UA DDS

For institutions that, in response to this notice, submit letters of interest for the Competency-Based Education experiment, the Secretary's process for selecting participating institutions will remain the same as was described in the July 31, 2014, notice.

Under the Subscription Period Disbursement set of waivers, the institution may include in its determination of a student's enrollment status competencies that begin prior to the start of the subscription period, as long as it does not include those competencies in enrollment status for two different payment periods. Institutions will disburse title IV aid based on the student's anticipated enrollment for a subscription period (which is equivalent to a payment period) rather than requiring completion of a specific number of competencies prior to making subsequent disbursements of title IV aid. While an institution will determine a student's title IV aid amounts based on the student's anticipated enrollment status, the institution will be required to perform a satisfactory academic progress evaluation for the student at the end of each subscription period (payment period) to ensure that the student has completed the appropriate number of competencies in that payment period, given the student's enrollment status.

For each payment period, students will be assigned by the institution an enrollment status (full-time, half-time, three-quarter time, less than half-time) based on the student's expected enrollment in and completion of competencies for the payment period. After consulting with the student, the institution will determine the student's enrollment status based on a realistic assessment by the institution of the number of competencies that the student will complete during the payment period

an institution will not be permitted to count a unique competency or course toward a student's enrollment status for more than one payment period

to use this set of waivers, an institution must have a mechanism for determining that a student has been participating in a competency during a payment period.

Subscription Period Disbursement set of waivers will modify the statutory and regulatory requirements for monitoring satisfactory academic progress so that an institution will be required to evaluate a student's pace by using competencies completed over calendar time, rather than by dividing a student's completed credit hours by attempted credit hours

he institution must evaluate a student's satisfactory academic progress after every subscription period (payment period), rather than at least once annually, even if the program is more than one academic year in length

he institution must evaluate a student's pace using two separate measures:

The student's progress for the payment period immediately prior to the evaluation, calculated using the number of credit hours or equivalents completed over the number of credit hours or equivalents included in the student's enrollment status for that payment period

he student's cumulative rate of progress, calculated by dividing the aggregate number of credit hours or equivalents completed as of the end of the payment period by the total number of credit hours or equivalents expected to be completed as of the end of that payment period in order for the student to complete the program within the maximum timeframe

r its evaluation of a student's cumulative rate of progress, the institution could use different standards for students on different enrollment tracks—for example, there could be a different maximum timeframe for a student on a half-time enrollment track, for whom the normal time for completion of the program is longer than for a student on a full-time enrollment track.

If a student fails either of the two satisfactory academic progress evaluations, the student will have failed to make satisfactory academic progress and will, based on the institution's satisfactory academic progress policies, either be assigned to a financial aid warning period or immediately lose eligibility for title IV funds. Institutions will have the same flexibility to establish options for appeals, probation periods, and academic plans as they do under the current regulations.

The toughest nut to crack for competency-based education appears to be bachelor’s degrees aimed at traditional-age students.

hat’s what Purdue University is doing with a newly approved bachelor’s in transdisciplinary studies in technology

ombines technical disciplines with the humanities.

Customization is a big part of the degree’s novelty.

which will blend technology-focused disciplines such as computing, construction management, engineering, and aviation with social sciences, the humanities and business.

kills employers need for a “thinking economy.” That means complex problem solving, effective communication, critical thinking and ethical judgmen

igital badges and produce e-portfolios to display their work

In order to do that in a traditional sense, this student would have to get at least one major and three minors

urdue’s degree track is based on the credit-hour standard, in which the demonstration of competencies is linked to corresponding college credit

he U.S. Department of Education has taken some heat from its own Office of the Inspector General for approving direct-assessment degrees

an inspector general audit of Western Governors University over the faculty role in competency-based education (the results of which have yet to be made public), have had a chilling effect on how regional accreditors view proposals for new direct assessment and other competency-based degrees

mployer groups, such as the National Association of Manufacturers, praised the new degree in written statements.

To scale a program with this level of customization would be challenging,

Mr. Mazur wondered whether lecturing was an ethical teaching choice.

a lecture is only as passive as the listener

Students learn when they think about what they’re hearing and organize it into salient points. "This places the responsibility for learning on the student,

modern zeitgeist places the responsibility on the instructor.

Lecturing, he says, serves another important purpose. It reaffirms the importance of expertise and allows students to see how an expert role-models the process of working through a problem.

Learning is not a spectator sport,"

Lectures are inexpensive for institutions, allowing hundreds of students to be assigned to one faculty member.

Mr. Mazur often likes to cite education research suggesting that students overestimate how much they learn from a smoothly delivered lecture.

The lecture creates the perfect illusion

Students read material before class on an online platform

Students post comments on the reading and respond to one another’s annotations

comments drive the next class.

o answer each problem, students do four things: articulate the problem in their own words, devise a plan to answer it, execute it, and evaluate how well it worked.

omplete the problem sets alone before class and work in teams during it to correct errors

not graded on how correct their answers are but on their effort and their accuracy in judging how well they understood the problem.

udents do complete five hourlong "Readiness Assurance Activities" during the semester. In the first half-hour they solve the problems alone; they can consult the internet but not one another. In the second, they go over the problems again, this time with their teams. Their scores reflect individual mastery and collective contribution.

Project-based learning is the center of the new course. Students work in teams. Many projects have low-stakes competitions attached to them, like constructing the most secure safe by using magnets as locks. Other projects have an explicit social benefit, like building musical instruments for an orchestra for poor children in Venezuela.

Mr. Mazur has moved himself far offstage; he missed about 40 percent of the meetings this past semester. Class just rolls on without him.

Peers, Mr. Mazur says, are a far greater source of motivation than a professor.

His syllabus dedicates two paragraphs to the virtues of failure

They should see failures, he writes, as "learning opportunities, not negatives, as steppingstones to success."

Repeated failure, as he has learned, is necessary for success.

"I don’t expect hyper-efficiency when I teach face to face.

ig called a "lightboard," designed a few years ago by a professor at Northwestern University

It’s not just that it looks cool, it actually works better

autions the professor not to write so much on the board that it blocks her face.

20 minutes of "pre-draw

ready to rehearse

five-minute lecture twice, each time noting how long it takes and how well she stays focused on the points she wants to emphasize. The goal is to shoot the video in one take, so there is no room for flubs

need to let the camera linger on the professor for a few seconds after her lecture so that the video doesn’t appear to end abruptly

he tries to think about the students who will be out there watching, eventually. But for now she is bathed in harsh light in a windowless concrete box, remembering to smile

It took well over an hour to produce the five-minute clip