In transition: Supporting competency attainment in Black and Latinx students

Abstract

Minority students, particularly those of the Black and Latinx communities, face daunting challenges—confronted with the recent pandemic, ongoing inequality, and increased financial uncertainty due to job loss and rising unemployment. With recent shifts to skill-based learning and remaining "work-ready," competency-based education (CBE) has never been more critical. CBE is outcome-focused, student-centered, and integrates instruction focusing on students mastering prerequisite content and skills to advance. However, many "in-person" programs primarily structure delivery around lecture-based delivery, often focus on the quantity of work versus behavioral outcomes, and fail to recognize the synergy of innovative delivery mechanisms. In a well-designed online program/course, faculty can anchor course objectives to competencies, implement innovative assessments, leverage components of Connectivism, and utilize just-in-time learning to help their students excel. This writing focuses on best practices for implementing components of Connectivism and just-in-time learning for programs/courses shifting to online delivery.