Polk State College's Engineering Technology Program

This case study describes an open entry early exit (O3E) rolling enrollment program focused on untangling the web of systems, assumptions, roles, relationships, and interagency processes to address the national emphasis on affordable, compressed, and flexible degree attainment, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) talent gap areas. To this end, Polk State College has empowered students with an affordable, accessible option that was initiated as a result of a National Science Foundation-Advanced Technological Education (NSF-ATE) project award. The project was designed to transition a traditional engineering technology associate in science degree program to a hybrid competency-based (CBE), modular, non-term, self-paced, learner-centered, faculty-mentored format. As a work in progress, having shifted to CBE in Fall 2014, the O3E program team has undertaken and resolved numerous challenges, many of which are still emergent, and identified significant breakthroughs to provide a catalyst to the reconceptualization of higher education.

A Vision for Deeper Agency and Personalization in Micro-Credentials

Current systems of education, both K12 and postsecondary, are leaving learners unprepared for the future of work. Standardized, compliance-oriented approaches to teaching and learning are inequitable and are not responsive enough to meet individual learner needs. A learner-centered educational paradigm has emerged which seeks to disrupt traditional models of education by centering the individual needs of learners in all learning experiences. At the same time, the alternative educational model of micro-credentialing holds great promise to improve workforce readiness. While the fields of learner-centered education and micro-credentials are simultaneously gaining traction, their possible intersections have yet to be fully explored. Micro-credentials have the potential to ready learners for the future of work while providing a deeply relevant, learner-centered experience. This chapter lays out a vision for exactly what this might look like and why it matters for learners.

Enhancing Educational Attainment Through Prior Learning Assessment

Prior learning assessment (PLA) is a path to greater educational attainment for adult learners re-entering higher education. This innovative approach provides academic credit for college-level and credit-worthy learning that happened outside the confines of the college walls. The growth in adoption of PLA at many institutions is in concert with the need for more of America's workforce to earn more postsecondary credentials. This chapter explores the nature of PLA and its evolution into the mainstream of higher education policy and practice. The authors examine two institutions' relevant and rigorous approaches to validating learning via PLA. The authors believe that credit for prior learning will become more standardized with time and awareness of this innovative approach to acknowledging experiential learning external to the academic setting.

Impacting and Influencing the System to Support Student Career Readiness, Voice, and Efficacy

This chapter provides context for the design of an experiential, service-learning-based capstone course that provides students with meaningful service-based learning experiences. Through experiential learning and publication opportunities, students develop transferable career development, communication, writing, and critical thinking skills. It is a related goal that students leave this course with improved self and collective efficacy and a fundamentally heightened awareness of their own potential to create positive change in their community.

Rethinking How We Design Programs

The landscape of higher education continues to change causing us to re-think the way we offer programs. Redesigning programs by listening to students pushes us to make radical changes. This chapter shows how the authors changed the content and delivery model by constantly reviewing student input on how we offer an online, competency-based alternative teacher certification program. They created annual measures that define program success, reviewed lead metrics to gain insight on areas working and needing improvements, and made ongoing changes to design and offer the program after listening to students' needs and desires. The program changes included continuous daily enrollment, changes in the instructor model to support student progression, an advising model focused on supporting individual student success throughout the program, and enhanced mentor support for fieldwork. The goal is to offer credentialing programs in different ways that prioritize accessibility, affordability, and applied field-based opportunities.

Compete LA

Postsecondary education has never mattered more than it does presently. It is critical for adults, particularly for non-credentialed adults, to complete postsecondary pathways, ensuring they are prepared to compete in the global economy. Despite the well-documented benefits of a postsecondary degree, nearly one-fourth of adults in Louisiana have college experience, but no degree. Adult learners experience barriers to navigating higher education that negatively impact their ability to return and persist to graduation. Recognizing these challenges, the University of Louisiana System and their nine member institutions created Compete LA, a program designed to re-engage adult learners and create equitable academic pathways to obtaining a college degree. This chapter will serve as a case study by focusing on the creation and scaling of the Compete LA initiative. It will explore the characteristics of the team, the structural composition of the program, as well as the efforts to dismantle the systemic barriers that exist in higher education that make adult student re-entry challenging.

Use of Experiential Learning in Higher Education Today

One critical avenue for supporting experiential learning and learners is the award of credit through prior learning assessment and use of career pathways that are unique and individual to meet student needs and academic goals. Institutions must build on in-place practices and policies to enhance institutional infrastructure for translating non-credit coursework to certificate and degree programs, streamline internal business processes, and increase capacity through scaling to serve larger numbers of students in an effort to impact retention and completion.

Designing and Developing Skills- and Competency-Based Environments

Institutions approach the design and development of competency-based programs through macro- and micro-level strategies. From high level, system-focused decisions to individual course instructional strategies, administrators, faculty, and designers must maintain focus on the needs of the learner as they address issues and barriers of academic policies and institutional infrastructure. A variety of strategies at the macro- and micro-level must be incorporated into the design, development, and implementation of a competency-based course and program. Following guidance offered through standards, guidelines, and best practices, competency-based courses and programs can meet the needs of students as they demonstrate their competence in course and program content.

Art + Science Knowledge Building

ASKXXI, Arts and Science Knowledge Building and Sharing in the XXI Century, was an inter-hemispheric, post-secondary diploma program pilot aimed at fostering collaboration in art, emerging digital/virtual technologies, and the ecological sciences. New approaches to narrative creation were introduced through innovative technology workshops in visualization, 3D imaging, 3D printing, virtual, mixed reality, and data visualization. The authors share their dimensional approach that delivered cross-cultural insights, technical training, professional development, mentorship, and network development opportunities. Expanding definitions of CBE and personalized learning support, the new career opportunities in a rapidly changing landscape, the relational, place-based, collaborative, and inquiry-driven learning developed through this pilot program is what the authors identify as a frontier ecosystem in education. They reflect on and share their findings and offer new perspectives on expanded models of competency-based education for academic and workplace credentials.

Experimentation With Competency-Based Education at the University of Phoenix

The author of this chapter, Ward Wesolowski, served as the Dean of Operations in the Center of Competency-Based Education (CBE) at the University of Phoenix. In this role, a substantial amount of experimentation was conducted to uncover insights relating to technology, faculty roles, curriculum, policy, and most importantly, the student experience in CBE. In an endeavor as complicated as creating CBE offerings at a large institution of higher education, there was only one thing that was certain: failure. At University of Phoenix, it was important to fail fast, learn, improve, and try again. This iterative approach allowed Ward and his team to quickly see what worked and what did not, so improvement efforts could be focused on the elements requiring the most attention. Valuable insights and recommendations are contained in this chapter for anyone aspiring to produce CBE offerings for students in higher education.