Competency-Based Education System and MOOCs

Education has normally been delivered through lectures, where an instructor lectures pupils on a specific subjects. This model is prevalent from Kindergarten till most of undergraduate/graduate school. Only when a student is writing a thesis or dissertation is when a student works closely with a mentor or advisor. Individualized attention, where a teacher just has one or two students, is rare, unless a student or a parent specifically hires a tutor or instructor to teach a student. Nonetheless, education is a very labor-intensive industry, and it requires more human than capital for it to be effecive. However, there is a lot of discussion about changing this model of delivering education, especially in the undergraduate level.

There are two, somewhat divergent models being promoted to educate students at the undergraduate level. One is termed as MOOC (Massive Open Online Course). A number of universities like Stanford University and MIT are providing MOOC courses. Seeing the potential of growth, some commercial enterprises like Coursera, Udemy and Udacity have started to provide online courses for free. In these websites, a number of courses are offered for free. Students can view the lectures and then take and exam to get a certificate of competency in that course.

The other is called competency-based education, spearheaded by Western Governors University. In this model, the student tries to complete a major in his or her own pace, and there are mentors to guide the student to complete the degree. It is more of a mentor-student model where the mentor makes sure that the student does not fall behind; however, the student is expected to finish all the coursework, and take the required competency exam in order to pass the course. However, a big question here is whether this mentor-student model can be scaled up while keeping costs low.

These models of education are emerging because of the belief that the current higher education system is either too expensive for a large number of students, or is inflexible for working students. Although online education is trying to reach out to the largest number of students at a minimum cost, it doesn't provide some of the benefits that a traditional university offers. As an instructor in a traditional university, I know that much of the learning takes place outside of classroom. Traditional universities provide students huge opportunities to network, build resumes, take part in extra-curricular activities and be aware of the world around them. Variants of the traditional university model tend to teach students one-on-one without much emphasis of building other characteristics required for succeeding in one's professional life. For MOOC and competency-based education to succeed, attempts need to be made so that they complement the traditional universities, rather than substitute them. This way, students can get a true education, rather than a checklist of ideas that they memorized/mastered.