Rasmussen is unusual in letting you blend two formats in the same term at no extra cost: traditional instructor-paced courses and Empowered Learning, its competency-based option where you move at your own pace by demonstrating skills in project-based work. The choice is strategic, not academic. Empowered Learning rewards experience: if you already know the material from work or prior study, you can move fast and save time and money. If a subject is new to you, the structure and pacing of a traditional course is usually the safer bet.
The two formats, side by side
Traditional courses are instructor-paced with weekly due dates and a set rhythm. Empowered Learning is Rasmussen's competency-based format: self-paced, project-based, and measured by demonstrating skills rather than time in class. Rasmussen lets you take them together in the same term at no added cost, which is what makes the choice worth thinking about.
When to pick Empowered Learning
Choose the self-paced CBE route when you already have the skills the course tests — from a job, the military, or prior study — and when you have the discipline to pace yourself. Because it is measured by demonstration, existing competence lets you move quickly and save both time and tuition.
When traditional is the safer bet
If the subject is genuinely new to you, the weekly structure, scheduled instruction, and built-in pacing of a traditional course protect you from the classic self-paced trap: falling quietly behind on a course with no weekly nudges. New material usually deserves the structure.
Where a tutor fits
We help you make the call course by course and then succeed in whichever you pick: pacing a self-paced CBE course so it does not drift, or keeping up with a traditional course's weekly demands. The blend only saves time if each course actually finishes.
Sources and verification
Facts on this page come from official sources; details change, so confirm the current version with Rasmussen:
- www.rasmussen.edu: Rasmussen University's official site
- Rasmussen student experience: official pages on Empowered Learning and the classroom
- www.hlcommission.org: Higher Learning Commission, Rasmussen's institutional accreditor
- apastyle.apa.org: APA Style, the standard for written work