Northern Arizona University Launches Competency-Based Online Degree Program

[brajalle]

Brajalle thank you so much for all the information i've been calling and could not get any of the information that you've just listed. Since the program is so new nobody really knows how it's going to function or specific but you've claified alot of information for me. My next question is how do you apply,where do you send transcripts ie. extended campus?

Example for you, I have 90+ traditional credits, most meeting the general education requirements but your saying that the CBE may still be required for classes even if they transfer in and you have say a B in the class. They also will not take straighterline courses but will Penn Foster courses be accepted?

I'm assuming that the PL website has a direct application link with instructions on where to send transcripts. I've actually not looked that closely, I've been focused on information gathering!

As far as your credits, I received the chart I'd hoped for regarding meeting the general ed requirements, but I had a few (minor) questions that I need to clarify before I'm comfortable doing a definite how-to and tweaking the chart for people to use on our forum (like you). It's hard to explain without a visual to look at, but in their general ed requirements there are around 8-11 competencies. A few are stand-alone (Math115, the English requirement, 3 units of the CU), and one (the other 3 units of the CU requirement) may be integrated in another area (the Spanish language area - not sure). The other 7 competencies and the courses they are taken from, are sort of intermixed.

Basically, you have to approach it from two angles instead of the usual one angle. The usual angle is - do I meet the area requirement (ie 6 credits of English or 12 credits in Humanities). The second angle in NAU's program is competency based - if I transfer X, Y, Z courses in, will I be meeting ALL of the requirements to fulfill Competency #1? If you don't meet all the requirements for Competency #1, then you'll still have to complete all of it, even if you've transferred in credit that meets the requirements for 80% of it. The chart, once I clarify it, will hopefully answer those sort of questions.

To summarize though, if you can meet all the requirements for the non-Math, English, and CU areas in the General Ed requirements (ie as I laid out over 2 posts on Pg.3), then you will meet all the requirements for the 7 related competencies. If you can meet the Math and English requirements, then you've got 2 more. If you have some form of CU related credits, then they may meet that requirement (there are no CBE options available for those though). At least, so far as I can tell.

- No ACE, sorta a shame, but I understand.
- Penn Foster I believe is Nationally accredited, they will review the courses for acceptance, no guarantees, they said they're pretty permissive about credit sources, but they don't want to make guarantees when the courses may not be rigorous enough. The only way to know is for people to transfer in and to build a list of what has been accepted.
- Because there aren't CBE options for Major/Minor options, I've not focused on how those courses are deconstructed into competencies, but you may need to realize that if you transfer in 90 credits that fit perfectly into the 120 required for a degree, that you may have more than the expected 25% of the competencies left to complete (ie see the two-angle approach I discussed above). But like I said, these courses appear to have a built-in pre-test component that is pretty much a CBE for a B option, so I'm not sure it's the end of the world compared to non-competency based programs.

I also forgot a tidbit about the Mastery challenge for an A. It was mentioned that there might be various options - ie you can select an option that may best fit you. I'm not sure if all of them have multiple options, or if I heard incorrectly, but it sounded neat. It was mentioned that in the IT area one of the Mastery options was a certification (which you may already hold, or can test for). So it may not just be, turn in an extra paper for an A, or a take an extra test for an A, it may be - pick your choice of 2, 3, or 4 options. Not 100% sure, but that's what it sounded like.

Also, here is the list of General Ed courses that you will be taking if you don't try to meet any requirements by Xfer or CBE. This is what will appear on your transcript, and these are the courses that are deconstructed-

Liberal Studies
STAT 271- SAS
PHSI 102L, Everyday Physical Science- LAB
HUMA 121, The Act of Meaning- Making- AHI
HUMA 372, Ethics, Values, and Technology- AHI
SPAN 102- CU
HIST 232, Islamic Culture Since 1500-CUG
CSTU 366, Communication and Social Movements- SPW
COMU 302, Stereoptypes and the Media -SPWE
HUMA 377, Utopias and Dystopias- Liberal Studies Elective

I have to ask about the course titles for Stat 271 (Stat 270 is Applied Statistics (which is AP Stats fyi), Stat 272 is from the SBA Major), and for SPAN 102. None of the courses above appear in their course catalog, and the list isn't on their website - I'm guessing it will be, it's very much a work in progress. I'm assuming SPAN 102 is likely some sort of spanish or hispanic culture course, and if so, this may explain why it does not appear on my chart - it could be intermixed in the language option with their spanish courses. All courses are 3 units except the L suffix, which is a 4 unit course (ie with a lab). These are the courses that are deconstructed into 8 competencies (well Span102 isn't on the chart, it would be a 9th).

As far as the courses they selected, it's actually (IMO) a nice mix of liberal arts designed to hopefully help a student think and be able to logically look at the modern world. The only apparent outlier is the modern Islamic culture course. It makes sense if you think about it - there are two major culture spheres that impact US students and that they would benefit from having academic exposure to - internal foreign cultures (ie usually immigrant or large distinct internal cultures) and external foreign cultures (ie ones with large world impact in some manner). In that context, having a default selection of a course related to Hispanic/Latino culture in the US/Western Hemisphere is 100% obvious from an internal perspective. Also in that context, given the sheer size of Islam as a world religion, our own history, and our own culture's reaction (especially since 2001) it makes perfect sense to include that as a course as well from an external perspective. The only possible alternative courses I can think of are some sort of Asian culture studies (Asian immigrants surpassed Hispanic a few years ago for example) or Chinese/Indian specific coursework. I think these are weaker choices to the ones selected, but I think it may be nice to have some more options as time progresses (the Islamic Culture course is it's own competency, so it would be easy to do). All in all, I think they made some excellent course picks, probably much better (in terms of rounding/thinking) than most college students would pick on their own, and it's really cool to have them packaged in a competency based option. For the student on this forum, it may be an opportunity to experience some coursework a bit different from the usual CBE fare, while not suffering from many of the drawbacks of traditional classes.