1. COMPETENCY-BASED ONLINE MODELS: WASHINGTON COLLEGES’ BIG BREAKTHROUGH FOR STUDENT SUCCESS Presentation for AACC Annual Convention April 19, 2015 Dr. Richard Cummins  President, Columbia Basin College Connie Broughton  Project Director, Competency-Based Education, Washington State Board of Community & Technical Colleges Tom Nielsen  Vice President of Instruction, Bellevue College Jody Laflen  Dean of the Institute for Business & Information Technology, Bellevue College

2. OUR STORY

5. WHAT IS COMPETENCY BASED EDUCATION (CBE)?  Measure student learning rather than time  Harness the power of technology for teaching and learning.  Computer-mediated instruction gives the ability to individualize learning for each student because each student learns at a different pace and comes to the content knowing different things; this is a fundamental requirement of competency-based education. Source: Dr. Robert Mendenhall President, Western Governors University 5

6. WHAT IS COMPETENCY BASED EDUCATION (CBE)?  Fundamentally change the faculty role  When faculty serve as lecturers, holding scheduled classes for a prescribed number of weeks, the instruction takes place at the lecturers' pace. For most students, this will be the wrong pace. Some will need to go more slowly; others will be able to move much faster. Competency-based learning shifts the role of the faculty from that of "a sage on the stage" to a "guide on the side." Faculty members work with students, guiding learning, answering questions, leading discussions, and helping students synthesize and apply knowledge. Source: Dr. Robert Mendenhall President, Western Governors University 6

7. WHAT IS COMPETENCY BASED EDUCATION (CBE)?  Define competencies and develop valid, reliable assessments  The fundamental premise of competency-based education is that we define what students should know and be able to do, and they graduate when they have demonstrated their competency. This means that we have to define the competencies very clearly. Getting industry input is essential to make sure that we've identified relevant competencies. Once the competencies are established, we need experts in assessment to ensure that we're measuring the right things. Source: Dr. Robert Mendenhall President, Western Governors University 7

8.  Institutions must move from a model of “ time served ” to a model of “ stuff learned.”  Because increasingly, the world does not care what you know. You can Google everything. The world only cares, and will only pay for, what you can do with what you know. And, therefore, it will not pay for a C+ in chemistry, just because your college considers that a passing grade and is willing to give you a diploma that says so.  We’re moving to a more competency-based world where there will be less interest in how you acquired the competency and more demand to prove that you mastered the competency. THOMAS FRIEDMAN: THE NEW YORK TIMES 8

9. 9 THE CBO STUDENT AUDIENCE – EDUCATION FOR A NEW ERA Post-Recession Jobs Require a College Degree or Retraining  Post-recession, those with a four-year degree or higher were much less affected by the recession  Those with only a high school diploma or less lost a high number of jobs, with little recovery  Newly-created jobs require skill sets for which experienced workers need retraining

10. TRADITIONAL HIGHER ED BUSINESS MODEL IS BREAKING

11. DISRUPTION = AFFORDABILITY, ACCESSIBILITY Today Toyota Wal-Mart Dell Southwest Airlines Fidelity Canon Microsoft Oracle Cingular Apple iPod Straighterline.com Yesterday GM Dept. Stores Digital Eqpt. Delta JP Morgan Xerox IBM Cullinet AT&T Sony DiskMan Columbia Basin College

12. HIGHER ED DECENTRALIZATION IS JUST BEGINNING

13. THE DISRUPTIVE INNOVATION Some key features: Disaggregates teaching, mentoring, and grading Costs ~$3,000 every six months, which includes textbooks Uses a year-round schedule for maximum student use No expensive capital costs, sports or extra-curricular activities

14. FIXED TIME, VARIABLE LEARNING Deliver content to students Testing & assessment Progress to next grade, subject, or body of material Receive results

15. COMPETENCY-BASED LEARNING Deliver content to students Testing & assessment Progress to next grade, subject, or body of material Receive real-time interactive feedback

16. 16 Laitinen, A. (2012). Cracking the credit hour. New America Foundation. Retrieved from newamerica.net. Innovation is the way to reach current “non-consumers” to get closer to that 67%

17. CASE STUDIES IN PILOT CBE PROGRAMS 17

18.  The pilot was the Business Software Specialist 32- credit certificate. It was selected for competency-based online format because it:  Was an existing, high-demand certificate  Allowed innovation and experimentation with a new modality  Was a certificate that appealed to a broad audience  The certificate included industry (MOS) certification  Had the ability to offer a high-tech, high-touch program  IT-related credential (required by WGU consortium)  Already offered online  32 credits, 8 courses, add 5 industry certifications  Faculty interest and commitment  Expanded access to students who needed it THE BEGINNING: BUSINESS SOFTWARE SPECIALIST CERTIFICATE AT BELLEVUE COLLEGE 18

