Overview

Competency-based education (CBE) and competency-based learning are interchangeable terms. CBE is an outcomes-based approach to education advanced through a set of policies and practices. The approach is built around desired, targeted competencies that incorporate different resources, modes of instructional delivery, and assessments that are designed to evaluate mastery of student learning. Such mastery is demonstrated through the necessary knowledge, attitudes, values, skills, past experiences, and behaviors required to complete a course, get a degree, or complete training to attain work or achieve other goals. 

In a CBE model, learning is both horizontal and vertical. According to Gervais, horizontal learning describes what students must know to integrate what they learn across the curriculum; vertical learning describes what content from each course students must master in depth. Combined, they show mastery of a targeted competency. Kelchen asserts that CBE takes two primary forms: “Well-established prior learning assessments, which grant credits for content that a student has previously mastered; and newer competency-based coursework, where students progress toward a degree as they demonstrate mastery of new academic content” (p. 2).

CBE began in K-12 education, and CompetencyWorks, a project of the Aurora Institute, is a leader in advancing CBE efforts in the K-12 system. Levine and Patrick describe the set of seven expectations for students and learning environments engaged in CBE efforts put forth by CompetencyWorks:

1. Students are empowered to make important decisions about their learning experiences, how they will create and apply knowledge, and how they will demonstrate learning. 
2. Assessments of student learning are meaningful, positive, and empowering and yield timely, relevant, and actionable evidence of student learning. 
3. Based on such assessments, students receive timely, differentiated support that matches their individual learning needs. 
4. Students progress through the learning environment based on evidence of mastery, not on the length of time they spend in a class (i.e., clocked hours or credit hours). 
5. Students can take different pathways in learning and learn at varied paces.
6. Strategies to ensure equity for all students are embedded in the culture, structure, and pedagogy of the learning environment. 
7. Rigorous, common expectations for learning are explicit, transparent, measurable, and transferable. 

According to Gervais, CBE occurs on a continuum:

• Students are provided, and can choose from, a wide range of learning experiences in a formal learning institution, online, and in their community.
• Educators work collaboratively with a diverse array of partners and students to build individual learning pathways. These pathways accommodate student interests and learning preferences, within the bounds of the competencies that students are expected to master, and react to real-time data.
• Each competency has clear, transferable learning objectives, and students get customized support and accelerated opportunities—in and out of school—to ensure they stay on pace to master the competencies.
• Students take assessments when they're ready and have multiple opportunities to demonstrate mastery.
• Evaluation metrics reflect the degree of mastery of competencies ranging from advanced to not yet competent.
• If a student’s record indicates that competencies need to be re-learned, they focus on that competency rather than re-taking an entire course.

Examples

Excelsior University has developed general education career competencies from findings of employer-based research. The competencies are the foundation of the university’s curricula, and students encounter and meet the competency requirements through general education courses and programs of study.

Northern Arizona University offers an online personalized learning degree using a competency-based learning model. Rather than paying for credit hours, students pay a flat, six-month subscription fee and can take as many courses as they can complete during that time. Students complete courses and earn credit by demonstrating that they have mastered a topic (Northern Arizona University, n.d.).

Southern New Hampshire University offers competency-based education through its College for America (CfA) curriculum. The CfA comprises real-world projects that count toward skills-based goals. It blends academic content with the soft skills and core competencies that employers seek.

University of Wisconsin’s UW Flex Option is designed for working adults with some college credit or on-the-job experience. Students can start any month, move at their own pace, and complete assessments when they’re ready. UW faculty and industry leaders identify the competencies that are essential to the degrees and certificates offered, and students complete tests or projects to prove they’ve mastered those competencies. Students can apply  prior knowledge and experience and/or the knowledge and skills gained through coursework to prove such mastery.

Western Governors University (WGU) was a pioneer in competency-based education in postsecondary education, and continues to be one of the largest institutions offering competency-based degrees.

Kelchen provides a list of institutions offering CBE models and prior learning assessments (PLA) as of 2014, and the American Council on Education put out an updated credit for prior learning list in 2024. A continuously updated list of institutions with CBE programs is available on Degree Forum.