Rodney Showmar is the Chief Operating Officer of a credit union and aspires to reach CEO, but realized that an MBA is a vital part of achieving this goal. Like many Americans, with a demanding job, a family, and strong involvement in the community, he has little time to complete an MBA program, even a traditional online one.
The problem? None of them fit his schedule.
Today, Rodney is not the exception, but rather a part of the unaccounted for majority. Between 2000 and 2010, the number of students over the age of 25 increased 42 percent. In fact, 85 percent of today’s college students are not first-time, full-time students. They are more likely to be working adults balancing a career, family responsibilities, and personal lives with the demands of a degree program.
One exciting innovation with the potential to dramatically transform higher education for today’s working adults is direct assessment. A direct assessment program awards degrees based on demonstrated learning, rather than seat time in the classroom like the credit hour. As a result, this more flexible approach has the potential to significantly reduce the time and cost of earning a degree.
Last year, Capella University became the first institution in America approved by the Department of Education to offer financial aid-eligible direct assessment programs at the Bachelor’s and Master’s degree level. Now, other universities are beginning to explore similar degree programs.
FlexPath
Our direct assessment offering known as FlexPath provides working adults with the most direct path to their degree. Students set their own learning plan at a variable pace compatible with their individual schedules, lives, and work experience. This means students are able to move efficiently through material they have experience in, and more gradually through unfamiliar material.
This competency-based model builds backwards from the desired outcomes and competencies in a particular professional field, so educators, employers, and students can be confident that direct assessment is meeting the needs of today’s workforce.
The program utilizes a subscription pricing model, which means the more competencies a student masters in a term, the less time and money that student will spend on his or her degree program. FlexPath is also agnostic as to the source of learning, so learners are able to draw upon any relevant materials, including textbooks, e-books, simulations, videos, articles, and their own work experience.
While students design their own learning plan and establish their own goals, they are never alone. A robust support system, comprising FlexPath faculty, coaches, and content tutors, is available to all students who may need additional guidance or assistance.
Initial results for this new program at Capella are encouraging. Students have been highly satisfied with the program: Learners in the MBA program rate FlexPath a 4.5 out of 5 in terms of satisfaction, and Bachelor’s program learners give the program a 4.6. Moreover, 96 percent of students in both programs successfully completed their first term, and persistence rates are 83 percent and 89 percent for the Bachelor’s and Master’s programs, respectively.
The Path Forward
Policymakers already have begun to work with universities through the introduction of experimental site initiatives to foster much needed innovation, but it is critical that we continue to remove barriers that inhibit new delivery models.
Direct assessment breaks free from the credit hour, but federal financial aid is still nearly entirely based on the credit hour. To better serve today’s students, we must develop a more dynamic financial aid system that supports innovations such as direct assessment and the outcomes it produces.
Currently, students are unable to take one course in a direct assessment program and another course in a traditional program. This reduces the impact of direct assessment. Not all students will be a perfect fit for either model, and many would benefit from the ability to build a degree plan that allows them to personalize a path that works best for them.
Direct assessment holds enormous potential to transform degrees by lowering costs, increasing value, better aligning to workforce needs, and providing the ultimate flexibility for working adults. The future of higher education lies in providing today’s students with access to the education they need to succeed, when they need it.
Scott Kinney is the president of Capella University, an accredited online university. For more information, visit http://www.capella.edu.
