Brandman University's competency-based bachelor's degree gives a glimpse of where the increasingly popular form of higher education might be headed.
The new bachelor of business administration is fully online. There are no textbooks. Students can access 30,000 pages of course material for the degree (not all of it required) on their tablets or smartphones.
Content is personalized, and responds to the 44 currently enrolled students based on their progress. About 60 percent of the required 80-plus "competencies" are linked to performance-based assessments, like writing a paper, working on a group project or creating a portfolio. The rest of the work is objective-based, such as test-taking.
The degree is also completely severed from the credit-hour standard. Brandman is one of four institutions to get both the U.S. Department of Education and its regional accreditor to sign off on this type of program, which is called "direct assessment." That approach means students can work at their own pace while also receiving federal financial aid.
Brandman estimates the typical student will be able to complete the degree in 30 months. At $5,400 in tuition and fees per year, that means some students should be able to earn the bachelor's degree for $10,000. That amount has become a trendy target price for a four-year degree, particularly among conservative governors. Students who take longer to complete than the expected 30 months will pay more than $13,500, however.
Read more at Inside Higher Ed: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/11/26/competency-based-bachelors-brandman-could-be-glimpse-future