CompetenCy-Based: A New
ChoiCe for ProfessioNAls
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iNTroDUCTioN
Education can make or break professional success in life. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the median income of someone with a bachelor’s degree is 65 percent higher than someone who graduated only from high school. With a master’s degree, the difference is double.1
In addition to improving earnings, advanced degrees help increase marketability, bolster professional reputation, and open new avenues for advancement. Employers also gain from “better quality employees who stay on the job longer, at least in part to keep making use of that benefit.”2
Little wonder why the annual production of master’s degrees at the nation’s schools of higher education jumped by 63 percent from 2000 to 2012.3
Unfortunately, working professionals face challenges in attaining a master’s degree. The traditional credit-hour structure of education puts an emphasis on abstract academics in classes that are fixed in time. The logistical requirements and emphasis on theory can be incompatible with real-world work responsibilities and needs of actual companies.
But there is an alternative: competency-based education. This educational approach can efficiently help professionals develop the required
competencies they need to be successful and to contribute to an employer. No single instructional style or structure is appropriate for everyone. This e-book can help both working professionals with at least a bachelor’s degree and employers understand competency-based learning, how it compares with the traditional credit-hour organization, and the benefits it can offer. The reader will then see an example in American Sentinel University’s project-based MBA Healthcare program, an online option students complete through a series of projects. The e-book also addresses the types of people and companies that might find this instructional style useful.
1 U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Earnings and unemployment rates by educational attainment; April 2, 2015; http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_chart_001.htm 2 Cappelli, Peter, Why Do Employers Pay for College?, Journal of Econometrics 121, 1-2
(August 2004): 213-241m http://www.nber.org/papers/w9225.pdf
3 Anderson, Nick, “Master’s degree programs surge at nation’s colleges and universities,” The Washington Post, May 25, 2013, education section, http://www.washingtonpost.com/ local/education/masters-degree-programs-surge-at-nations-colleges-and-universities/2013 /05/25/938462fa-b726-11e2-92f3-f291801936b8_story.html
TABle of CoNTeNTs
INTRODUCTION
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Competency-Based Learning
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Example of a Competency-Based Degree Program
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Is Competency-Based Education Right for You?
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Conclusion 12
Executive Summary
Advanced degrees offer significant benefits to both individuals and their employers. For many working professionals, pursuing higher education through the traditional credit-hour arrangement can provide some challenges in immediate relevance, instructional style, and institutional focus. A new project-based, competency-focused structure that some innovative schools have begun to offer allows students to focus on mastery of skills and knowledge in a framework that is typically speedier and a better fit for professionals. One example is American Sentinel University’s project-based delivery of the MBA Healthcare program, an affordably-priced online program that uses real-world healthcare organization projects to help students complete the program in less than a year.
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they learned into practical application. The concept began in the 1960s as movements to improve teacher training began to develop. Since then, there have been multiple generations of CBE examined and tested.6
CBE’s appeal comes from the ultimate goal of education: the transmission of knowledge and skills to someone seeking to learn them. An emphasis on demonstrable results over physical presence in a classroom enables greater flexibility in how to achieve learning. Instead of putting instructors at the center of education, CBE focuses on the student, who must demonstrate mastery of material to attain a degree.
There are two general types of CBE. One is test-based. Students work on material, develop skills, and take tests to demonstrate that they have mastered the subject. Unfortunately, that approach offers no integration between subject areas, which is critical for today’s career advancement. The second type of CBE incorporates projects into the curriculum. Rather than relying on a traditional test, instructors examine how the student performs through a series of projects that demand the application of the skills and knowledge being taught in a real-world context.
CBE offers significant benefits over credit-hour education. The focus on competency creates a greater alignment with the desired outcome. Students have significant skills and abilities to offer employers after completing their studies. In addition, if an employer is paying for the education, it then has a measurable sense of receiving a return on its investment because it can see stronger correlation between what the student achieves and what the company needs to support the business. In other words, the education has more relevance to the market.
Competency-based education provides students greater flexibility and works well with distance learning. The combination of CBE and distance learning makes this delivery method more accommodating for working professionals and their employers. Students can schedule studies around working hours instead of scheduling work around the need to appear at particular locations on given days and times. As the work can be more self-paced, the learning process is often faster than traditional credit hour courses.
There are some considerations in opting for CBE. It is best suited for concrete skills, such as those needed in business and technology, and may
6 Ford, Kate, Competency-Based Education: History, Opportunities, and Challenges, UMUC Center for Innovation in Learning and Student Success, October 24, 2014, http://www. umuc.edu/innovatelearning/upload/cbe-lit-review-ford.pdf
Competency-based learning, or CBE, is an educational concept designed to solve a number of problems that developed from the long-established structure called the Carnegie credit hour. For a century, students have enrolled in courses that take a specified number of hours a week for a set number of weeks. A collection of courses is the roadmap for completing general and then specific requirements to attain a degree and qualify for the next level of education.
