Abstract:

Competency based education (CBE) has been around for a while in higher education. As recently as 2017, the inspector general of the Department of Education was examining Western Governor’s University regarding how teachers engage with the teaching process (Nodine, 2016). In 2017, Western Governor’s University came under scrutiny by the Inspector General of the US Department of Education (Lieberman, 2017). Specifically, the Department Education argued that there was an inadequate faculty role in this education model.

At Central Washington University (CWU) in Ellensburg, WA, the Information Technology and Administrative Management (ITAM) department started a CBE program in its undergraduate programs. The offering was small until the program rolled out to the graduate programs in the department in the Spring of 2018. However, as successful as the program is, a troubling behavioral pattern emerged with students that prompted serious discussions centered around the role of faculty in this teaching model.

Students appeared to be engaged in behavior that were geared towards grade inflation and it appeared that faculty did not have clear guidelines on the boundaries between teaching, editing, and grading. While the research within our program is just beginning, the baseline definitions of these activities is critical in implementing a CBE program in any school. This paper outlines these conversations and the preliminary definitions for these activities and how these definitions can be integrated into course designs for a CBE program.

Keywords:

Competency based education, teaching, course design, grade inflation, faculty engagement.