Traditionally, college students earn credit for how many hours they spend in a classroom. But a different approach gives credit based on how much you know—and know how to do. As the cost of college soars, proponents say competency-based education could save students and employers thousands.
At our On Campus blog, Kirk Carapezza and Mallory Noe-Payne report:
Inside a classroom at Lipscomb University, six students are doing a case study on sexual harassment.
“If a person is a subordinate, you can always make a person do whatever you want to do,” comments one student as they review workplace policies.
This classroom in Nashville looks more like your traditional conference room. All of the students are over 21 and some of them have been sent here by their employers. From behind a one-way window, Doctor Charla Long stares in, observing their work.
“They have to come up in 45 minutes a consensus on these policy issues. And so you start to see how do they work with one another. Are they mean to each other?” Long explained.
Long is dean of the College of Professional Studies at Lipscomb, a small private university. She’s an outspoken advocate for giving working adults college credit for what they know how to do.
“I was in the bathroom the other day and I heard two girls during finals say, ‘I was up all night trying to memorize all of that. I will never ever remember all that again.’ And I’m like, that’s exactly why we do competency-based education,” said Long.