19. COMPETENCY-BASED ONLINE LEARNING AND PREPARATION  WGU workshops  Statewide workgroup  One-to-one with SMEs  Faculty interest and commitment 19 https://www.etouches.com/ehome/120977

20. INFRASTRUCTURE Work WITH constraints of time-based systems:  Faculty  Navigator  Schedule  Curriculum  Students  Credentials/transcription 20

21. DEVELOPING COURSES  Faculty engagement  Administrative support  Expert assistance: industry and academia  Identified certificate and course outcomes  Included objective and project-based assessments  Included industry certifications 21

22. BUSINESS SOFTWARE SPECIALIST CERTIFICATE  32 credits  8 courses  1 Orientation  5 Office  2 Web  5 Microsoft Office certifications 22

23. ROLE OF THE NAVIGATOR  The Navigator is the first point of contact for the student  The Navigator supports student throughout the process  The Navigator is a key “high touch” feature to the program  The Navigator reviews the SmarterMeasure college and online readiness assessment tool results with the student to determine if CBE is the right fit for the student or if another program is a better fit  The student is admitted in the program and followed up bi-weekly or more, if necessary, by the Navigator, as well as the instructor 23

24. PRE-ASSESSING STUDENT READINESS  Students should be pre-assessed prior to enrolling in any CBE program to ensure they have the essential skills to be successful in a self-paced, online learning environment.  Once a Program Navigator has determined that a student is ready for CBE learning, the student should be assessed on course and program outcomes to determine areas where coursework would be redundant and to properly place the student at the appropriate level in the program.  Program Navigators and faculty can implement weekly progress reports to ensure students are on track and making progress. Pacing charts can also be provided to students to provide realistic expectations as to the time they will need to complete coursework. 24

25. RECRUITING CBE PROGRAMS These techniques have been successful at recruiting 100+ students per quarter at Bellevue College since the 2014 pilot of the CBE Business Software Specialist certificate and have thus been effective for a more internal audience.  Note placed in the College Catalog/College Website under all CBE classes to distinguish them from more traditional online or on- ground course offerings. Provide a link to your CBE page and make sure that the Program Navigator’s contact information is there.  Posters and cards placed around campus  Information sessions to all campus advisors—workforce, international programs, etc.  Panel cards placed in external workforce agencies  Emailed students, made announcements in classes, created a website that is updated regularly 25

26.  Pre-test to assess prior learning  Practice, practice, practice  Post-test to 80%+  Comprehensive assessment  Certification assessment (if applicable)  Grades – A, B, F Competency or No Competency THE CBE COURSE 26

27. WERE RETENTION AND GRADES BETTER WITH CBE? AT BELLEVUE COLLEGE, THE ANSWER WAS… YES BY 7% AFTER INITIAL PILOT 86% of the CBO students passed with competency (108/126) 77% of the CBO students passed MOS certification (70/91) of those competent 14% of the CBO students did not complete the course (18/126) other colleges in the Gates grant had 20-25% non-completers 79% of the regular students passed with competency (149/189) 7% of the regular students passed but did not achieve competency (13/189) 13% of the regular students did not complete the course (15/189) 0% of the regular students took MOS certification as a required part of their course (189/189) 27

28. ONGOING ADJUSTMENTS FOR CBE SUCCESS  Depending on the student population involved, be prepared to make adjustments as a CBE program rolls out. At Bellevue College, some adjustments included: 1. Self-pacing Chart 2. Progress Report 3. Final Practice Exam, 80%+ for a B grade competency 28 Self-Pacing Chart Students who enter the course with the level of experience listed below, can expect to complete the course in about the estimated guideline times listed. Application BeginnerIntermediateAdvanced Outlook 7-9 weeks4-6 weeks3-4 weeks PowerPoint 7-9 weeks4-6 weeks3-4 weeks Word 8-10 weeks4-6 weeks3-4 weeks Excel 8-10 weeks5-7 weeks4-5 weeks Access 8-10 weeks5-7 weeks4-5 weeks Web Essentials 8-10 weeks5-7 weeks4-5 weeks Webpage Authoring 9-11 weeks6-8 weeks5-6 weeks

