What is Practitioner Faculty

The author of this chapter, Ward Wesolowski, served as the Dean of Operations in the Center of Competency-Based Education (CBE) at the University of Phoenix. In this role, a substantial amount of experimentation was conducted to uncover insights relating to technology, faculty roles, curriculum, policy, and most importantly, the student experience in CBE. In an endeavor as complicated as creating CBE offerings at a large institution of higher education, there was only one thing that was certain: failure. At University of Phoenix, it was important to fail fast, learn, improve, and try again. This iterative approach allowed Ward and his team to quickly see what worked and what did not, so improvement efforts could be focused on the elements requiring the most attention. Valuable insights and recommendations are contained in this chapter for anyone aspiring to produce CBE offerings for students in higher education.