Competency-based education within a community college context

The community college system in the United States was established in 1901 with the mission to provide broad access to higher education (Sydow & Alfred, 2013). Today, increasing college completion has become as central as the mission of these institutions (Laine, Cohen, Nielson, & Palmer, 2015). A change in philosophy is needed in our community colleges to meet the nation's goal of doubling the number of graduates by 2020 (American Association of Community Colleges, 2015). Competency-Based Education's (CBE) results-oriented format allows for students with different learning methods to use prior learning and open educational resources to prove mastery of the material (Weise & Christensen, 2014). If designed and implemented effectively, this model often allows students to move quickly through degree programs (Mendenhall, 2012). The CBE model takes a different approach to learning from the traditional seat-time education model (Laitinen, 2012). This model allows students to work through a program of study and demonstrate knowledge and competency to receive credit at their own pace (Priest, Rudenstine, Weisstein, & Gerwin, 2012). Significant changes are required in practices and current policies of higher education institutions in order to transition to the CBE model of learning (Krause, Dias, & Schedler, 2015). Thus the full commitment of faculty, staff, and leaders of an institution is needed to overcome the challenges in the design and implementation processes (Liu, 2015). In recent years there has been an explosion of interest in CBE among students, institutions, employers, and policymakers (Laitinen, 2012). The adoption of the CBE model by four-year universities such as Western Governors University (WGU) and Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) has been widely publicized in recent years (Book, 2014). However, despite the model's relevance to more career-focused programs at two-year institutions, community colleges have not received equal attention for their efforts towards embracing the model (Le, Wolfe, & Steinberg, 2014). Hence the purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the current CBE initiatives at community colleges in the United States and to investigate the campus leaders' role in the design and implementation of the new model. The research questions addressed in this study were the following: 1) What are the current approaches to design and implementation of CBE in community colleges? 2) What leadership strategies do community college leaders use to guide their institutions toward design and implementation of CBE? Second-order change and transformational leadership model frameworks were adopted in this study. The reason for choosing these frameworks was to study the effectiveness of transformational leadership in addressing the systemic change to the core of the institution introduced by CBE initiatives at community colleges. An online survey and individual interviews of individuals with direct involvement in the design and implementation of CBE programs were conducted to address the research questions. Fourteen individuals representing 13 campuses completed the survey and ten participated in one-on-one interviews. Data were analyzed based on predetermined themes from the literature review to explain the current approaches to CBE at community colleges. A summary of development, implementation, challenges, and the leadership styles of CBE programs in each participating college was developed to highlight the key elements and provide more detailed insights into the approaches. The findings of this study suggest: (a) community colleges are following a similar trend to each other in the curriculum development and delivery of their CBE programs, (b) in the beginning stages of the design process, CBE leaders focus on professional development internally, while learning about CBE best practices externally, (c) allocating resources for professional development for all stakeholders is considered critical to the CBE progress, and (d) senior administrators and specifically the college President's support is essential in the success of the CBE initiative. According to the participants, a plan aligned with the culture of the institution is ultimately the strategy for successful change in the context of CBE programs. The leaders raised a greater awareness among faculty and staff about the benefits of CBE to the college, provided rigorous professional development, and empowered faculty across campus to engage in the process. It is evident that the design and implementation of CBE initiative was a second-order change for all community colleges. Also, transformational leadership practices were identified in the response of the leadership to the challenges introduced at different stages of the initiative. This study was an attempt to fill a gap in the research literature and gather data extending the current knowledge about CBE initiatives at community colleges. Individuals directly involved with the design and implementation of the CBE programs the insights of individuals are instrumental to the growth of the new model in higher education.