Competency Degrees by Christie Morse https://padlet.com/cmorse11/d4eeie547gfu A Trend in American Higher Education en-us 2017-10-09 18:40:26 UTC 2026-03-22 09:49:16 UTC hello@padlet.com Who is Doing it? cmorse11 https://padlet.com/cmorse11/d4eeie547gfu/wish/195350180 University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (2017) created a program called "MyWay - a degree that works with you." Through this program, students choose from the degree plans offered and can complete as many courses for $3,000 during a 6-month time period (University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, 2017)]]> 2017-10-09 18:41:57 UTC https://padlet.com/cmorse11/d4eeie547gfu/wish/195350180 Competency Degrees cmorse11 https://padlet.com/cmorse11/d4eeie547gfu/wish/195351431 A trend that is beginning to become more popular is degrees that are achieved by competency mastered skills. ]]> 2017-10-09 18:45:33 UTC https://padlet.com/cmorse11/d4eeie547gfu/wish/195351431 What is it? cmorse11 https://padlet.com/cmorse11/d4eeie547gfu/wish/195352235 Competency Degrees are achieved by mastering a skill or lesson to pass for accreditation of a class. Once all of the classes are mastered, the student has then achieved their degree at their own pace. (Ott, Baca, Cisneros, & Bates, 2015)]]> 2017-10-09 18:47:34 UTC https://padlet.com/cmorse11/d4eeie547gfu/wish/195352235 How and Why cmorse11 https://padlet.com/cmorse11/d4eeie547gfu/wish/195354628 The accessibility of these degrees are what makes this trend unique (Ott et al. 2015). Students are able to not only complete their degree at their own time and pace, but also how they want to. With a society that is growing and careers now requiring at least a bachelors degree, competency degrees allow the working student population the ability to work and also achieve their degree at their own pace.]]> 2017-10-09 18:53:49 UTC https://padlet.com/cmorse11/d4eeie547gfu/wish/195354628 NASPA Competency Impact cmorse11 https://padlet.com/cmorse11/d4eeie547gfu/wish/195356027 This affects the Student Learning and Development competency (Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, 2017). Competency Degrees completely change how students learn and develop (Ott et al. 2015). Distance learning and online education has increased and often times preferred from students rather than the traditional in class learning. Competency Degrees are generally completed all online therefore students experience a different student-professor interaction than attending classes on campus. Students rely solely on technology for their classes. Student to student interaction is limited due to the self-paced factor.]]> 2017-10-09 18:57:49 UTC https://padlet.com/cmorse11/d4eeie547gfu/wish/195356027 References cmorse11 https://padlet.com/cmorse11/d4eeie547gfu/wish/195358718 Ordonez, B. (2014). Competency-Based Education: Changing the Traditional College Degree Power, Policy, and Practice. New Horizons in Adult Education & Human Resource Development, 26(4), 47-53.
Ott, M., Baca, E., Cisneros, J., & Bates, E. (2015). A Competency-Based Approach to the Master's Degree Preparation of Higher Education Professionals. Journal of Case Studies in Accreditation and Assessment, 4, 19
Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. (2017). Professional Competencies. Retrieved October 09, 2017, from https://www.naspa.org/about/professional_competencies 
University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. (2017). MyWay is Flexible. Retrieved October 09, 2017, from https://myway.umhb.edu/ 
]]> 2017-10-09 19:06:18 UTC https://padlet.com/cmorse11/d4eeie547gfu/wish/195358718 cmorse11 https://padlet.com/cmorse11/d4eeie547gfu/wish/195359423 2017-10-09 19:08:44 UTC https://padlet.com/cmorse11/d4eeie547gfu/wish/195359423 Comment by Karla Gonzalez sleepustar https://padlet.com/cmorse11/d4eeie547gfu/wish/195854618 Christie, I really enjoyed the information you provided on the discussion board and padlet regarding MyWay. I clicked on the link you provided, byway.umhb.edu and found a second degree being offered through the MyWay program, Nursing - RN to BSN (University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, 2017). The addition of this second competency-degree is a sign that it is already succeeding in its mission of exploring "new ways of doing things in higher education" (University of Mary-Hardin-Baylor, 2017).  I am pleasantly surprised about this self-paced bachelor's degree program and am excited to follow-up on it through the years to see the progress it has made.

References
University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. (2017). MyWay: RN to BSN. Retrieved October 10, 2017 from https://myway.umhb.edu/nursing

University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. (2017). MyWay at UMHB. Retrieved October 10, 2017 from http://academics.umhb.edu/innovation/myway]]> 2017-10-11 01:31:46 UTC https://padlet.com/cmorse11/d4eeie547gfu/wish/195854618