Future Trends in PA Education Volume 1: Moving toward Hybrid and Competency-Based Education Models

In today’s newsletter, we begin a series looking at what lies ahead for PA education. For three decades, I have worked in PA education, which gives me the advantage of seeing history in the making, watching the profession and its training evolve through the years. While I can’t claim to know the future, I do have several theories about where PA education is going in the next decade. I believe we have some big changes coming our way!

This series will review and build on Chapter 10 of the book I co-wrote with Helen Martin, CHSC, PA-C, DFAAPA, Learning to Love Data.  

So, let’s begin! 

Online/Hybrid Instructional Models

In 2017 Yale University opened the first online PA program in the United States. This was met with such extreme backlash that the alumni of Yale University petitioned against its very existence, although online nurse practitioner programs had existed for several years. The negativity was largely a result of the wide spectrum of quality in online programs. 

However in 2020, COVID-19 resulted in PA education (and most other educational formats) being almost instantly transformed into a virtual platform. The pandemic accelerated the inevitable. The traditional brick- and-mortar model of education needed to evolve. From K-12 through advanced degrees, institutions and teachers realized that a virtual learning environment facilitated, and was facilitated by, competency-based learning. Educators everywhere began to see the value of a hybrid education.

And of course, PA students graduated in 2020 and entered the field. Thus far, no catastrophic events have been observed that are traceable to the transition to online education. 

I believe that within 10 years, PA education will transform into a competency-based education (CBE) model involving significantly less face-to-face time. This goes hand-in-hand with increased use of hybrid classroom situation. A hybrid learning situation involves significant online learning opportunities combined with classroom time that ostensibly lets students have the best of both worlds. The notion is not to “rob” students of the experience of the classroom (which is, indeed, where some students learn best) but to open up the learning environment to welcome a plethora of learning styles.

With the CBE model, students advance based on their own ability to master the material. The benefit of the model is that students can learn at their own speed, required neither to “keep up with” or “wait up for” any other students. Students have greater control over their schedules.

This change will happen, and without a reduction in quality. 

Collaboration in the competency-based classroom

One concern regarding CBE models is that higher education mandates interaction, which both improves learning on many levels, and prepares the students for real-world experiences. CBE models do not, however, isolate students from either their peers or their instructors. Though students progress through the material at their own pace, the classes meet regularly for collaboration, so that students may ask questions of the instructor and discuss the material with fellow students. “Backchannel” engagement, such as email or forums, is even preferable to some students, who may be introverted, or feel better able to express their questions in writing.

Student/Faculty interaction is another aspect that requires some interesting new twists. Instructors in the CBE model are, in some ways, “on call” for students via email, text, or phone, in addition to live classroom settings where open discussion and interaction take place. Because these instructors are required to spend more time with guiding lectures and open dialogue, their programs may find it effective to delegate the traditional instructor task of grading. That is to say, the tasks of grading and assessment of students are given to a different instructor. This saves time for the “lecturing” instructor and is also effective in reducing personality bias. Assessment and grading become more objective.

Further benefits of hybrid classrooms

Hybrid learning certainly does not mean the end of in-person classes. Rather, it means that major portions of the learning experience can be conducted online and at student discretion, giving in-person interactions more significance.

The efficiency of hybrid education, along with a CBE model, will deemphasize the rigid time-in-the-seat-framework.

Other benefits of hybrid learning environments include:

1. Increased student options. PA programs that offer this opportunity to their students may attract more diverse, and distant, populations.
2. Instructor flexibility. Instructors enjoy the same accessibility as their students. Hybrid work environments help instructors who are parents, those with disabilities that make commuting difficult, or frequent travelers who can now teach from anywhere. Programs have increased hiring opportunities as well as access to guest instructors around the world.
3. Healthier environments. Fewer people in close proximity means fewer airborne illnesses, and a healthier campus and classrooms.
4. Preparation for the hybrid workforce and beyond. And this will be a continuing topic for our next blog! 

So please, join me in the next newsletter, as we continue exploring upcoming trends for PA programs.