The Role of Libraries in Competency-Based Education Programs

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This paper looks forward to the emergence of competency-based education programs and examines what role libraries might play in their development, as well as the challenges CBE programs present for academic librarianship.

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Running head: CBE PROGRAMS: A LIBRARY PERSPECTIVE

Competency-Based Education Programs:
A Library Perspective
Colleen Sanders
Emporia State University
LI835XI
October 17, 2014

1

CBE PROGRAMS: A LIBRARY PERSPECTIVE
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Introduction
Competency-based education (CBE) is an emerging model for higher education designed
to reduce certain barriers to educational attainment. CBE leverages online learning to address the
needs of adult students, often those with “some college but no degree already participating in the
workforce” (Book, 2014, p. 2). Academic librarians should monitor this development because
CBE “is now increasingly being embraced as a panacea for multiple pressing issues in higher
education” (p. 2). Every level of postsecondary education is implicated, as CBE programs exist
at for-profit, non-profit, private, and public universities, colleges, and community colleges
offering degrees at the Associate’s, Bachelor’s and Master’s levels. Most programs are entirely
online, while some schools offer CBE in addition to traditional on-campus learning. In the
coming years, many institutions will consider incorporating this potentially powerful
credentialing model into its degree offerings, as “initial enrollments far exceeded expectations”
(p. 5). Librarians must prepare now to advocate to administrators and prepare services for this
new patron base, as the nascence of CBE offers a window of opportunity for librarians to inform
its development.
CBE program models
The Great Schools Partnership defines CBE programs as “systems of instruction,
assessment, grading, and academic reporting that are based on students demonstrating that they
have learned the knowledge and skills they are expected to learn as they progress through their
education” (GSP, 2014). Perhaps the greatest departure CBE programs make from traditional
degree programs is the metric of student learning: they use mastery of competencies rather than
traditional credit hours to measure learning and therefore award degrees. The intention behind
this transition is to tie education more directly to outcomes that are concrete and have “inherent

CBE PROGRAMS: A LIBRARY PERSPECTIVE
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meaning of objective value” (Klein-Collins, 2012, p. 9). The credit hour’s accuracy in
representing student learning has been subject to serious scrutiny in the past decade (Laitinen,
2012). In response, the U.S. Department of Education expanded its definition thereof to include
“the equivalent amount of work over a different amount of time” (GPO, 2014), clearing a space
for higher education to innovate with other credentialing models.
The two incarnations of the CBE system are the course-based model and the direct
assessment model (Book, 2014, p. 4). Course-based models “translate competencies…into topics
that can be formulated into courses” (p. 4) and include schools such as Western Governor’s
University (WGU) and University of Wisconsin’s (UW) Flexible option, and Northern Arizona
University’s (NAU) Personalized Learning. Schools like Southern New Hampshire University’s
(SNHU) College for America and Capella University’s FlexPath use direct assessment, which
allows “learners [to] demonstrate competencies…at their own pace, typically online, and
progress through academic programs when they are ready to do so” (p. 4). The course-based
models resemble credit-hour approaches structured around terms. Students still pay tuition per
semester but can complete as many assessments as possible during that time. The direct
assessment models, which are fewer in number than course-based at this stage of CBE
development, use projects or “authentic assessments that simulate work-world activities” (p. 9)
in lieu of courses, and students complete program material outside of the academic calendar. This
distinction will grow in importance over time, as the latter will produce a patron with different
needs and information-seeking behaviors than the former. For the purposes of this brief,
however, they can be considered as one, as students in both types of CBE programs differ more
from traditional students than from one another.

