photo by: AdobeStock

The School of Hard Knocks — sometimes known as life– is good at teaching a multitude of lessons.

It stinks, though, at issuing degrees.

The University of Kansas, however, is undertaking a multimillion-dollar project that is creating new types of degree programs that indeed will give students actual college credit for life experiences, and may allow them to earn degrees in a fraction of the normal time.

You may well know people who would take advantage of the new degrees. They’ve gained so much on-the-job experience that they very likely have as much knowledge as people who have degrees in the same field. But those on-the-job pros don’t have a diploma to hang on the wall, which often can be a hole in their resumés that hinders career advancement.

When classes begin in 2025, KU believes it will be one of the first — if not the first — major research university to begin offering these new, alternative degree programs alongside its traditional degrees. The new offerings also will put KU among a group of less traditional but much-talked-about universities — maybe you have seen the TV ads for Southern New Hampshire University — that have been using the new degree programs to become among the fastest growing universities in the country.

The new degree programs are not designed to replace all traditional degrees at KU, but university leaders are counting on them being a game-changer nonetheless.

“It is a remarkable moment in the history of KU,” Provost Barbara Bichelmeyer said last month as the Kansas Board of Regents gave technical approvals to the first two new degree programs.

photo by: Mike Yoder

University of Kansas Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Barbara Bichelmeyer speaks during an interview March 4, 2020.

Changing time

Even if you are not in a theory of relativity class, time has often been the most important concept in any American classroom.

Time has been the constant. You have ‘X’ number of weeks to complete a class. How much students learn in that set time period varies. A person who receives an ‘A’ grade likely learned more than a person who received a ‘C’ grade.

But the new degree programs at KU will use a concept called Competency Based Education, and it basically socks time in the mouth.

“Competency Based Education really switches that model,” Bichelmeyer said in a brief interview with the Journal-World. “It says we are going to hold competencies constant and let time vary.”

The results of that switch could have some significant real-life impacts that members of the Regents are wrapping their minds around. Blake Flanders, president and CEO of the Regents, recently talked through scenarios for two different types of students — one who learns quickly and one who learns more slowly.

For the fast learner, Flanders noted that today’s system doesn’t do much to reward students who learn all the materials in a class quickly. It is not like you get to graduate out of the class early.

“I still have to wait the time,” he said.

It is even worse, though, for those who learn more slowly.

“If I don’t complete (the lessons) in a specific amount of time, I just fail,” he said.

With CBE, neither one of those scenarios has to be true.

Take the example of someone who learns quickly. Say a class has six competencies that must be mastered in order to graduate from that class. If by week seven of the 16-week class, you can prove to the instructor that you have mastered all six of the competencies, you are done. You’ve graduated the class. You are no longer required to show up.

You could use your newfound time for a minor in beachside reading or bar stool sitting, for example. Or, you could move onto an entirely new class needed for your real major. KU plans to offer a pricing model that is a bit like an all-you-can-eat buffet. One option will be to pay a flat fee — amount to be determined — that allows you to earn as many competencies as you can in a single 16-week period.

Now, for the slower learner, the benefit is a bit different. Say you are in that same class that has six competencies that must be mastered in order to graduate. If by the end of the 16-week class period you have only mastered four of them, all hope is not lost. You could sign up for the class again, and you wouldn’t have to start all over. You’ve already proven that you know the first four competencies, so essentially you would be picking up where you left off.

KU plans to have a different pricing plan that may appeal to those students. Instead of paying for an entirely new 16-week class period, you could just pay a fee for each competency that you learn. Basically an a la carte instead of an all-you-can-eat pricing model.

The different types of pricing models — and the speed at which some classes can be completed — had Regents excited about the idea that CBE degrees could be an antidote to the high cost of higher education. They pressed Bichelmeyer for estimates on how much students might be able to save.

Bichelmeyer said that is a tough number to estimate. KU hasn’t yet decided on the actual amounts it will charge for the two degree programs — a master’s in organizational performance and effectiveness, and a master’s for high school math and science teachers. In material presented to the Regents, KU is projecting that it will charge about $14,000 per year in tuition for both programs.

But, remember, time is now variable. Will it take a student one year, two years, or somewhere in between? There has been anecdotal evidence at other universities of some students with lots of life experience needing only a few months to earn a degree.

“That really shrinks the cost curve,” Bichelmeyer said.

But how often does that quick graduation really happen? Bichelmeyer said CBE degrees are still unique enough that the data and research are not yet robust. But Bichelmeyer said there are still lots of reasons to think the new degrees will positively impact the finances of students.

“You will be able to save not only money, but most importantly time,” she said. “You will be able to get out there and get a job a lot quicker.”

Test, test, test

If time is the constant in today’s traditional classes, tests are what you can’t get away from in a CBE course. They are always waiting around the corner for you, sometimes more than once.

In a CBE course you might take the same test, or a version of it, multiple times. A key concept of CBE is that you ultimately must pass every test. You can’t simply fail to learn one competency. That’s the trade-off. The university is going to give you as much time as you need, but you have to learn every competency.

The tests are a key aspect of instructors figuring out whether you have mastered a competency. But the importance of the test goes beyond the pass-fail nature of it. The feedback a student gets from the test — especially a failed test — is critical in the CBE system. That feedback largely plays the role of class lectures in today’s traditional format.

“The vast majority of your time is turning in assignments and getting feedback about why I have mastered this or haven’t mastered this competency,” Bichelmeyer said of the CBE style of learning. “There is not so much face-to-face lectures … The engagement is not in the dialogue but is in the practice and the feedback.”

