How to Prepare for a Competency-Based Degree Program

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Unlike tra­di­tion­al edu­ca­tion, which often relies on exams and the­o­ret­i­cal knowl­edge, CBE focus­es on hands-on projects and real-world per­for­mance. Stu­dents demon­strate their under­stand­ing through prac­ti­cal assess­ments, enhanc­ing their abil­i­ty to apply skills in real-life situations.
• CBE requires a high lev­el of self-moti­va­tion, dis­ci­pline, and effec­tive time management. 
• Suc­cess in CBE pro­grams involves thor­ough prepa­ra­tion, includ­ing self-assess­ment, choos­ing the right pro­gram, and devel­op­ing a study plan. Lever­ag­ing avail­able resources such as online tools, peer net­works, and fac­ul­ty sup­port is cru­cial for nav­i­gat­ing and excelling in a CBE environment.

Com­pe­ten­cy-based edu­ca­tion rep­re­sents a sig­nif­i­cant shift from tra­di­tion­al meth­ods of teach­ing and learn­ing. Rather than spend­ing a set amount of time learn­ing abstract ideas and the­o­ries, you’re assessed on your com­pe­ten­cy and abil­i­ty to apply what you’ve learned.

This type of learn­ing is also self-paced. Rather than spend­ing a semes­ter tak­ing a cer­tain course, you might only need a few weeks to demon­strate com­pe­ten­cy. This makes CBE one of the most cost effec­tive degrees because the pace of learn­ing is up to you.

Need­less to say, this type of learn­ing requires much dif­fer­ent prepa­ra­tion than what you’ve expe­ri­enced in tra­di­tion­al edu­ca­tion­al pro­grams. This guide offers you a few essen­tial tips for being suc­cess­ful in a com­pe­ten­cy-based degree program.

Relat­ed:

• What is a Self-Paced Degree Program?
• Online Col­leges with Open Enroll­ment and No Appli­ca­tion Fee
• 5 Exams Accept­ed for Col­lege Cred­it and More
• Five Ways to Get a Faster Bachelor’s Degree

Understanding Competency-Based Education

As not­ed above, com­pe­ten­cy-based edu­ca­tion (CBE) is all about mas­tery. Rather than mem­o­riz­ing con­cepts and being grad­ed on your abil­i­ty to retrieve that infor­ma­tion on exams, you’re assessed based on your abil­i­ty to apply what you’ve learned. In this regard, com­pe­ten­cy-based learn­ing is a more active and per­son­al­ized under­tak­ing than tra­di­tion­al education.

Anoth­er way CBE is dif­fer­ent from tra­di­tion­al learn­ing is that there are no time con­straints. There is no set num­ber of class­es or cred­it hours you have to com­plete to be deemed knowl­edge­able. Instead, you can earn cred­it as soon as you demon­strate your competence.

The ways you’re assessed for mas­tery of a sub­ject are dif­fer­ent, too. For exam­ple, tra­di­tion­al pro­grams typ­i­cal­ly use select­ed response exams to mea­sure your under­stand­ing of a top­ic. But CBE assess­ments are often per­for­ma­tive — hands-on projects, research papers, and oral pre­sen­ta­tions, to name a few. In a tra­di­tion­al art class, you might be required to take an exam with ques­tions about prop­er­ly prepar­ing a can­vas before paint­ing. But in CBE, you’d be asked to show how to pre­pare a can­vas and be eval­u­at­ed on your abil­i­ty to do so.

Since CBE is self-paced, it’s a much more flex­i­ble for­mat for learn­ing. This enables you to deeply under­stand what you’re study­ing with­out the time pres­sure to move on to the next top­ic, as is often the case in tra­di­tion­al programs.