CBE PROGRAMS: A LIBRARY PERSPECTIVE
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The CBE student
Library literature contains extensive research addressing online and distance services and
instruction, but has yet to thoroughly address the CBE situation head-on. A first step might be to
conceptualize the particularities of the CBE student by examining their potential motivations for
pursuing a competency-based degree. CBE’s key characteristics of being “flexible, …self-paced,
…skills-based, … [and] affordable” (UW, 2014) are intended to make higher education more
accessible for students whose lives, families, financial status, and work schedules render
traditional classroom-based 2- or 4-year degrees unfeasible. Their approach to education is
pragmatic, often for the opportunity to advance careers. As eBay founder Peter Theil notes,
“Higher education is overvalued and comes with an inflated price tag” (ACRL, 2012, p. 313), as
degrees do not always translate to paying positions. However, by collaborating with businesses
and industries, CBE administrators design programs that tailor education to meet real-world
workforce demand by aligning learned skills with industry requirements (Johnstone & Soares,
2014, p. 15). This calibration of education to the job market coupled with the self-paced online
delivery model makes CBE appealing to a wide demographic: working adults. Students seeking
degrees via the CBE model have a distinct context for their learning, and usually have chosen to
pursue education based on desired outcomes. This fact will prove to be both the foremost
challenge for libraries whose institutions develop CBE programs, which by definition offer the
“shortest routes to results” (Voorhees, 2011, p. 5).
Will librarians be part of CBE programs?
CBE programs focus on expediency and value, or graduation with job-ready skills at the
lowest possible cost (p. 5). With these priorities, one must ask whether institutions value
librarians enough to dedicate resources to provide in-depth library services. Keeping tuition costs

CBE PROGRAMS: A LIBRARY PERSPECTIVE
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low is part and parcel of offering affordable education, therefore, whether the library is a
significant line item for the outcome-based program will be a significant advocacy challenge.
Neem critically surveys the CBE business model and concludes, “As the power of managers
grow, less money is spent on teaching and research and more on other services” (2012, p. 71).
The infrastructure CBE student tuition supports, Neem argues, is not that of learning, research,
and critical analysis characteristic of liberal arts education, but of task-specific certification.
Integrating librarians and information literacy competencies into the curriculum might, then,
have the twofold benefit of increasing student success and silencing some of CBE’s harshest
critics.
Most CBE programs do advertise online libraries with the full suite of resources,
including “professional librarians,…books, journal articles, primary sources, reports,…exam
resources,…subscription databases…Research Guides,…tutorials” (Excelsior, 2014b). However,
these programs tend to hire very few librarians. WGU provides a virtual library staffed by a
single librarian from the University of New Mexico (Luther, 1998) to serve its 33,800 students
(WGU, 2012). WGU also advertises an ILL partnership with University of Michigan (WGU,
2014) for physical materials. Excelsior College (EC) partners with Johns Hopkins University to
provide library services (Excelsior, 2014) for its over 37,000 students (Excelsior, 2014a). Online
library access for both WGU and EC is restricted to registered students, making detailed
collection and service evaluation impossible for this briefing. It is noteworthy, though, that the
librarian to student ratio is dramatically low, and these libraries are operating outside of the
centralized, highly-staffed model found throughout traditional higher education. NAU, however,
offers its Personalized Learning students online and in-person access to its Cline Library and
facilities at campuses statewide (NAU, 2011), indicating CBE programs within a campus-based

CBE PROGRAMS: A LIBRARY PERSPECTIVE
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university system might represent a hybrid form of access and service. NAU, however, contracts
with an outside private company, Pearson, to “determine existing and new materials specific to
students’ needs” (Hurst, 2013), rather than utilizing their library staff for this work.
While a more thorough survey of the presence and activities of librarians in CBE
programs is required to make any definitive statements about the role of the library in current
CBE programs, it can be generally concluded that while these programs make an effort to
curated virtual resources available for their students, hiring professional librarians seems to be a
low priority. If securing funding at traditional universities is already an uphill battle, librarians
can expect even more difficulty convincing CBE administrators of their value to student learning
goals. On the other hand, the case can easily be made that it is the self-directed online student
who requires information assistance most acuately, as education takes place outside of contact
with instructors. Librarians cannot afford to be passive as CBE’s popularity grows and more
schools nationwide begin designing programs. “CBE is still in its infancy” (Johnstone & Soares,
2014, p. 4), thus now is the time for librarians to inform its development. Collaborating with
administration in designing competencies, curriculum pedagogy, assessment, and outreach
should be a priority, following the library’s more traditional function of creating services for a
new patron population.
Opportunity: Services to students
Assuming administrative buy-in is successful, the primary opportunity (and challenge)
for librarians whose institutions adopt CBE programs will be translating library services to this
new forum. While the library literature is still largely silent on the topic of CBE (no doubt due to
the fact that so few librarians are actually employed in that sector), there are many professional
frameworks whose methods can inform services. These include, but are not limited to, digital

