USask competency-based first-year engineering program met with success

The University of Saskatchewan College of Engineering has received praise for its newly revamped first-year engineering program. The institution developed a new, first-year program that has moved away from a semester-long classes format in favour of a competency-based assessment approach. Prior to first-term, students can take part in asynchronous online summer courses that help to fill in the gaps in high school learning in areas like math and physics. Once they enter the program, students take part in courses that vary in length and intensity and require them to apply the skills learned in previous classes. Instructors coordinate assignments to ensure student workload is paced and daily study sessions are scheduled to provide students with access to teaching assistants.