Distance education is now well-accepted as high-quality higher education, although as with traditional campuses, the quality of different programs varies widely. While the goal was once to show that distance education was equal to classroom education, the unfortunate result is that it is rarely better than classroom education. In fact, most distance education is simply broadcasting, via TV or the Internet, the classroom experience. This may include live lectures, or simply posting the syllabus online and allowing assignments to be submitted online, but it hardly uses the power of the technology that is now available.

Further, distance education, especially online education, is rarely less expensive and is often more expensive than traditional classroom instruction. Part of the reason for this is that the purely online universities are almost all for-profit (with the exception of our university), and the traditional institutions have significant disincentives to making online education less expensive.

There is a better way.

We know two things about adult learners: they come to higher education knowing different things and they learn at different rates. We individually even learn different subjects at different rates, depending on our experience and aptitude. Yet our traditional higher education institution requires the same number of credit hours from all students for a degree, the same required courses, and all courses take the same length of time to complete (a semester, or term). Western Governors University (WGU) has introduced a new model to higher education:  competency-based education.

In competency-based education, the competencies required for a degree are defined — that is, what a graduate must know and be able to do. Students graduate based on demonstrated mastery of these competencies — measured via a series of assessments — rather than by accumulating a certain number of credit hours or clock hours. These competencies are developed with input from industry, to ensure that they are current and relevant. Yet competencies should not be confused with simple work skills — the competencies employers and educators value most include critical thinking, problem solving, working in teams and with diversity, leadership, creativity, written and oral communications, etc. Grounding competencies in the real-world helps ensure they are relevant to students now and after they graduate.