Got skills? Why online competency-based education is the disruptive innovation for higher education — from educause.com by Michelle R. Weise
Online competency-based education can even out the playing field by taking students to the furthest point possible in their learning experiences, regardless of their starting point, race, geographical location, or family income.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Disruptive innovations must find their footholds in nonconsumption. As colleges and universities have turned away from career-oriented training, they have unwittingly left unattended a niche of nonconsumers—people who are overserved by traditional forms of higher education, underprepared for the workforce, and seeking lifelong learning pathways. These potential students are looking for a different value proposition from higher education, one that centers on targeted and specific learning outcomes, tailored support, and identifiable skill sets that are portable and meaningful to employers.

In contrast to other recent trends in higher education, particularly MOOCs (massive open online courses) with their tremendous fanfare, online competency-based education (often shortened to “CBE”) stands out as the innovation most likely to disrupt higher education. It serves as the missing link between learning outcomes and industry needs. A true workforce solution, competency-based education has the potential to bridge the widening gap between traditional postsecondary education and the workforce.

Clearly, workforce training, competency-based learning, and online instruction are not new phenomena; it is the combination of all of these into one learning pathway that shows true disruptive potential. Online competency-based education marks the critical convergence of multiple vectors: the right learning model, the right technologies, the right customers, and the right business model. It fuses mastery-based learning with modularization, leading to pathways that are more agile and more adaptable to the changing labor market.

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Modularization
When learning is broken down into competencies—rather than by courses or by subject matter—modules of learning can be easily arranged, combined, and scaled online into different programs for very different industries. For this reason, online competency-based education providers have a leg up on the various community colleges, regional schools, and offline competency-based education providers that already partner with companies to mitigate workforce shortages. Those programs require substantial resources to replicate or tailor programs for different companies and industries, whereas the powerful integration of robust technologies enhances the ability of online competency-based education providers to modularize the learning process. Modularization is the key to narrowing the skills gap in ways that traditional forms of postsecondary education cannot duplicate.

 

From DSC:
Where this modularization piece seems like it will really take off is when it’s combined with web-based learner profiles, dynamic sequencing of learning content, the use of personalization engines, learning analytics, and developments coming out of cognitive computing.

 

Also see:

  • Flexible Option: A Direct-Assessment Competency-Based Education Model — from educause.edu by Aaron Brower
    The University of Wisconsin Flexible Option CBE model focuses on assessment rather than credit hours, letting students undertake academic work at their own pace and prove mastery of required knowledge and skills through rigorous assessments.