Western Governors University and Competency-Based Education

2011 ◽  
pp. 2346-2352
Author(s):  
Douglas B. Johnstone
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Regional Accreditation ◽  
American Higher Education ◽  
History Of ◽  
Western Governors University ◽  
Competency Based ◽  
Educational Paradigm ◽  
The University ◽  
Short Time

Western Governors University (WGU) was formally established in 1996 by the governors of 19 western states. From its inception it was committed to delivering all of its programs through distance technologies and to graduating its students only on the basis of their demonstrated competency. It is today the only regionally accredited university in the United States to award its degrees exclusively on this basis. Developing the university and proving its viability, however, have not been easy. The enthusiasm surrounding its launching in 1996 rapidly gave way to the hard realities of establishing a new educational paradigm. Within five years, after accreditation seemed slow in coming and enrollments in the new university even slower, many in the higher education establishment wrote WGU off as a failed experiment. Some even breathed a sigh of relief that the claims of competencybased education could be written off. But eight years after its formal incorporation, WGU is very much alive. It has received national accreditation from the Distance Education and Training Council (2001) and unprecedented regional accreditation by four of the nation’s regional accrediting associations.1 No other institution in the history of American higher education has received multi-regional accreditation, and given the complexities of such reviews, WGU achieved that milestone in a remarkably short time. By January 2005 the university had an enrollment just over 3,200 students and was growing by more than 200 students a month.

The Early Years of the Jewish Presence at the University of Illinois

1992 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 215-245
Author(s):  
Winton U. Solberg
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Characteristic Form ◽  
University Of Illinois ◽  
American Higher Education ◽  
Jewish Students ◽  
The University ◽  
The Church

For over two centuries, the College was the characteristic form of higher education in the United States, and the College was closely allied to the church in a predominantly Protestant land. The university became the characteristic form of American higher education starting in the late nineteenth Century, and universities long continued to reflect the nation's Protestant culture. By about 1900, however, Catholics and Jews began to enter universities in increasing numbers. What was the experience of Jewish students in these institutions, and how did authorities respond to their appearance? These questions will be addressed in this article by focusing on the Jewish presence at the University of Illinois in the early twentieth Century. Religion, like a red thread, is interwoven throughout the entire fabric of this story.

Book Review: The Shaping of American Higher Education

NASPA Journal ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary H. Knock
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early History ◽  
Quarter Century ◽  
American Higher Education ◽  
History Of ◽  
Broad Understanding

In the introduction of this book, Arthur Cohen states that The Shaping of American Higher Education is less a history than a synthesis. While accurate, this depiction in no way detracts from the value of the book. This work synthesizes the first three centuries of development of high-er education in the United States. A number of books detail the early history of the American collegiate system; however, this book also pro-vides an up-to-date account of developments and context for under-standing the transformation of American higher education in the last quarter century. A broad understanding of the book’s subtitle, Emergence and Growth of the Contemporary System, is truly realized by the reader.

Service Learning: The Peace Corps, American Higher Education, and the Limits of Modernist Ideas of Development and Citizenship

2018 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 475-505
Author(s):  
David S. Busch
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Citizenship Education ◽  
Peace Corps ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
American Higher Education ◽  
History Of ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Work Abroad ◽  
The University

In the early 1960s, Peace Corps staff turned to American colleges and universities to prepare young Americans for volunteer service abroad. In doing so, the agency applied the university's modernist conceptions of citizenship education to volunteer training. The training staff and volunteers quickly discovered, however, that prevailing methods of education in the university were ineffective for community-development work abroad. As a result, the agency evolved its own pedagogical practices and helped shape early ideas of service learning in American higher education. The Peace Corps staff and supporters nonetheless maintained the assumptions of development and modernist citizenship, setting limits on the broader visions of education emerging out of international volunteerism in the 1960s. The history of the Peace Corps training in the 1960s and the agency's efforts to rethink training approaches offer a window onto the underlying tensions of citizenship education in the modern university.

Weaving Innovative Threads Together

2018 ◽  
pp. 22-35
Author(s):  
Judee Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Skill Levels ◽  
Competency Based Education ◽  
University Of Wisconsin ◽  
Societal Needs ◽  
Specific Performance ◽  
Competency Based ◽  
The University

In the United States, institutions of higher education have been under mounting pressure to improve. In part, this is due to increasingly high-priced academies producing graduates who possess skill levels that are out of sync with employer and societal needs. Added to this is the fact that the United States spends more than other countries to educate its citizens but continues to perform more poorly on comparative measures of literacy, math, reading, and science. To stay globally competitive, changes need to be made. Competency-based education has re-emerged and taken root as one way in which to educate students more effectively. By focusing on demonstrable learning outcomes and discipline-specific performance, competency-based education is changing the fabric of higher education. Based upon experiences garnered from the University of Wisconsin Flexible Option, this chapter presents some of the challenges encountered when developing this type of program within a longstanding traditional educational system.

