An Analysis and Application of Competency-Based Education Techniques for Collegiate Engineering Lab Courses

With the rise of individualized learning, newer and more personalized mechanisms have risen to allow students to master material and complete learning objectives. Arguably one of the most important, yet oft overlooked is that of competency-based education (CBE). Implementation of CBE changes the mechanism under which students are deemed to have completed a lab assignment or task. Traditionally this involves changing the submission from a lab report or data table into a conversation with a faculty member or teaching assistant and answering follow-up questions. Structuring these questions as a way for students to think critically and apply the learned knowledge from the lab into a new situation allows for the information to be retained for longer, and expose students to new ways of applying the content. This work aims to discuss how to use CBE in conjunction with traditional learning mechanisms to maximize student engagement with material, and increase retention of key content. When properly aligned with student learning outcomes, CBE offers an alternative to repetitive lab tasks and can improve student performance.