competency based models in higher education

7/28/2019 Competency Based Models in Higher Education

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Measuring What Matters:

Competency-based

Models in Higher

Education

Presentation to the State HigherEducation Executive Officers/NCES

Network Conference

Washington, D.C.

May 25, 2001Richard A. Voorhees

Community Colleges of Colorado

[email protected]


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Conclusion and Summary

Competencies are good!!!


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This presentation informed byNational Postsecondary Education

Cooperative Project: Data Ramifications

of Competency-Based Initiatives

New Directions for Institutional

Research: Measuring What Matters:

Competency-Based Models in Higher

Education, forthcoming, June 2001


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NPEC Report Defining and Assessing Learning:

Exploring Competency-Based Initiatives(U.S. Department of Education, 2001)

http://nces.ed.gov/npec/products.html

Defines and Classifies Competency-BasedInitiatives

Pre-postsecondary education Within postsecondary education

After postsecondary education
http://nces.ed.gov/npec/products.htmlhttp://nces.ed.gov/npec/products.html


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NPEC Report

8 Case Studies and abstracts

Identification of Strong Practices

An annotated bibliography of competencies


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Why Should You Care?

The State-by-State Report Card awarded all

states an Incomplete grade for studentlearning

All states lack information on the

educational performance of college studentsthat would permit systematic state or

national comparisons


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And..? Growing number of partnerships between e-

learning vendors and academic institutions

By 2003 the monetary value of onlinemarkets is expected to grow to

$7 billion for U.S. post-secondary education

$11.4 billion for U.S Corporations $365 billion for the global e-learning market

Source: Web-based Education Commission


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So.

In 1985 there were 400 Corporate Universities;today there are 1,000 (Dolence, 2001)

78.9 percent of advertised postings for informationtechnology workers did not mention a degreerequirement (Adelman, 2000)

MIT is moving to make instructional materials for

all its courses available free


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How Fearsome is the

Competition? It is estimated that 1.9 million certifications

were awarded in information technology by

the year 2000 (Adelman, 2000)

More than 54,000 individual courses

available through distance education (U.S.Department of Education, 1999)


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Early Stages of a Learning

Revolution Performance-based learning

Learning pathways no longer lead

automatically to institutions of highereducation


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Early Stages of a Learning

Revolution Intense competition from organizations

whose sole purpose is to deliver learning

anytime and anywhere m-learning Employers and employees want the shortest

route to results

It is likely that performance-based outcomeswill drive the assessment of quality infundamental ways


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Whats in it for learners?

Integrate credit and non-credit offerings Learning bundles

Individualized instructional approaches or systems

emphasize small, modularized units of content Learners can master one unit before moving to the

next, while giving immediate and frequent

feedback, and engaging the learner actively in the

learning process

Providers that accentuate portability are likely to

thrive


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What is a competency? Alternate, interchangeable definitions abound

Objectives, skills, outcomes, goals, output,

achievement, ability, result, proficiency NPEC Workgroups definition:

A competency is a combination of skills, abilities,

and knowledge needed to accomplish a specific

task


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Hierarchical Relationships


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The Credit Hour is Still King Default packaging learning in standard

length terms and traditional delivery

formats The concept of seat-time continues to

dominate the 7,000 pages of federalfinancial aid rules

Predominant public funding allocations arebuilt on time, not outcomes


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Learning is complex Fewer that 10 states administer a common

test to a large number of college students

(Ewell, 2000)

Agreement on core skills

Political willpower

Creation of accurate measurements Student motivation


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AcademicPreparedness--Prior Acheivement--Intent--Motivation--Skills--Self-Concept

StudentDemographics--Gender--Ethnicity

--Age--SES

Competing Demands--Family

--Work--Community Involvement

Quality of Effort

PeerInteractions

FacultyInteractions

Learning andCognitiveDevelopment

A Model for Assessing Community College Student Learning and Cognitive Development

Voorhees, R.A. 1997. Student Learning and Cognitive Development in the CommunityCollege, In J. C. Smart (Ed.) Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research.

New York: Agathon.


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8 Case Studies Kings Collegeembeds competencies across

courses in all academic programs

Northwest Missouri State Universitylinkscompetencies with a strategic planning process

Sinclair Community CollegeFocus on

competencies and how they are assessed

Hagerstown Community CollegeModules for

technical programs and career transcripts


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8 Case Studies (Continued) Community Colleges of Colorado, Incumbent Worker

Projectbuilds competency-based curricula in conjunctionwith employers for delivery in electronic formats

Western Governors Universitymapping of degreeprograms from other providers to produce totalcompetency-based degrees

Proficiency-Based Admission Standards System inOregonarticulation between secondary and public

postsecondary institutions

Ford Motor Companyperformance-based assessment ofnew hires and throughout their careers


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Dimensions for Practice Working with Faculty

Measuring and Reporting Competencies

Standard Setting and Bookmarking

Accreditation and Distance Education

Creating and Implementing Competency-

Based Models

Workplace Competencies


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Working with Faculty Major transformation in mindset and

practice

Work to identify and define specificcompetencies

Validation of competencies. Are theyessential?

