Today's learners demand a new, agile model for education. They need options that are more accessible, flexible, and clearly aligned to careers. And to deliver on that, higher education has to break out of time-bound programs--15-credit hour semesters, two-year and four-year degrees--and concepts of learning that are strictly tied to traditional…

An increasing percentage of students entering postsecondary institutions are working at least part-time and balancing multiple identities, responsibilities, and demands on their time and resources. As student demographics change, postsecondary institutions must rise to meet these students where they are. Two effective ways to do that include…

Competency-based institutions eager to improve student outcomes would be wise to consider research-based measures, such as a course planning and learning tool (CPLT), as one step in the student life cycle. Recent research has indicated which assessment practices tend to be most successful in an online competency-based environment while hinting at…

Learner handover (LH), the process of sharing of information about learners between faculty supervisors, allows for longitudinal assessment fundamental in the competency-based education model. However, the potential to bias future assessments has been raised as a concern. The purpose of this study is to determine whether prior performance…

Computational thinking is acknowledged as an essential competency for everyone to learn. However, teachers find it challenging to implement the existing learning approaches in K-12 settings because the existing approaches often focus on teaching computing concepts and skills (i.e., programming skills) rather than on helping students develop their…

This paper outlines the competency-linked project of a total redesign of a fully online master's program that linked every deliverable and assessment in each course with a competency model. Extensive mapping was completed and then applied to every course in the master's program over a two-year period. Graduate students' perceptions of connecting…

Institutions of higher learning are providing access to free and low-cost open resources to support students with prior college-level learning during every step of their educational journey. This unconventional approach to education removes traditional barriers to college credit by placing learners in an open environment, which encourages…