As you can imag­ine, the real-world applic­a­bil­i­ty of CBE is greater than tra­di­tion­al learn­ing for­mats. The empha­sis on learn­ing-by-doing ensures that you have a the­o­ret­i­cal under­stand­ing of a sub­ject as well as the abil­i­ty to use what you’ve learned in a real-life sit­u­a­tion. That’s why CBE is an inte­gral com­po­nent of pro­grams in nurs­ing, teach­ing, and tech­ni­cal fields.

Challenges Faced in Competency-Based Programs

There is a learn­ing curve to CBE. Com­mon­ly, stu­dents face sim­i­lar chal­lenges when study­ing with­in a CBE framework:

• Lim­it­ed social inter­ac­tion — The focus on indi­vid­u­al­ized learn­ing and pac­ing means you will spend much of your time work­ing alone. 
• Extreme self-moti­va­tion is required — CBE neces­si­tates a com­mit­ment to stay­ing moti­vat­ed and on task to demon­strate mas­tery in an appro­pri­ate time frame.
• Dis­ci­pline is a must — CBE requires you to be dis­ci­plined and man­age time effectively.
• Finan­cial aid con­cerns — Fed­er­al finan­cial aid is typ­i­cal­ly tied to cred­it or clock hours. How­ev­er, some CBE — like direct assess­ment pro­grams — do not oper­ate using tra­di­tion­al cred­its. As such, col­leges have to devel­op a method­ol­o­gy in which the activ­i­ties in a direct assess­ment CBE pro­gram are trans­lat­ed into clock hours. Doing so is com­pli­cat­ed and com­plex, and can take a sig­nif­i­cant amount of time.
• Accred­i­ta­tion is also a con­cern — Accred­i­ta­tion is his­tor­i­cal­ly for time-based pro­grams. While col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties can seek accred­i­ta­tion for CBE pro­grams, the Sec­re­tary of Edu­ca­tion must approve the accred­it­ing agency. More­over, col­leges can’t sub­mit a CBE pro­gram for accred­i­ta­tion unless the pro­gram has been approved for direct assess­ment by an approved accreditor. 

Essential Preparations Before Enrollment

As you nav­i­gate online com­pe­ten­cy-based degrees in search of the one that’s right for you, it’s impor­tant to pre­pare your­self for enroll­ment. You can do so by fol­low­ing the broad steps out­lined below.

• Do a self-assess­ment of your learn­ing style — As a CBE stu­dent, you must be a crit­i­cal thinker and a prob­lem-solver. You should pos­sess a dri­ve to suc­ceed, man­age time effec­tive­ly, and be dili­gent in your studies.
• Research and choose the right pro­gram — Look for accred­it­ed CBE pro­grams with robust sup­port ser­vices and expert faculty. 
• Make a finan­cial plan - Before you enroll, under­stand the program’s costs. Look at fac­tors like tuition, fees, books, sup­plies, and room and board. Also con­sid­er the finan­cial aid sit­u­a­tion and whether it’s even avail­able for your CBE pro­gram. Cre­at­ing a finan­cial plan for pay­ing for school­ing will help you stay on track to meet your goals while min­i­miz­ing the risk of get­ting over your head with expenses.

Developing a Study Plan

The free­dom of a per­son­al­ized learn­ing plan leads some CBE stu­dents to think, “oh, I’ll do that lat­er.” This is a dan­ger­ous sen­ti­ment because it can get you far behind in your studies. 

As such, it’s impor­tant to set clear, mea­sur­able learn­ing goals. Break tasks down into chunks, mas­ter­ing one chunk at a time until you’re con­fi­dent in your abil­i­ty to demon­strate mas­tery of an entire con­cept. When set­ting learn­ing goals, be real­is­tic, too. If it’s a con­cept you’re already expe­ri­enced with, a short time frame is appro­pri­ate. But a new, com­plex con­cept might require a longer time table.

