outcomes for a long time. What is different is that now we can account for different paces with which different students learn! CBE is really an outcome-based education paired with distant learning capabilities and no strict deadlines.

Main characteristics of CBE:

• Faster completion

• Individualized pacing

• Credit for prior knowledge

• Immediate feedback

• Potential cost savings

The most common model is to divide content into modules according to the competencies students have to demonstrate to pass the class. Each module has a particular number of credits associated with it (as little as 0.25) and students also pay accordingly. Some of the competencies (modules) can be by-passed due to prior learning, on-the-job experience, etc., while other competencies students can study at their own pace until they demonstrate them. Also, students can pick up where they left if they were not able to finish all competencies in one semester. It gives a lot of flexibility to students, saves them money and serves well-working adults and adults with a lot of real-life experience, it is also an ideal model for online classes and for apprentice degrees.

For teachers, the primary difference is that there are no deadlines, just the start and the end of the course: each student moves at his/her own pace so the instructor has to stay on top of things daily, provide feedback and guidance to each student; facilitate assessments that can be taken at any time and address each competency; have materials available for students in an online format (face-to-face option can also be offered to students). Timely feedback is a must! Online-teaching skills are a must!

MATC chose two programs, Welding Technical Diploma and IT Networking Specialist Associate degree program, to apply for the CBE accreditation in Fall 2019.