TDNet Discover

The purpose of this qualitative thematic analysis study was to explore competency-based education (CBE) implementation as promoted on the official websites of 10 community colleges in the United States. For the utility of this study, CBE implementation on official websites was generally defined as the online marketing and communication efforts to educate, describe, promote, and encourage CBE program enrollment. The theory guiding this study was constructivism as it relates to the active process of building new knowledge on prior knowledge as students build their understanding of CBE from their experiences with these websites. One central research question guided this study: How are community colleges using websites to communicate and market CBE programs? This qualitative thematic analysis used inductive coding to allow codes and themes to emerge from the data using the six-step thematic analysis plan by Braun and Clarke (2006). The setting, participants, and sample included text information from CBE-specific webpages from 10 community colleges representing eight states from different regions of the United States. The analysis revealed five themes, including student autonomy, student support, mastery progress, success alignment, and design clarity. These themes created a narrative to address the central research question: Community colleges use websites to communicate and market CBE programs by building a student-centered experience, emphasizing student success, and providing clarity and connection.