DACUM and Delphi Approaches forconsensus building


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Measuring and Reporting

Competencies Internal and External consumers

Simple measurement is not enough; quality

and range of competencies need to becommunicated clearly

Competencies must be assessable

Consistency in writing competencystatementsparticularly across levels

Reliability and validity


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Standard Setting and

Bookmarking Competency testing has become a high

stakes activity

National tests can be used to setcompetency levels or standards

Bookmarking is a technique for establishing

technically sound thresholds

Expert panels of judges


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Regional Accreditation and

Distance Education Links between competencies and

accreditation is growing tighter

The accent is on documentation of studentlearning

Six regional associations have promulgatedthese expectations

Distance education activity appears to bethe prime driver


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Creating and Implementing

Competency-Based Models Models and compilations are available on

the Web to guide institutions

Professions and Careers SCANS 2000, National Skill Standards Board,

Wisconsin Instructional Design System

General Education Alverno, Rutgers, Trait-based scales


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21st Century Workplace Skills

Attitudes and Personal

Characteristics

Adaptability, flexibility, resiliency,

ability to accept ambiguity

Common sense and ability to

anticipate downstream consequences

CreativityEmpathy

Source: Paulson, 2001


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Attitudes and Personal

Characteristics Positive attitude, good work ethic, ability

to self-manage

Reliability, dependability

Responsibility, honesty, integrity



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Essential Skills

Computers for simple tasks (word

processing)

Interpersonal skills, team skills

Numeracy and Computational Skills

(9th Grade Level)



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Essential SkillsReading (9th Grade Level)

Speaking and ListeningWriting



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Integrative-Applied SkillsApplication of technology to tasks

Critical Thinking

Customer contact skills

Information use skills

Presentation skillsProblem recognition, definition,

solution, formulation



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Premium Skills Ability to understand organizational and

contextual issues (legal and environmental)

Basic resource management, budgets

Ethics Foreign language fluency

Globalism, internationalism skills

Multicultural competence

Negotiation Skills

Project Management and Supervision

Systems Thinking



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Strong Practices in

Competencies A senior administrator is the public advocate,

leader, and facilitator for creating an institutionalculture that is open to change, willing to take

risks, and fosters innovations by providing realincentives for participants.

The appropriate stakeholders fully participate inidentifying, defining, and reaching consensusabout important competencies.

Competencies are clearly defined, understood, andaccepted by relevant stakeholders.


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Strong Practices in

Competencies (Continued) Competencies are defined at a sufficient level of

specificity that they can be assessed.

Multiple assessments of competencies provideuseful and meaningful information that is relevantto decision-making or policy-developmentcontext.

Faculty and staff fully participate in makingdecisions about the strongest assessmentinstruments that will measure their specificcompetencies.


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Strong Practices in

Competencies (Continued) The precision, reliability, validity, credibility, and

costs are all considered and examined in makingselections about the best commercially-developed

assessments and/or locally-developed assessmentapproaches.

The competency-based educational initiative isembedded within a larger institutional planning

process.

The assessments of competencies are directlylinked with the goals of the learning experience.


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Strong Practices in

Competencies (Continued) The precision, reliability, validity, credibility, and

costs are all considered and examined in makingselections about the best commercially-developed

assessments and/or locally-developed assessmentapproaches.

The competency-based educational initiative isembedded within a larger institutional planning

process.

The assessments of competencies are directlylinked with the goals of the learning experience.


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Strong Practices in

Competencies (Continued) The assessment results are used in making critical

decisions about strategies to improve student

learning. The assessment results are clear and reported in a

meaningful way so that all relevant stakeholders

fully understand the findings.

The institution experiments with new ways todocument students mastery of competencies that

supplement the traditional transcript.


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ReferencesAdelman, C. A Parallel Postsecondary Universe: The Certification System in Information Technology.

Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, 2000.

Dolence, M. Dawn of the Learning Age. http://www.mgdolence.com/

Ewell, P. Grading Student Learning: Better Luck Next Time. In National Center for Public Policy and

Higher Education (ed.), Measuring up 2000: The State-by-State Report Card for Higher Education. San Jose,

CA: National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, 2000.

Paulson, K. P. Connecting the Workplace and Postsecondary Education. In R.A.Voorhees (Ed.) Measuring

What Matters: Competency-Based Models in Higher Education. New Directions for Institutional Research No.

101. Jossey-Bass, Inc.: San Francisco, 2001.

U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Defining and Assessing Learning:

Exploring Competency-Based Initiatives by E. Jones, R.A. Voorhees, and K. Paulson for the National

Postsecondary Education Cooperative Competency-Based Initiatives Working Group. Washington: D.C.: U.S.

Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics 2001.

U. S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Distance Education and Postsecondary

Education Institutions: 1997-98. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education Statistics, 1999.

Voorhees, R.A. 1997. Student Learning and Cognitive Development in the Community College, In J. C.

Smart (Ed.) Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research. New York: Agathon, 1997.

Web-based Education Commission. http://www.hpcnet.org/webcommission
http://www.mgdolence.com/http://www.mgdolence.com/

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