Mr. Robert Mendendhall, President of Western Governors University was interviewed by Dr. Farhad Saba, Editor-In-Chief of Distance-Educator.com. It is a pleasure to present this interview in the Daily News.


Distance-Educator.com: Let me first offer our congratulations to you for recent successes of the Western Governors University (WGU) in obtaining accreditation, and announcing a new teacher education initiative. I will ask specific questions regarding these developments as our interview continues. But, first let me ask you a general question about WGU. From its inception, the university has established and followed a different educational model based on learners’ competencies. Could you elaborate on this model, and highlight its major differences with conventional models?

Mr. Robert Mendenhall: Competency-based education basically means that we award degrees based on students demonstrating competence – what they know and can do – rather than by accumulating a certain number of credit hours. For each of our degrees we carefully define the competencies expected of a graduate, using the input of both academic and industry experts, and then, working with our Assessment Council of national experts, we define the assessments to measure these competencies. These assessments combine objective tests, performance tasks, portfolios and projects. We ensure that each student actually has the defined competencies in order to graduate. We are unique also in that we don’t develop and teach our own courses. Instead, we identify the best available online courses, and other learning resources, and “map” them to our competencies. Our faculty, who are generally PhD’s in the field, are not course instructors but are student mentors. Each student at WGU has an individual Academic Action Plan tailored around the competencies they possess and those they need, and each has an assigned faculty mentor that will work with that student until graduation. In addition, all students are part of one or more learning communities, and they collaborate electronically and via telephone.

This model recognizes the reality of today's world, where learning can and does take place in many ways and in many places. We believe that all learning counts, not just the learning done at our university, and the role of the 21st century university is not only to provide opportunities for new learning, but to measure and credential learning regardless of where or how that learning may have occurred.