The information revolution is disrupting everything.  A natural response is online delivery, which can be done well. But simply transitioning courses to a digital format doesn’t fix everything.

There are deeper solutions.  Beyond the revolution in delivery, training must address the revolutions in measurement and supervision. Toward this end, Sevensided Consulting helps organizations build high-quality systems that tap into the emerging practices of competency-based curricula and network-based supervision.

Sevensided understands competency-based education (CBE).  CBE measures a learner's progress in terms of their actual proficiency, not in terms of participation or seat-hours.  It identifies discrete learning units, whether knowledge or character or skill sets, and grants a student credit once he or she demonstrates a certain level of mastery.  Schools using CBE love it for its clarity, speed, flexibility and portability.  Students do too.  Sevensided Consulting knows how to implement CBE, partially or fully, in ways that comply with and exceed accrediting standards.

Just as importantly, Sevensided understands network-based supervision. Once better units of learning have been established, learning can be conducted with a range of supervisors. The successful training programs of the future will be using mentors, coaches, co-workers, managers, counselors, pastors - even friends and family - as part of the curricular learning process.  Such distributed oversight permits a high degree of contextualization. This revolution has been close to the heart of CBTE (Competency-based Theological Education).  Programs can and should be intentional about using a student's whole network, not just professors and instructors, to achieve learning.  The organizations that are figuring out educational crowdsourcing are enjoying significant advantages in the new educational economy.

Sevensided Consulting was started by Dr. Nathan Hitchcock (PhD, University of Edinburgh). He and his Sevensided associates work with seminaries, graduate schools, undergraduate programs, parachurch organizations, and for-profit businesses looking to build innovative training systems.