Building a Competency-Based Curriculum Architecture to Educate 21st-Century Business Practitioners

Competency-based instruction can be applied to a military setting, an academic program, or a corporate environment with a focus on producing performance-based learning outcomes. In this article, the authors provide theoretical and practical information about underlying characteristics of competencies and explain how the Department of Instructional & Performance Technology at Boise State University developed a set of competencies and has been modifying its curriculum on the basis of these competencies. The department's curriculum architecture flowchart illustrates the process of developing and applying competencies to curriculum design for producing performance-based learning outcomes. Detailed steps taken in developing a competency-based course are described.