Time man­age­ment in CBE is crit­i­cal­ly impor­tant, but not just for study­ing. Instead, you need to man­age your work, life, and study time to avoid burnout. Here are a few strate­gies for bal­anc­ing the var­i­ous aspects of your life:

• Set a sched­ule - Break your day into time for work, life, and school. Try to be as con­sis­tent as pos­si­ble (e.g., study at the same time each day) so you and your fam­i­ly and friends can get into a routine.
• Be flex­i­ble, though — Sched­ules need to change from time to time. Be flex­i­ble when things come up.
• Cre­ate a ded­i­cat­ed study space - Find a pri­vate spot with min­i­mal dis­trac­tions where you can get your school­work done.
• Take care of your­self - Eat right, exer­cise, and take fre­quent breaks from study­ing to refresh your mind and body.
• Be reflec­tive - Take time each day or week to reflect on what you’ve learned. Con­sid­er the top­ics you’re con­fi­dent about as well as the ones you need more time to address. Doing so can help you adjust your study plan and com­mit resources where they are most needed.
• Ask for help when you need it - If you feel stressed, over­whelmed, or you’re get­ting hope­less­ly behind with work, life, or school oblig­a­tions, don’t be afraid to ask some­one for help.

Leveraging Available Resources

One of the sim­plest CBE suc­cess tips is to use the resources avail­able to you. Work with your pro­fes­sors, advi­sors, or your school’s aca­d­e­m­ic coach­es to devise a plan for suc­cess. They can help you devel­op a study sched­ule, pro­vide advice on course sequenc­ing, and give you tips on being a more suc­cess­ful CBE student.

You can use the pow­er of online resources, too. Edu­ca­tion­al tech­nol­o­gy in CBE runs the gamut from online videos to online libraries to jour­nal arti­cles, how-to demon­stra­tions, and com­mu­ni­ca­tion and col­lab­o­ra­tion tools. Though you do most of your work inde­pen­dent­ly, there are plen­ti­ful resources you can rely on to progress through your program.

Anoth­er excel­lent resource to be more suc­cess­ful in a CBE pro­gram is your class­mates. Peer net­works and study groups are just two exam­ples of resources that can help you hone your skills, get feed­back, and pre­pare for demon­strat­ing your competency.

Assessment and Demonstrating Competence

As not­ed ear­li­er, assess­ments in CBE are often per­for­ma­tive. Prepar­ing for these assess­ments is a lit­tle dif­fer­ent than prepar­ing for a tra­di­tion­al test. For exam­ple, a good strat­e­gy is to prac­tice per­form­ing the nec­es­sary skills ahead of time. As the old say­ing goes, prac­tice makes perfect!

Oth­er strate­gies include the following:

• Focus on the appli­ca­tion of what you know. Assess­ments usu­al­ly eval­u­ate your abil­i­ty to do some­thing, not nec­es­sar­i­ly recite each step in the process.
• Seek feed­back and revise your approach as needed.
• Uti­lize study groups and oth­er peer-based resources to hone your mas­tery of essen­tial top­ics and skills.
• Track your progress, tak­ing note of skills you’ve already mas­tered and those you haven’t. Adjust your study time accordingly.

Life After Graduation

One of the many ben­e­fits of CBE is that it builds life­long learn­ing skills that can ben­e­fit you in the future, like ana­lyt­i­cal think­ing, prob­lem solv­ing, and com­mu­ni­ca­tion skills.

It goes with­out say­ing that these char­ac­ter­is­tics come in handy in all aspects of life, includ­ing your career. Whether you become a den­tist, an artist, a teacher, or some­thing in between, the pro­fes­sion­al com­pe­ten­cies you mas­ter in your degree pro­gram will be all the eas­i­er to apply in your career.

What’s more, your back­ground in CBE makes CBE for work­ing pro­fes­sion­als eas­i­er to under­take. With expe­ri­ence in indi­vid­u­al­ized stud­ies, you can more eas­i­ly jug­gle the demands of work, life, and so forth. In oth­er words, CBE pro­vides far more than a deep­er under­stand­ing of the top­ics you study; it helps you build prac­ti­cal skills applic­a­ble to the rest of your life.