Title: How Competency-based Education Works
Course: BTEC-2020-301-302-303-F21 > Section: Course Orientation

The following is a broad view of CBE

“Competency-based education is an approach to schooling that (1) meets students where they are academically through flexible pacing, (2) provides students with opportunities for choice, and (3) awards credit for evidence of proficiency, not for the amount of time students spend studying a subject.” (Steele, J. L., Lewis, M. W., Santibanez, L., et al., 2014)

CBE is focused on student success and preparation for professional settings. CBE courses integrate skills and teach students how to apply the skills they learn and how to use the skills they master in their job responsibilities.

There are many benefits of competency-based programs at SLCC. A few of these are:

- The courses and assessments are the same for all students, regardless of who the instructor is. This allows students to experience the same learning materials and master the same content, which improves reliability and fairness.
- Students can apply prior knowledge to accelerate through assessments.
- Students demonstrate competency in skills that will be used in the workplace.

Student feedback and how competence is assessed

In this Biotechnology course, once you have completed the Orientation module, you can move at your own pace through the materials and the quizzes with the exception that you must schedule and complete the labs before moving on to subsequent material and assessments. Also, since each student in the course may be working on different activities in the lab, you will need to indicate to your instructor BEFORE you start your work in the lab whether you are doing a formative or a summative performance assessment. Instructors provide you with feedback as you complete the different assessments. The difference between these two types of assessments is explained below.

Formative assessments (module quizzes, self-assessments, practice labs, etc.) give you an idea of how you are performing throughout the course and whether you are progressing toward the competencies (knowledge check). They are lower-stakes assessments that allow for you to get feedback and build skill prior to attempting the summative assessment. In this competency-based course, the module quizzes and some of the labs are formative. You are strongly encouraged to complete all of these to monitor your progress, but they are not required, with the exception of the Milestone labs, which you must complete to move forward the course.

Summative assessments (final project, final lab, final exams, final performance assessment, etc.) are high-stakes course assessments that allow you to demonstrate mastery or proficiency of multiple course competencies. They may be open-ended problems and approximate real-world situations in order to demonstrate mastery of multiple, integrated competencies, or they may be a performance assessment or an objectively-scored test. You must demonstrate a competence at either the “Competent” or “More Than Competent” for performance assessments and attain at least 80% for final exams.