Communicating Research Findings: Making the Case for Competency-Based Education

Postsecondary competency-based education (CBE) is receiving considerable attention from advocates, colleges, and policymakers as a way to help more students complete high-quality postsecondary credentials in less time and at a lower cost—but we are just beginning to build rigorous evidence to understand whether CBE programs are fulfilling those value propositions.

The Making the Case for Competency-Based Education webinar series, produced by AIR in partnership with the Competency-Based Education Network and with the generous support of the Lumina Foundation, is designed to support you in using data to demonstrate the value of CBE programs for students, campus leaders, policymakers, and other stakeholders.

Webinar 1, Getting Started With Evaluation, considers the importance of conducting evaluation, provides guidelines for summative evaluation, and delves into findings of an early study on CBE student outcomes.

Module 1: Introduction – Provides an overview of the series, then considers the value of conducting evaluation.
Module 2: Getting Started with Evaluation – Serves as a guide for conducting summative evaluation to support measuring student outcomes and using those findings to make the case for CBE programs.
Module 3: Early Findings on CBE Programs’ Efficacy – Presents the results of an early study on CBE programs’ efficacy, looks at student outcome data from six CBE programs, and examines how those outcomes compare to students in non-CBE programs. Read the full report, On the Path to Success: Early Evidence About the Efficacy of Postsecondary Competency-Based Education Programs.

Webinar 2, Evaluation for Improvement, covers the fundamentals of two continuous quality improvement models—root cause analysis and the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle—and how they apply to improvement within the context of CBE program. (Coming soon)

Webinar 3, Aligning for Learning - Evaluating Connections, presents the importance of alignment in relation to validity of learning and evaluation of program effectiveness, and explores implications for ways to address misunderstandings in the larger field of higher education around high quality CBE programs through communication of internal alignment. (Coming soon)

Webinar 4, Communicating Research Findings, explores ways in which you can effectively communicate evaluation findings and data to build support—or, make the case—for CBE.

Module 1: Introduction - Provides an overview of the series and a general introduction to communicating your research findings.
Module 2: Audience Analysis - Focuses on effectively identifying your audience and understanding how to tailor communications about data, research, or evaluation to specific audiences.
Module 3: Storytelling - Demonstrates using the power of narrative to further engage your audience.
Module 4: Data Visualization - Explores how to use visuals to present data in a way that’s more compelling and more easily digested by various audiences.