All Newlane University degree programs are competency-based. This means that passing a course is just a matter of demonstrating that you have mastered all the course goals and objectives (or intended learning outcomes), and is not tied to time in the course, or any other factor. In order to pass a course, students must demonstrate mastery of all course goals and objectives as determined by a course professor by completing a course project, a computer-scored exam and a course hearing–the course hearing is an oral exam with an expert in a video conference through the Newlane platform.

When a student submits a project, Newlane provides prompt, fair, and consistent feedback, including whether the project is approved or not yet, and whether a student has passed a course or not. 

Prompt: When a student submits a project, a Newlane course professor (note: all faculty members eligible to review a project or host a course hearing hold an advanced degree in a relevant field for the course) confirms with the student within two business days that they (the faculty member) agree to review it and they inform the student when they (the student) can expect to receive feedback (within one week). 

When a student participates in a course hearing, the hosting course professor provides feedback at the end of the hearing, including whether the student has passed the course or not yet.

Fair and Consistent: In order to assess fairly and consistently, Newlane faculty use rubrics in evaluating course projects and student mastery in course hearings. In order for a student’s project to be approved, the course professor must determine that the project fulfills all the rubric criteria for the project. In order for a student to pass a course hearing, the course professor must determine that the student has mastered all the course goals and objectives (the course hearing rubric and script make it straightforward for the course professor to make this determination). 

If the course professor determines that the student has mastered all course goals and objectives, they select “APPROVE” the student for demonstrating full mastery of the course goals and objectives, or in other words, they approve the student for passing the course. The student’s educational record for that course is updated to  PASS: FULL MASTERY. If the course professor determines that the student has not yet mastered all course goals and objectives, they select “NOT YET”, and the student’s record for that course remains as not passed. 

Newlane does not provide letter grades, but rather rigorously verifies and documents student mastery of all course goals and objectives before approving a student to pass a course.Course extensions and Incomplete grades: Since Newlane courses are self-paced, there is no timeline or due date for assignment submissions, or for scheduling or completing course hearings (outside of satisfactory academic progress quantitative standard related to time to graduate). This means that there are no course extensions, or incomplete grades offered through Newlane.