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Competency-Based Education Network (C-BEN) To Visit UNO Campus for Two-Day Workshop Dec. 7 & 8

The workshop sessions are sponsored by the Division of Innovative and Learning-Centric Initiatives, Office of Academic Affairs, and the Center for Faculty Excellence.

  • published: 2023/12/01
  • contact: Jaci Lindburg - Division of Innovative and Learning-Centric Initiatives (ILCI)
  • email: jlindburg@unomaha.edu
C-BEN Charrette

Since Summer 2022, the UNO campus community has been exploring competency-based education (CBE). In short, CBE is an approach emphasizing capabilities over classroom time. Initially, a group of 23 University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) faculty and staff set out to learn more about the pedagogical/operational strategies involved in CBE, and also outline where some of these practices were already happening on the UNO campus. That group learned that several UNO departments/faculty regularly use competency-based learning today, and also found these teaching practices to be tightly aligned with UNO’s access mission (see the committee’s CBE Exploration Overview). Subsequently, numerous UNO faculty members have volunteered to pilot competency-based learning in their courses and have dedicated the Summer 2023 and Fall 2023 terms to course development.

As we remain enthusiastic about the early stages of UNO's CBE pilot, we recognize the ongoing need for knowledge building on this topic. And so, we are initiating phase two of our pilot. We are delighted to host the national organization Competency-Based Education Network (“C-BEN”) on our campus for a two-day workshop termed a “Design Charrette.” This Design Charrette will be taking place Thursday, Dec. 7 and Friday, Dec. 8 at UNO. C-BEN will be bringing two consultants to lead this work: Ryan Specht-Boardman – former lead of the UW Flexible Option at the University of Wisconsin Extended Campus, as well as Laurie Dodge – former provost of UMass Global.


Agenda

The full two-day C-BEN Design Charrette agenda is viewable as a document and is also on the UNO Events Calendar.

The agenda encompasses sessions tailored for various roles on campus, including faculty, academic leadership, operations (financial aid, registrar, IT), faculty support, advisors, and more. Due to the potential for large numbers at sessions and/or the need to order the proper amount of food for certain portions of the day, some sessions do ask for registrations. We hope you’ll be able to join us for some or all of this visit!


Registration

Registration is required for the workshop.

Register today


Questions

If you have questions, please contact any of the CBE pilot coordinators listed below:

  • Jaci Lindburg, Ph.D. – Associate Vice Chancellor, Innovative & Learning-Centric Initiatives (jlindburg@unomaha.edu)

  • Connie Schaffer, Ed.D. – Professor, Teacher Education and Director, Center for Faculty Excellence (cschaffer@unomaha.edu)

  • Matt Tracy, Ph.D. – Senior Director, Academic Affairs (mtracy@unomaha.edu)