A History of U.S. Higher Education in Accounting, Part I: Situating Accounting within the Academy

2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenn Van Wyhe
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Public Accounting ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Future Direction ◽  
The University ◽  
Second World

Where we have been can tell us a great deal about where we are going. If we wish to direct the future, then understanding the past can help us see how much we actually influence that direction. Ignorance of the past, on the other hand, allows unrealistic expectations and creates unnecessary frustration. The history of accounting higher education in the United States is most informative for anyone who wants to influence the future direction of our profession. The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief overview of the history of accounting higher education in the U.S., from its beginnings to its settled position in the university. This historical overview informs us that the profession of public accounting had everything to do with establishing and growing accounting education. Around the time of the Second World War, however, forces were set in motion that would try to pull accounting education from the grasp of public accounting. The belittling of public accounting, first in the name of the new management accounting and then by the Foundation Reports, combined with public accounting leaders' ongoing desire for a five-year education requirement above all other educational reforms, resulted in accounting higher education's inability to single-mindedly identify its goals and work toward them.

scholarly journals Medical education in Sudan: A recommendation to adopt competency-based medical education curricula for improving practices (SudaniMEDs)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed Hassan Taha
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Medical Education ◽  
Health Professions ◽  
Medical Schools ◽  
Competency Based Medical Education ◽  
Medical Assistants ◽  
School Of Medicine ◽  
History Of ◽  
Competency Based ◽  
The University

Sudan is a leading country in health professions education (HPE), a sector which started 100 years ago. The history of HPE in Sudan dates back to 1918 with the training of medical assistants, with a school for modern midwifery opening in 1921 (1). The first college of medicine in Sudan—Kitchener School of Medicine (KSM) —was established in 1924, and is currently part of the University of Khartoum (2). About half a century later, two more medical schools—Juba University School in 1977 and Gezira University School in 1978—were established. In the 1990s, there was an enormous expansion in higher education, particularly in colleges of medicine, with more than thirty being inaugurated (3). Currently, Sudan has more than sixty colleges of medicine.

The Gendered Roots of American Higher Education

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deondra Rose
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
History Of Higher Education ◽  
Government Programs ◽  
American Higher Education ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Role

This chapter analyzes the history of women’s participation in American higher education and the federal government’s historical role in shaping who has access to it. Higher educational institutions in the United States were established with men in mind, and for approximately three hundred years after the establishment of the nation’s first college, women were excluded from equal access to postsecondary institutions. On campus, women were often greeted with hostility and found themselves treated as second-class students. The history of higher education in the United States yields important lessons for thinking about the effect that government programs have had on the gender dynamics of American citizenship since the mid-twentieth century.

Western Governors University

2017 ◽  
pp. 379-400
Author(s):  
Robert Mendenhall
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
High Quality Education ◽  
Competency Based Education ◽  
New Business ◽  
Western Governors University ◽  
Competency Based ◽  
Workplace Needs ◽  
The University ◽  
State Higher Education

The university was created as a non-profit, online, competency-based university to expand access to affordable higher education as a supplement to state higher education systems. It was created with two key guiding principles: 1) To develop a model for competency-based education that would measure learning rather than time, and tie the competencies being taught to workplace needs. 2) To use technology to create a new business model in higher education that would increase the productivity of higher education (high quality education at lower cost) while expanding access.

Thyrsa Wealtheow Amos: The Dean of Deans

NASPA Journal ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. Herdlein
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Affairs ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
University Of Pittsburgh ◽  
Student Personnel ◽  
Dean Of Women ◽  
History Of ◽  
Personnel Administration ◽  
The University

The scholarship of student affairs has neglected to carefully review its contextual past and, in the process, failed to fully integrate historical research into practice. The story of Thyrsa Wealtheow Amos and the history of the Dean of Women’s Program at the University of Pittsburgh,1919–41, helps us to reflect on the true reality of our work in higher education. Although seemingly a time in the distant past, Thyrsa Amos embodied the spirit of student personnel administration that shines ever so bright to thisd ay. The purpose of this research is to provide some of thatcontext and remind us of the values that serve as foundations of the profession.

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