CBE PROGRAMS: A LIBRARY PERSPECTIVE
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literacy, outcome-based education, problem-based pedagogy, distance library services, virtual
reference, virtual worlds librarianship, cyber librarianship, embedded librarianship, teaching to
the test, and direct assessment. These all, however, will take place within the context of patroncentered services, thus librarians must start by cultivating an approximate profile of the CBE
patron.
Information needs. CBE programs attract learners “interested in the shortest route to
results” (Voorhees, 2001, p. 5). This paints a picture of a practical patron, most likely interested
in a practitioner’s approach to information literacy. From a library perspective, the distinction
between practitioner and researcher is essential “because they frequently have very different
needs. Their roles within the discipline are very different, where they work, how they work, what
resources they use in order to do their work can be quite different” (Diller, 2014). As student
learning progresses along competency lines toward a final assessment, teaching to the test may
be a significant strategy. Because competencies are predetermined, librarians can develop course
materials, subject guides, exam preparations, and tutorials specifically addressing the most
relevant content. Collections must be maintained to contain the most timely, up to date subject
content that reflect the current concerns and latest developments in their program’s industry.
Reference & embeddedness. With no campus and limited contact with faculty, students
work in considerable isolation. The low-touch CBE model can be supplemented with virtual
reference service, giving the library the opportunity to be a reliable contact for students at their
point-of-need. Libraries will have to devise a service model that suits their staffing and budget,
likely using a 24-hour email response turnaround to supplement hours when the virtual service
cannot be staffed.

CBE PROGRAMS: A LIBRARY PERSPECTIVE
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Another method might be called anticipatory reference, or actively seeking to participate
in students’ online course-based conversations on social media. Distance and CBE students often
find each other through social networks, such as the Northern Arizona Personalized Learning
Students Facebook group, where they share information, pose questions, discuss courseware, and
give moral support. SNHU’s CBE program, College for America, built a theoretical model of a
student support network which includes online networks of peer-to-peer social media-based
interaction (NGLC, 2013). Within this context, librarians could communicate with students and
take place in conversations about course content, diagnose problem areas, and better calibrate
information services. The fact that students reach out to each other through social networks is
evidence that they seek to convene and connect around course content; librarians ought to
recognize this as an outreach opportunity and embed themselves in that milieu to enhance their
understanding of the patrons’ needs. Social media could become a form of embeddedness which
can supplement or replace a more stratified embedded position in the learning course
management system (CMS). Although an embedded model where subject-specialist librarians
steward students through the various levels of program competencies might be ideal from a
librarian’s perspective, this labor-intensive staffing model might be beyond the budgetary
willingness of current CBE schools.
Outreach, user design, and information literacy. As students learn at a distance
mediated by a CMS, outreach is a high priority for librarians, who can leverage methods for
online delivery of services already common to the field. “The [CBE] model hinges on the
assumption that students can and will take control of their own learning” (NGLC, 2013),
therefore librarians must make efforts to make sure students are aware of library services
available to them. The library site must be easily navigable, with engaging tutorials designed for

