Students at the University of Wisconsin (UW) can earn college degrees based on proven competency in a subject, making UW the first publicly-funded school to launch a competency-based degree program.
Led by officials at UW-Extension, a continued learning program with offices located across Wisconsin, the UW Flexible Degree will let incoming students demonstrate their knowledge and cut down on the time it takes to earn a degree.
UW Chancellor Ray Cross and Gov. Scott Walker unveiled the Flexible Degree program June 19 as a way to help Wisconsinites boost their education credentials and fill empty jobs that require a two-or-four-year degree.
Students who enroll in UW’s nontraditional degree program could receive financial help from federal and state grants and employer-sponsored grants. Employers involved in the Flexible Degree program will also help recent graduates pay back loans used to fund their education.
While competency-based learning isn’t new—Western Governors University (WGU) has used the model for years—UW’s embrace of the nontraditional online degree track is noteworthy because, unlike the private nonprofit WGU and for-profit online colleges, UW is a public campus.
Offering more flexible options for adults returning the school, Cross said, would help the unemployed and underemployed fill some of the tens of thousands of open jobs just waiting for qualified applicants.
“We know now which features and benefits many adult students want. Our goal is to address these needs in new ways, but we can only achieve that goal by efficiently leveraging all the UW System’s resources in a truly collaborative fashion,” Cross said.
About 20 percent of Wisconsin adults have some postsecondary course credit, according to state statistics. These adults, if enrolled in the new competency-based model, would not have to begin their higher education in the most basic classes, saving them money and time.
Sara Goldrick-Rab, associate professor of education policy studies at UW, wrote in a blog post that a competency-based approach was worth the investment, because “credit for sitting in a seat for a certain amount of time has never felt smart.”
“One way to ensure quality is pushed higher is to encourage the kinds of students who now take in-person courses to try out these online classes, perhaps in summer, and have them … respond with their demands,” Goldrick-Rab wrote. “They will help raise the bar and keep standards high. In other words, diverse online classes of learners, rather than segregated ones, will ensure the quality of instruction.”
Goldrick-Rab, like many educators who supported the attempt to oust Walker in a June 6 recall election, said she was wary of the governor’s involvement in the Flexible Degree initiative.
“I have a hard time believing he has the best interests of UW System at heart,” she wrote. “That said, I don’t think this was Walker’s idea, and I don’t think his interest in it means it’s necessarily a bad idea.”
Walker applauded UW decision makers for embracing an approach that, so far, has only been used by for-profit schools and nontraditional colleges and universities.
“This new model for delivering higher education will help us close the skills gap at an affordable price to get Wisconsin working again,” Walker said. “As states across the country work to improve access and affordability in higher education, I am proud to support this exciting and innovative University of Wisconsin solution.”
The competency-based learning model gained national attention last summer when the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded $4.5 million to WGU, a Utah-based nonprofit online school formed in 1999 with about 20,000 students. The grant money was used to bolster the university’s web-based programs in Indiana, Washington state, and Texas.
The Gates Foundation selected WGU’s subsidiary programs largely because students there can advance toward a degree by demonstrating knowledge and skills, rather than taking redundant credit hours, said Hilary Pennington, the foundation’s director of postsecondary success.
“College students have changed, and it’s time higher education made some changes to keep up with them,” said Pennington, adding that the foundation awarded the grant to WGU “because they have a strong track record of providing a high-quality, affordable, and flexible college experience that meets the needs of today’s students.”
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