Competences 2009-07-01

=Competences for learning, assessment and portfolio=

Topic
Competence - however you define it and related terms - is a common thread linking learning (outcomes), assessment and evaluation (criteria), job and higher course requirements (skills, competencies), and personal abilities, which are often evidenced through e-portfolio tools. The quest for a common language across these domains has grown in intensity and urgency, and now there are many projects, including past and present JISC-funded and European-funded ones, that aim to research and develop this area. Several interoperability specifications and standards are awaiting a common model for competence, including XCRI for course pre-requisites and outcomes; LEAP2A for portfolio information; and the future standards taking European Learner Mobility beyond the current Europass. CETIS has now set up a team to address this area, and is well-placed to bring together UK stakeholders in focused working groups, while having the reputation to secure represention in European and international discussions.

It is too easy for individuals or teams to think up their own way of representing competence. Rather, we need a model that is simple enough to gain widespread agreement, and at the same time practical enough to cope with real requirements and to be used by real tools. As a first step to exploring practical possibilities, this (first) CETIS-arranged meeting on competences brings together both leading-edge requirements from an existing education domain, and leading tool developers who wish to service these requirements, to work towards a common model of competence frameworks to function with appropriate tools, which would benefit all stakeholders. We have initially chosen medical education as the domain, because it is relatively advanced in the use of competence frameworks, but the model should be generalisable to other domains.

The expectation is that the successful pattern followed by XCRI and LEAP2A can again be fruitful, and one outcome could be a specification that is both rooted in current practice (in course development, assessment and e-portfolio), and as easy to implement as it reasonably can be.

This being the first meeting in this area, by the end of the meeting we would like to get a sense of how the community wants to move forwards. Is there any agreement on coordinated actions by the stakeholders present? What role should CETIS play? And what messages can we pass on to JISC to help shape policy in this area?

Aim
The aim of this meeting was not just to hear about different ideas for managing competence information, but to start the process of evaluating different models of representing frameworks of competence that might be used by tools, and that might form the basis of an interoperability specification.

Presentations
We need to limit the presentations before lunch to Unfortunately we don't have time for complete demonstrations of any tools, but links to demonstration sites are welcomed here.
 * either requirements for representing frameworks of skill and competence in a specific area (medical or health-related education and practice are prioritised here so that we can have one area to focus on), e.g.
 * how skills-related information is structured for learning or assessment
 * what skills-related information needs to be transferred between different systems
 * or skills and competence framework handling in end-user tools (such as e-portfolio tools) that could in principle import and use framework definitions to help structure learning, assessment and presentation of the skills and competences.

After lunch, we will work in small groups, with each small group containing people with Each group will be asked to sketch out a proposal for an interoperability specification or approach. We will then compare approaches...
 * some knowledge of domain requirements (ideally various ones)
 * some knowledge of relevant end-user tools
 * some ideas on how to structure a specification for frameworks of skill or competence.

Worksheet for groupwork
Introduce yourselves to each other, mentioning the areas in which you have some knowledge:
 * which domain requirements you know about
 * which end-user tools you know about
 * which suitable specifications you know about
 * or what approach you are suggesting for interoperability.

Discuss and compare
 * what has been presented this morning
 * how skill/competence framework information occurs in your domains
 * how to represent those information structures in a common way
 * how that representation could be used by the tools you know about

Focus on
 * the information structures
 * not the "binding" (the exact technology, format, syntax) used.

Try to produce a short document expressing
 * your small group consensus, however limited
 * an outline approach to representing skill/competence frameworks interoperably

Any medium is fine: paper; e-mail; presentation slide; Google doc; etc.

Presenters
These people presented at this meeting.
 * Claire Hamshire SRC project - [[Media:2009-07-01ClaireHamshire.ppt|Presentation (.ppt)]]
 * Julie Laxton, ALPS CETL - [[Media:2009-07-01JulieLaxton.ppt|Presentation (.ppt)]]
 * Karen Beggs NHS Education for Scotland - [[Media:2009-07-01KarenBeggs.ppt|Presentation (.ppt)]]
 * Jad Najjar, ICOPER project - Presentation (.ppt)
 * Paul Horner, Newcastle University: The Learning Maps project - [[Media:2009-07-01PaulHorner.pptx|Presentation (.pptx)]]
 * Shane Sutherland, Pebble Learning
 * Dave Waller, MyKnowledgeMap - [[Media:2009-07-01DaveWaller.ppt|Presentation (.ppt)]]
 * Tim Brown, NHS Education for Scotland [[Media:2009-07-01TimBrown.ppt|Tim's presentation (.ppt)]]

Resources and links

 * [[Media:UG_portfolio_questionnaire_report.doc|Undergraduate portfolio questionnaire report]] (.doc)
 * ICOPER deliverable 2.1 (.pdf)
 * NES Foundation ePortfolio version 2.0 demo site instructions
 * Mahara's functional spec for tracking outcomes
 * This Moodle development page has some links to discussion of competence