CBE PROGRAMS: A LIBRARY PERSPECTIVE
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multiple learning styles (videos, textual instructions, etc.). The library should consider its site
from a user experience design perspective to give learners a clear picture of resources.
Anticipating the skill level of students is difficult, considering they do not follow a linear path to
degree completion. There is no cohort or grade level structure to anticipate students’
informational, programmatic, or digital literacy skill level. Librarians must be prepared to assist a
very diverse student body with various backgrounds. Learning objects and tutorials have to
balance accessibility and utility for all potential skills levels.
The independence, isolation, self-paced, and self-directed nature of CBE learners is a
double-edged sword: it allows them to advance as they are ready, but it is a low-touch approach
that requires the student reach out for help. In information literacy terms, this is the ability to
“[define] and [articulate] the need for information” (ACRL, 2014a). Book (2014) suggests CBE
programs must maintain “accessible data systems on students…in order to advise them properly
and guide them” (p.9). The need to identify struggling students through either a reference-based
or systems-based feedback loop is an opportunity for librarians to participate in the CBE
program workflow. This could be achieved through an embedded librarian model who maintains
open lines of communication via social media, the CMS discussion forums, virtual reference, or
periodic check-ins with students. It could mean advocating to administrators for a required
information literacy/library skills module which students cannot test out of. Whatever form it
takes, the opportunity to build information (and digital) literacy into the CBE learning model is
one that librarians cannot pass up. “An increased emphasis on competency-based learning…can
provide new opportunities for libraries to embed information literacy and research skills and
strategies into the fabric of institutional curricula” (ACRL, 2014, p. 298).

CBE PROGRAMS: A LIBRARY PERSPECTIVE
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Prior learning assessment. “Here to stay for the foreseeable future is a continued focus
on creating high-access, low cost and high-quality instructional delivery and other credentialing
options that would take into account individual’s prior learning, military, and workplace
experiences” (AASCU, 2014, p. 5).One crucial aspect of CBE programs is prior learning
assessment (PLA), in which students’ previous educational, work, military, or volunteer
experiences are evaluated with regards to course content. A number of accrediting bodies exist to
conduct these PLAs, whose recommendations may not be accepted by the institutions for credits
towards a degree. “Broader acceptance of PLA could facilitate institutions and accrediting bodies
in implementation of CBE,” writes Book, (2014, p. 4), especially considering the appeal of
earning credits without doing any actual coursework could be a boon to enrollment. An
opportunity exists for librarians to use their extensive assessment practices and techniques to
serve the students and the school by designing a reliable assessment and credentialing framework
for inventorying and validating students’ prior knowledge.
Towards a formal service framework
The list of in-roads librarians might take to the CBE movement outlined here barely
scratches the surface of potential strategies. Currently, discussions of CBE are occurring in
professional online forums such as Inside Higher Ed (www.insidehighered.com), and online
networks such as the Competency-Based Education Network (www.cbenetwork.org) and the
Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (www.cael.org). The library literature displays a gap
regarding the opportunities afforded by this growing movement which will undoubtedly fill with
time. In addition to previously mentioned LIS theories which translate to the CBE program
model (digital literacy, outcome-based education, problem-based pedagogy, distance library
services, virtual reference, virtual worlds librarianship, cyber librarianship, embedded

CBE PROGRAMS: A LIBRARY PERSPECTIVE
11
librarianship, teaching to the test, and direct assessment), there are two frameworks available to
begin charting a strategy by which to approach this new variety of academic support. Johnstone
& Soares (2014) articulated four guiding principles for a well-designed CBE program, which are
that, “The degree reflects robust and valid competencies, students are able to learn at a variable
pace and are supported in their learning, effective learning resources are available any time and
are reusable, [and] assessments are secure and reliable” (p. 13). These four themes speak directly
to library services and can inform the strategy information professionals take towards this new
learning environment. Also, the Lumina Foundation, a major player in the development of CBE
programs, has produced the Degree Qualifications Profile. It outlines “five broad categories”
(Lumina, 2011) for outcomes which also speak to how libraries will design collections and
services, including “specialized knowledge, broad, integrative knowledge, intellectual skills,
applied learning, and civic learning.”
There are essentially two levels of opportunity at which the library can make
contributions: administrative, or in developing curricula, competencies, assessments, and
industry partners to bolster programs on the macro level, and educational, or making resources
available to students in either a traditional central library or embedded librarian format. This
briefing has focused more intently on the latter, but has also provided a picture of the program
design challenges facing CBE programs in an attempt to encourage librarians to begin addressing
them. A final word must be said about leveraging libraries’ skill with institutional collaboration
to examine how the library might support CBE programs from a design perspective.
Institutional partnership
Librarians must prepare themselves to not only support the students, but their institutions
by participating in the assessment and curriculum development of these new programs.

