Purdue Global celebrates first ExcelTrack graduates

Purdue Global is celebrating the first graduates of its innovative competency-based education program known as ExcelTrack. 

Four students, three from the School of Business and Information Technology and one from the School of Nursing, have completed degrees through the program.

ExcelTrack is designed to offer students increased flexibility, potential cost savings, and a streamlined, faster route to a degree than do traditional programs.

“We’re very excited to see our first ExcelTrack graduates,” says David Starnes, Purdue Global chief academic officer. “It’s great to see the outcome of a truly personalized program that embodies the Purdue Global mission to provide education that meets the unique needs of working adults.”

Each ExcelTrack degree is made up of one-credit courses. Each one-credit course is known as a module. Each module incorporates all the learning outcomes and assessments from the traditional course from which it is derived. 

Whereas a traditional course consists of weekly assignments and due dates, the ExcelTrack module is designed to be completed at whatever pace the student prefers, with broad boundaries to ensure progress.  

ExcelTrack is unique

The ExcelTrack program stands apart in the universe of competency-based education programs offered by other higher education institutions.

First, unlike most programs of its kind, it carefully incorporates learning outcomes and assessments into the curriculum and provides standard letter grades and transcripts. Developed by PG faculty in concert with external program advisors, the learning outcomes are keyed directly to employer expectations and industry needs.

In addition, unlike other institutions, Purdue Global does not segregate programs in ExcelTrack from traditional offerings. PG’s approach is to use, as the basis for ExcelTrack, degrees and courses already offered. As a result, the program is 100 percent compatible with the standard program delivery model. 

ExcelTrack is not the best fit for every student, but it offers an ideal alternative for motivated students with good time management and organizational skills, Starnes says. 

“The number of ExcelTrack programs continues to increase, as does student and employer interest,” Starnes says. “An innovative and flexible path to degree is what adult learners desire, and ExcelTrack delivers.”

 

An ExcelTrack success story: Sunghee Yang

Like many Purdue University Global graduates, Sunghee Yang took a nonlinear, yet noteworthy, path to her college degree.

A native of South Korea, Yang studied in Russia after high school. She later moved to Denver, where she received a scholarship in the theater department at the University of Colorado, Denver.

She learned English, bringing to three the number of languages she speaks, met her future husband, Joseph, a computer scientist, and became fascinated with computers herself. She soon switched her major to information technology.

“I realized that I liked working on computers, too, and that I was good at it,” she says.

But just a few semesters shy of graduation, life took her on yet another journey. She married Joseph, had the first of her two children, and moved to Richmond, Virginia. Yang put her education on hold to devote full time to motherhood.  

Though she dreamed of going back to school one day, spending years in traditional classroom settings seemed an impossibility at her stage in life.   

Then, last year, she learned about PG’s ExcelTrack program. It looked like just the right fit.  

“My kids were teenagers and didn’t need as much attention and it seemed like the right time to go back to school and finish,” she says. “I’m a perfectionist and I was worried that I wouldn’t live up to my expectations, but I decided to give it my best.”

Yang enrolled, worked diligently at her own pace, and completed the coursework for her Bachelor of Science degree in information technology with a 4.0 grade point average.  

This December, she will walk across the stage at PG-Maryland’s graduation ceremony, becoming one of the ExcelTrack’s first cohort of graduates.

“I feel like a pioneer,” she says. “Since many of my courses transferred and I took as many classes as I could at once, I was able to finish very quickly and save some money. I worked hard, and I’m proud of to be one of ExcelTrack’s first graduates.”

Yang isn’t sure where the next stop on her remarkable journey will take her. But she says Purdue Global program’s Capstone course, which offers practical, career-focused instruction, has left her well-prepared to find a job -- her first one outside the home. 

And Yang is not stopping there. With one degree under her belt, she’s already considering enrolling in a master’s program.