Creation of the credit hour was not intended to improve education. Rather, it was to create and manage a teacher pension system for university
professors. This mechanism to measure the workload of professors became the de facto basis for “everything from daily school schedules to graduation requirements, faculty workloads, and eligibility for federal financial aid,” according to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the organization established by business giant and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie to create the pension system.4
The credit hour became popular because it established a format and mechanism for measuring student progress and allowed comparisons between students taking the same courses, professors teaching them, the courses themselves, and schools. But there are also some significant drawbacks to the concept.
Learning activities are instructor-centered. Students must move with the class. Even with graded evaluation, other teachers and employers can only see that students did or did not pass, even if that performance was marginal. Critics say the credit hour puts emphasis on time spent in a classroom and academic schedules, not whether someone has mastered a topic. Teachers may miss a deeper understanding of students’ weaknesses and strengths. Credit hours can also mask the quality of student learning, replacing it with quantity, and reduce transparency in education.
Furthermore, there is concern that a focus on in-class hours can make it harder for schools to develop “more flexible educational designs.”5
Competency-based education, or CBE, is a solution that is gaining greater interest. Rather than focus on schedules and measuring time in classes, CBE is concerned with defining and measuring competency. The point is not whether Johnny and Jane showed up in class, but if they can put what
4 Silva, Elena, et. al., The Carnegie Unit: A Century-Old Standard in a Changing Education
Landscape, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, January 2015, http://
www.carnegiefoundation.org/resources/publications/carnegie-unit/ 5 Silva
ComPeTeNCy-BAseD
leArNiNg
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A general discussion about CBE can fall into the same theoretical trap that credit-hour education often does. To better understand the concept, here is an examination of American Sentinel University’s project-based and competency-focused delivery of the MBA Healthcare program. The offering is an alternative to the school’s traditional academic credit hour course-based delivery of the MBA Healthcare.
The MBA Healthcare is designed for current and future healthcare professionals — from nurses and healthcare administrators to vice presidents of operations — seeking to lead in a rapidly growing and changing industry. As is true of the traditional course-based delivery, the CBE is completely online.
The two MBA Healthcare delivery methods differ in their structures. The project-based track provides instruction through four self-directed individual projects, each of which involves four separate competency areas, making 16 competency areas in all. Students are required to demonstrate mastery in each of the competency areas. Here is a breakout:
Project 1: Organizational analysis
Students conduct a comprehensive overview of a healthcare organization that includes the following competencies:
• Analyze and define organizational mission, values, and ethics. Review
tutorials and case studies to understand their importance. Develop a set of statements and documents.
• Complete a current status assessment of each area of the student’s
chosen healthcare organization using industry-recognized tools. Review all information and identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats and identify barriers to operating in a changing healthcare environment.
• Review and analyze the external environment of a specific healthcare
organization, including demographic analysis of regional area of the organization, the political and regulatory climate related to the organization’s mission, the social and economic changes relevant to the organization, and a competitive analysis of the marketplace.
• Review and analyze the current internal processes of the healthcare
organization. Critique process and policy documents from healthcare organizations, including hiring and firing processes, staff development, information management and communication processes, service delivery processes, and department structures.
not be the best approach for abstract subjects. CBE programs must also find ways to define mastery and then create a context in which it can be demonstrated and assessed. However, properly designed, competence-based learning experiences can be a good choice for many students. The results over time of experiments in and improvements of CBE have led to increased interest in the approach on the part of many institutions and individuals. The reason is competency-based education offers the promise of delivering more of what students and organizations want and expect from higher education.
Governments at the federal and state levels have begun to use CBE to increase student engagement and learning effectiveness. For example, in 2013 the U.S. Department of Education released guidance on providing federal loans, grants, and work study for competency-based programs. Dozens of schools have already received authorization to participate in the Experimental Sites Initiative, authorized by Congress, with competency-based offerings. Such states as New Hampshire, Michigan, and Ohio have begun to embrace CBE, even at the high school level. Individual districts in Alaska, Colorado, and Chicago are trying the model at all levels of study. The programs are increasingly popular among students, particularly those who already work and need greater flexibility in pursuing their education. Another attraction is that CBE programs can be cost-effective to complete. Individuals not only have a more flexible approach available to them than traditional credit hour courses, but experience learning that is relevant to their professions. After a course of study, they can demonstrate skills and knowledge that are immediately applicable to their work.
Corporations are enthusiastic as well. Such major companies as
McDonald’s and Anthem BlueCross BlueShield have underwritten some efforts to give their employees access to college degrees without disrupting their existing work. The return on their investment is workers with useful and proven skills that can be more relevant than a traditionally structured educational setting emphasizing theory more that pragmatic demonstrations of mastery.
exAmPle of A
ComPeTeNCy-BAseD
Degree ProgrAm
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Project 2: Create a marketing and analytics plan in a
healthcare environment
Present a marketing plan for a healthcare organization that includes a market and customer analysis:
• Evaluate current information and management systems for
effectiveness. Critique the effectiveness of the hardware infrastructure to support the management information systems and review and analyze the organization’s current systems for web-based marketing and social media use.
