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This piece is part of a series exploring competency-based education (CBE). This piece focuses on how programs and faculty, whether fully implementing CBE or incorporating select elements, might determine high-quality competencies to guide assessments.

As an administrator or department chair, you are in a unique position to shape an online program and establish programmatic requirements or recommendations. This is because you have been tasked with taking a broader view of the program, focusing not only on individual course development (as a faculty member might) but also on how an array of courses must be cohesively united to achieve certain goals, values, and accreditation standards. To that end, this piece focuses on why consistency across a program is integral to program quality and student success, and therefore why it falls within your purview to consider standardizing certain elements, requirements, and design choices across all courses in a program.

Competency-based education (CBE) is gaining momentum in higher education as a strategy to enhance flexibility, promote workforce alignment, and improve outcomes for adult and nontraditional learners. For institutional leaders, designing or expanding CBE programs requires not only a clear understanding of core CBE principles but also a strategic approach to implementation, curricular redesign, equity, and evaluation.

Our workforce has undergone a profound transformation, driven by emerging technologies, automation, and shifting business priorities (Silva, 2024). These forces are reshaping job roles, workflows, work environments, and the skills required to succeed. The global pandemic was also a major accelerator, pushing these changes forward across industries. As a result, the rapid evolution of work has created an increasing need for continuously updated and, in many cases, entirely new skill sets.

Backward design is, as the name suggests, a process for designing curricula, courses, and lectures by working backward from big-picture learning goals. The concept, introduced by Grant Wiggins and Jay McTighe (2005), suggests that instructors create assessments, activities, and course content that are explicitly aligned with the broader learning goals of the unit. This is different from the traditional content-driven approach to learning design, which focuses on course content first and only secondarily tries to align that content with learning goals.

Whether designing a fully asynchronous course or a hybrid/blended learning experience, you’re likely thinking about recording a video to explain an idea, tell a story, or demonstrate a skill. And, in many situations, you should (see the Envision piece Video Planning: To Record or Not to Record? if you are wondering whether video is appropriate for your unique situation). Most research shows that online students enjoy learning from video and that it can be an effective way to deliver content. Students often appreciate the opportunity to review material at their own pace and to pause, rewind, and rewatch content as needed (Boateng et. al. 2016; Brame 2016).

You are building a course for the online environment. What an exciting adventure! When building an online course, you might use a similar method to what you used when developing a course previously, or you might use an entirely new technique. Either option is a good option. But you may have a few questions when you first begin: How do I organize my materials? How do I display my materials? How do I make sure my students work together?

Today’s student population is diverse and includes marginalized groups that have historically been excluded from mainstream education (Ladson-Billings, 2013). In 2021, students of color comprised upwards of 40% of the 15.4 million undergraduates enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities (Nam, 2024; National Center for Education Statistics, 2023). Ladson-Billings (2013), whose work centers on culturally relevant pedagogy, argues that diverse students require inclusive learning to succeed. “[These students] do not fit neatly into the rigid categories of race, class, gender, or national origin” upon which hierarchies of the past have been built (p. 5), so authentic representation of diversity in higher education is critical. Adrienne Keene, an assistant professor of American Studies at Brown University, writes that instructors can do their part to support underrepresented students by being honest about their own bias and blind spots, critiquing their course materials, and integrating meaningful representations of diversity into the curriculum (Keene, 2015).

Designing a successful multimodal course means, at each step of the process, considering what each format does well—structuring the course such that each piece of content, each activity, and each interaction uses the most effective delivery method available. But what does that look like in practice? This piece describes three approaches to structuring a multimodal course. In each model, asynchronous and synchronous time complement one another and support module- and course-level objectives. Where the models differ is in the relative importance of asynchronous activities in enabling students to complete synchronous activities and vice versa.

For many people, “online learning” conjures images of successive videos, shot in a studio or perhaps on location, featuring high production value and expert, polished speakers, interspersed with short quizzes or activities. Indeed, strongholds such as MasterClass, LinkedIn Learning, and Coursera have applied this formula consistently and led many to believe that it is the recipe for success. While the economic success of these companies is undeniable, the effectiveness of an online course is measured by student success. When done well, video can have a positive impact on student learning (Clark & Mayer, 2011). Rather than designing your course according to the economic model, follow the evidence and research-based principles of visual communication, cognitive science, and online learning to decide when and how to create instructional videos. Through careful consideration of your learners, your objectives, your constraints, and the following best practices, you can spend your time and resources creating only the most essential videos. For a visual aid that accompanies this article, see the Video Planning Decision Tree.