It makes sense that lectures would be less common in a CBE class. It would be difficult for a professor to prepare a lecture when at any given time, for example, one-third of the class is trying to master competency No. 2, one-third competency No. 4 and one-third competency No. 6.

Instructors, though, might film some lectures or presentations that students can watch at the appropriate time, depending on their own pace of learning. Technology improvements, whether they be as simple as YouTube channels or more complicated data management systems, are a big part of CBE.

It is also where a lot of costs pile up for a university implementing CBE. Bichelmeyer on multiple occasions told Regents that KU had received “multiple millions” in funding from the KU Endowment Association to begin implementing a strategy for a CBE program, which KU officials are calling Jayhawk Flex. It wasn’t immediately clear from Bichelmeyer’s comments how much money has been invested to date, but during the pandemic, KU Endowment confirmed that it provided KU a $7.6 million grant to create innovative courses and “deliver HyFlex instruction.”

KU has been working on developing the Jayhawk Flex idea for the better part of three years. The two CBE classes are scheduled to launch in the fall of 2025, with the organizational master’s program based at KU’s Edwards Campus in Overland Park, while the secondary education masters will be based at the School of Education in Lawrence. Both programs will be fully accredited, and eligible for federal financial student aid. KU is working to complete those processes now.

Such regulatory matters are also a major part of launching a CBE program, Bichelmeyer said. However, the challenges stretch beyond regulatory paperwork and expensive technology. You also have to have faculty members who are willing to sign on to a new type of teaching system. That work hasn’t begun on a large scale yet/ at KU. Bichelmeyer said KU currently is drawing faculty members from a “coalition of the willing.” Faculty members haven’t been forced to adopt the system.

But as the number of CBE offerings grows, the need to get more faculty members interested in the process likely will too. KU does expect the number of CBE degrees to increase. Bichelmeyer specifically mentioned the School of Nursing as a candidate for some CBE programming, but said there would be other possibilities too.

“We have lots of ideas for other ways we can use this programming,” she said.

photo by: Mike Yoder/Journal-World

University of Kansas graduates sit on the field at David Booth Kansas Memorial Stadium on Sunday, May 14, 2023, during commencement ceremonies for the class of 2023.

How big?

Don’t look for a day where every class at KU will be taught using a CBE model. The traditional method seemingly has a long future, especially for undergraduate courses. The CBE model takes advantage of life experience, and the typical student coming out of high school may not have enough of it to make CBE effective.

“For a typical 18-year old who needs life experience and needs a network and needs to have some solid education, this probably isn’t the program for them,” Bichelmeyer said.

But for somebody who spent a few years in the military right out of high school, CBE might be a feasible option. Those individuals have perhaps received special training but don’t have a degree to match it.

Regent Neelima Parasker, the CEO of a Johnson County information technology firm, predicted the business world will come up with many more applications for CBE programs. She said universities have a real need to add CBE to their offerings because the business world is coming up with its own version of training systems — industry certifications, for example — that move much quicker than traditional degree programs.

“We are bringing education up to what they already are doing on the other side of the coin,” Parasker said of the CBE movement.

Bichelmeyer agreed that there was good opportunity for KU to create new CBE-based degrees that meet the needs of industry.

“Throughout history, formal education has been built on credit hours and time-based programming,” Bichelmeyer said. “That is not what workforce leaders need at this point in history.”

There are many universities that have been stepping into the void, although major research universities with large in-person campuses haven’t been leading the way. Western Governors University — a Utah-based, private, nonprofit university — generally is considered the largest provider of CBE degrees in the U.S. The university, founded by a group of governors in western U.S. states, has been around only since 1997. It uses only the CBE model, and offers all its classes online. Today, its enrollment is more than 150,000 students.

Southern New Hampshire University is another leader in the CBE field. That private university has a history that dates back to the 1930s, and has a campus in New Hampshire with about 3,000 students. However, it has about 130,000 online students seeking CBE-style degrees.

Both Western Governors and Southern New Hampshire are two of the fastest growing universities in the country. Enrollment growth of any kind is an eye-opener for traditional universities. KU — which has about 25,000 students — could face enrollment declines in the future due to a “demographic cliff” that university leaders across the country are preparing for. The cliff is the result of lower birth rates during the 2008-2009 Great Recession producing fewer high school-age children.

Regents last month were eager to learn how much CBE degrees could help with that problem. Bichelmeyer said there is likely no single solution to that issue. She stressed that the future of KU’s Lawrence campus still would be as a place for students to live and experience college, surrounded by in-person research enterprises.

When one regent asked whether CBE could perhaps provide a 5% or 10% bump in enrollment — meaning about 1,000 to 2,000 students per year — Bichelmeyer pushed back on that assumption. She didn’t think that was aggressive enough.

“I would say it is more than 5% or 10%,” Bichelmeyer said. “I don’t think I would have asked the chancellor and the endowment association to invest what we have invested if it was that number.”

She said if the university can adequately market the Jayhawk Flex program, KU can tap into a very large pool of students that it really struggles to reach today. That pool is students who attended college but dropped out before graduating.

“You can’t bring people back who dropped out of college with the same type of program they dropped out from,” Bichelmeyer said, quoting what many researchers currently believe.

The CBE style of instruction is expected to be different enough to give those former college students reason to believe college is worth another try. If that theory is true, KU would have a new ocean of recruits to reach.

“That’s a significant number in the hundreds of thousands of adults,” Bichelmeyer told the Regents.