Dive Brief:
- With many colleges hesitant to make big pushes into competency based education models, software vendors are scaling back or shutting up shop in response.
- One survey found many colleges taking only preliminary steps into CBE, while another report cited that schools would need to enroll thousands more students in the model to break even, according to Inside Higher Ed.
- Despite the trend, some vendors are continuing their investment, either augmenting their CBE offerings with other services or starting small with schools and hoping to scale.
Dive Insight:
Dropping seat-time and credit hour-based models still appears to be a pipe dream, or at least a future goal for many schools, which are only beginning to pilot CBE programs. While at least one report cited lower costs, which may translate to lower tuition costs for students, the overhaul to faculty (putting an emphasis on mentoring over content delivery) and curriculum will require cost outlays of their own, meaning schools will need to enroll more students in the model.
Compounding the issue is the idea that some CBE-experienced administrators have posited that CBE programs may work better for non-traditional students or those returning to school after an absence than incoming freshmen.
As vendors struggle to create products that are financially viable given the smaller scale of programs and cost uncertainties, administrators must be diligent in making smart software choices when implementing or scaling CBE programs. Among other considerations, the software must help schools collect data around competencies, skill mastery, student engagement and more, and must be flexible enough to adapt to changing programs.