• Develop and assess a market research analysis for a healthcare
organization. Identify and evaluate the organizational marketing
strategies. Using recognized analytic tools, construct and modify models to precisely analyze specific social and economic impact on the chosen organization.
• Analyze the population of a specific healthcare market. Analyze
demographics and behaviors of a regional population to stratify healthcare needs, review the organization’s customer satisfaction data to identify marketing weaknesses and areas of opportunity, and develop strategies for targeting specific segments of the population.
• Compare and contrast healthcare systems within and outside of
the United States. Analyze trends that impact the local marketing strategy. Examine social, cultural, and political issues that affect the local organization. Develop a legal and regulatory framework for doing business in another country.
Project 3: Create a performance improvement plan for a
healthcare organization
Devise a plan for organizational improvement in the areas of systems, human resources and finances, including a process for change management.
• Review the internal systems and processes of several healthcare
organizations and propose an improvement plan. Use quality improvement tools to evaluate the organization’s systems, measure their effectiveness, and propose efficiency and effectiveness improvements.
• Identify the human resources utilized in the chosen healthcare
organization, critique the effectiveness of those resources, and provide a plan for improving efficiency and effectiveness of the resources.
• Review and analyze financial statements, balance sheets, cash flow
statements and other financial documents of several healthcare organizations to critique the financial health of the chosen healthcare organization. Create a financial improvement plan.
• Review the change processes of the chosen healthcare organization.
Apply current change management theories to the chosen organization’s deficiencies. Develop a detailed operational plan to implement a change process aligned to the mission and vision of the chosen organization.
Project 4: Create a strategic implementation plan for a
healthcare organization
Bring together the knowledge, skills and tools learned through mastery of the competencies to create an implementation plan for changes in a healthcare organization.
• Appraise the role of the risk management function within the chosen
healthcare organization and present a risk management plan. Evaluate the necessary policies, procedures, protocols and guidelines to monitor compliance with applicable statutes, standards and regulations.
• Assess the leadership issues surrounding the implementation of
new initiatives and design effective ways to overcome barriers to the implementation of organizational strategies. Use leadership theories and best practices to understand formal and informal power structures within an organization.
• Evaluate personnel and team performance on a healthcare project
and develop a project plan to coordinate work teams from different departments and from external partner organizations. Propose necessary criteria to determine service delivery level improvement.
• Assemble outcomes and deliverables from all preceding competencies
into a strategic plan for the selected healthcare organization. Propose key initiatives to achieve strategic objectives, describe how relevant strengths and weaknesses can be used to propose the recommended strategic actions, identify strategic alternatives, and synthesize the benefits of strategic management.
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Projects may be based on an employer project or an entrepreneurial student-designed project. Students work with books and educational materials, including interactive tutorials, videos, e-books, and resources in American Sentinel’s electronic library, provided within the cost of the program. Each competency area successfully completed results in a set of documents reflecting the new mastery, with all the materials going into an e-portfolio. The e-portfolios are useful tools to both students and their healthcare employers. The students have something to help demonstrate their abilities going forward in their career, while the employers can review the documents to better understand a person’s new abilities and make fuller use of them.
For many students and employers, investing in a CBE program like
American Sentinel University’s project-based and competency-focused MBA Healthcare degree program can make sense. But even with the benefits, CBE is not for all students and all circumstances.
For individuals
An individual considering CBE should be interested in studies that are more practical than theoretical. The studies should be associated with demonstrable skills that are applicable in the person’s professional life. The student should be strongly self-motivated and thrive in less-structured environments. The student’s work environment should provide ample opportunity to create projects, while the employer should be willing to cooperate with the educational process.
For employers
An employer should have a strong employee development philosophy, because a student may require the cooperation and support of projects. The organization should have a strong HR department that understands the specific skills employees need for their short-term and long-term development. The employer must be flexible enough to consider an educational program not based on credit hours and also be willing to cooperate with the development of useful CBE projects.
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Education is a traditional enterprise. But the world moves on quickly and people and organizations must adapt with it. Competency-based education, particularly when paired with a project orientation, offers a new approach to learning that emphasizes mastery of practical and relevant skills and knowledge. Professionals who want to advance their careers, and employers that want to benefit from higher-quality employees, should at least consider competency-based education programs.
If you are in healthcare administration and would like to see how a CBE program could help you attain your MBA, visit http://www.americansentinel. edu/management/mba-healthcare/mba-hc-projectbased.
About American Sentinel University
American Sentinel University delivers accredited online degree programs in nursing (BSN, MSN, and DNP) and healthcare management (MBA Healthcare, MS in information systems management, and MS in business intelligence and analytics). Its affordable, flexible bachelor’s and master’s nursing degree programs are accredited by the Commission for the Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE), of One Dupont Circle, NW Suite 530, Washington, D.C., 20036. The DNP program is accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN) of 3343 Peachtree Road NE, Suite 850, Atlanta, Ga., 30326. The university is accredited by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission,
DEAC, 1101 17th Street NW, Suite 808, Washington, D.C. 20036, (202) 234-5100, www.deac.org
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