29. GETTING FACULTY ON BOARD FOR TRAINING, DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION  Faculty buy-in: Presenting existing models and success stories to demonstrate the benefits of CBE can help to bring innovative faculty on board and reduce resistance.  Training should be provided for all interested faculty, as conversion from traditional online/on-ground course presentation to CBE is significant.  A small pilot may be the most effective way to start. Bellevue College and Columbia Basin College piloted with IT-based programs who had easier outcomes to modify and more tech-savvy faculty for buy-in. 29

30.  Identify Program/Credential Outcomes  If you don’t assess it, you can’t claim it as an outcome  Identify and eliminate redundancies so that each class has unique assessment criteria meeting the program outcomes OVERALL CBE PROGRAM OUTCOMES AND ASSESSMENTS 30

31. THE STATEWIDE PILOT 31

32.  Students must demonstrate mastery of explicit competencies to receive credit  Students receive constant support based on their individual learning needs  Learning, not time, is the determining factor (Adapted from Christensen Institute) COMPETENCY-BASED PROGRAM PILOT

33. A Business Transfer Degree  Competency based  Completely online  Openly licensed  Six-month term with multiple start dates  Full time equivalent tuition ($2667 plus fees)  Students work at their own pace, completing as many credits as they are able during each term  Available at March 2015 THE GOAL

34.  Columbia Basin College—lead  Bellevue College  Centralia College  Everett Community College  Olympic College  Pierce College Ft. Steilacoom  Pierce College Puyallup  Tacoma Community College PILOT COLLEGES

35.  Reduced population growth in 15-19 year olds in the next 10 years  Increased growth in 20-44 year olds  Almost 1 million Washingtonians have some college, no degree (SBCTC Legislative Presentation, Jan. 2014) https://app.leg.wa.gov/CMD/Handler.ashx?MethodName=getdocument content&documentId=EDi-X3rydFI&att=false TARGET POPULATION

36.  Students with some college or work experience  Advisors and support at each college  Completion coaches  Hired by Columbia Basin for the pilot consortium  Disciplinary faculty who teach and assess  Hired by Columbia Basin for the pilot consortium THE ELEMENTS FOR SUCCESS

37.  Share initial development costs  Share staffing to support students who work at their own pace  Students belong to the college where they enroll  All faculty for the pilot will be hired at Columbia Basin College WHY PILOT AS A SYSTEM?

38.  Strong transfer agreements  Shared course system (WAOL)  Shared learning management system (Canvas)  Common elearning tools  Western eTutoring Consortium  AskWA SYSTEM ASSETS

39.  Four full-time faculty  English  Math  Accounting  Economics and Business Law FIRST FACULTY COHORT

40.  Six adjunct faculty  Sociology  Political Science  Geology  Biology  Public Speaking  Art

41. COLUMBIA BASIN COLLEGE CBE BUSINESS PROGRAM: STUDENT PROCESS ENROLLED STUDENT – BUSINESS TRANSFER MAJOR

42. CHALLENGES WITH IMPLEMENTATION  Accreditation – Does your institution need to go through an approval process with your accrediting agency?  Faculty and staff – How will CBE delivery affect faculty contracts and hiring processes? Faculty and support staff involved in the development of a CBE program need time, resources and training to develop effective coursework and support tools.  Buy-in – A comprehensive CBE program involves all aspects of the traditional college operation. How will CBE delivery affect program, registration, advising, financial aid, and business office?

43.  Bloom, Benjamin (1984). “The 2 Sigma Problem: The Search for Methods of Group Instruction as Effective as One-to-One Tutoring.” Educational Researcher, 13:6 (4-16)  CBEN http://www.cbenetwork.org/competency- based-education/ http://www.cbenetwork.org/competency- based-education/  CAEL http://www.cael.org/what-we- do/competency-based-educationhttp://www.cael.org/what-we- do/competency-based-education  U of Wisconsin: http://flex.wisconsin.edu /http://flex.wisconsin.edu / RESOURCES ON CBE

44. FIND OUT MORE  Blog: http://cbewa.orghttp://cbewa.org  Listserv: http://lists.ctc.edu/mailman/listinfo/cbehttp://lists.ctc.edu/mailman/listinfo/cbe

45. QUESTIONS?

46. CONTACT INFORMATION Rich Cummins, President Columbia Basin College rcummins@columbiabasin.edu Connie Broughton, Project Director Competency-Based Education Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges cbroughton@sbctc.educbroughton@sbctc.edu http://cbewa.orghttp://cbewa.org Tom Nielsen, Vice President of Instruction Bellevue College tom.nielsen@bellevuecollege.edu Jody Laflen, Dean of the Institute for Business and Information Technology Bellevue College Jody.laflen@bellevuecollege.edu http://www.bellevuecollege.edu/ibit/degrees/certificate/cbo/ 46