CBE PROGRAMS: A LIBRARY PERSPECTIVE
12
From a library perspective, the relative newness of CBE means there is an opportunity to build
information literacy into the curriculum from the ground floor. CBE programs face in their
design, implementation, and assessment. “It is impossible to overestimate the challenges” (Book,
2014, p. 2) in developing a new accreditation scheme that circumvents the 200-year old Carnegie
Unit for one that focuses on “results attained” (Laitinen, 2012, p. 5). The laundry list of major
challenges for CBE programs include:


Earning regional accreditation and Title IV status under the Higher Education Act of 1964
enabling students to obtain federal financial aid



Transferring credits between credit-hour courses and direct assessment courses, as 59%
of graduates attend more than one college (Laitinen, 2012, p. 8), and crosswalks between
course-based and direct assessment credentials are essential (Book, 2014, p. 10)



Defining competencies in ways that exceed mere behaviorism (Morcke, Dornan, & Eika,
2012, p. 852)



Defining assessments reliable to both academic and industry standards
The foremost opportunity for libraries in this list is defining competencies and their

attendant assessments. Competencies and assessments are mutually dependent, as learning goals
prompt the means of evaluation. Librarians’ skills in instructional design and assessment can
serve their institutions in this regard, while promoting information literacy skills at a curriculum
level. “The process of articulating and defining program outcomes provides an opportunity for
libraries to collaborate across the institution for further define fundamental information literacy
concepts” (ACRL, 2014, p. 298). Librarians are accustomed to providing instruction according to
competency, and without the privilege of prerequisite or credits. The ACRL Information Literacy
Competency Standards for Higher Education, in fact, use the same language as CBE programs in

CBE PROGRAMS: A LIBRARY PERSPECTIVE
13
their calls for assessment. Librarians already have the skillset for independently devising
evaluations and assessments to quantify skills outside of the credit hour context. Quoting Morcke
et al. (2012), “[CBE] has two requirements. First that the learning outcomes are identified, made
explicit and communicated to all concerned (…) Second, the educational outcomes should be the
overriding issue indecisions about the curriculum” (p. 853). The primacy of learning goals in the
CBE format mandates interdisciplinary input into their formation, and the library’s information
literacy, research competency, and digital literacy objectives must be accounted for in these
formulations.
Conclusion
The CBE movement is in full swing, and now is the time for librarians to begin joining
conversations about how these programs will operate and how the library will support them. The
economic climate is driving innovations in higher education, and CBE is likely only to grow in
popularity. Librarians must act now to ensure their presence in emerging and existing programs,
both on an administrative level and in services to students. Securing adequate support from the
top levels of administration is essential to ensure library initiatives have the funding to be
effective. “Shifts in the higher education surround will have an impact on libraries in terms of
expectations for development of collections, delivery of collections and services for both old and
new audiences, and in terms of how libraries continue to demonstrate value to parent
institutions” (ACRL, 2012, p. 313). Library services must tailor to “the needs of self-directed
adult learners” (Laitinen, 2012, p. 12) by devising value-added services that provide evidence of
their effectiveness to student success. Rather than working retroactively as most libraries do to
lace information literacy throughout existing curriculum, emerging CBE programs provide an
opportunity for librarians to build their services into the curriculum from the ground up.

CBE PROGRAMS: A LIBRARY PERSPECTIVE
14
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