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Title: Measuring What Matters: Competency-based Models in Higher Education


1
Measuring What Matters Competency-based Models
in Higher Education
  • Presentation to the State Higher Education
    Executive Officers/NCES Network Conference
  • Washington, D.C.
  • May 25, 2001
  • Richard A. Voorhees
  • Community Colleges of Colorado
  • Rick.Voorhees_at_cccs.cccoes.Edu

2
Conclusion and Summary
  • Competencies are good!!!

3
This presentation informed by
  • National 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

4
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-Based
    Initiatives
  • Pre-postsecondary education
  • Within postsecondary education
  • After postsecondary education

5
NPEC Report
  • 8 Case Studies and abstracts
  • Identification of Strong Practices
  • An annotated bibliography of competencies

6
Why Should You Care?
  • The State-by-State Report Card awarded all states
    an Incomplete grade for student learning
  • All states lack information on the educational
    performance of college students that would permit
    systematic state or national comparisons

7
And..?
  • Growing number of partnerships between e-learning
    vendors and academic institutions
  • By 2003 the monetary value of online markets 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
8
So.
  • In 1985 there were 400 Corporate Universities
    today there are 1,000 (Dolence, 2001)
  • 78.9 percent of advertised postings for
    information technology workers did not mention a
    degree requirement (Adelman, 2000)
  • MIT is moving to make instructional materials for
    all its courses available free

9
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)

10
Early Stages of a Learning Revolution
  • Performance-based learning
  • Learning pathways no longer lead automatically to
    institutions of higher education

11
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 outcomes will
    drive the assessment of quality in fundamental
    ways

12
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

13
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

14
Hierarchical Relationships
15
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 federal financial aid rules
  • Predominant public funding allocations are built
    on time, not outcomes

16
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

17
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18
8 Case Studies
  • Kings Collegeembeds competencies across courses
    in all academic programs
  • Northwest Missouri State Universitylinks
    competencies with a strategic planning process
  • Sinclair Community CollegeFocus on competencies
    and how they are assessed
  • Hagerstown Community CollegeModules for
    technical programs and career transcripts

19
8 Case Studies (Continued)
  • Community Colleges of Colorado, Incumbent Worker
    Projectbuilds competency-based curricula in
    conjunction with employers for delivery in
    electronic formats
  • Western Governors Universitymapping of degree
    programs from other providers to produce total
    competency-based degrees
  • Proficiency-Based Admission Standards System in
    Oregonarticulation between secondary and public
    postsecondary institutions
  • Ford Motor Companyperformance-based assessment
    of new hires and throughout their careers

20
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

21
Working with Faculty
  • Major transformation in mindset and practice
  • Work to identify and define specific competencies
  • Validation of competencies. Are they essential?
  • DACUM and Delphi Approaches for consensus building

22
Measuring and Reporting Competencies
  • Internal and External consumers
  • Simple measurement is not enough quality and
    range of competencies need to be communicated
    clearly
  • Competencies must be assessable
  • Consistency in writing competency
    statementsparticularly across levels
  • Reliability and validity

23
Standard Setting and Bookmarking
  • Competency testing has become a high stakes
    activity
  • National tests can be used to set competency
    levels or standards
  • Bookmarking is a technique for establishing
    technically sound thresholds
  • Expert panels of judges

24
Regional Accreditation and Distance Education
  • Links between competencies and accreditation is
    growing tighter
  • The accent is on documentation of student
    learning
  • Six regional associations have promulgated these
    expectations
  • Distance education activity appears to be the
    prime driver

25
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

26
21st Century Workplace Skills Attitudes and
Personal Characteristics
  • Adaptability, flexibility, resiliency, ability to
    accept ambiguity
  • Common sense and ability to anticipate downstream
    consequences
  • Creativity
  • Empathy

Source Paulson, 2001
27
21st Century Workplace Skills Attitudes and
Personal Characteristics
  • Positive attitude, good work ethic, ability to
    self-manage
  • Reliability, dependability
  • Responsibility, honesty, integrity

Source Paulson, 2001
28
21st Century Workplace SkillsEssential Skills
  • Computers for simple tasks (word processing)
  • Interpersonal skills, team skills
  • Numeracy and Computational Skills (9th Grade
    Level)

Source Paulson, 2001
29
21st Century Workplace SkillsEssential Skills
  • Reading (9th Grade Level)
  • Speaking and Listening
  • Writing

Source Paulson, 2001
30
21st Century Workplace Skills Integrative-Applied
Skills
  • Application of technology to tasks
  • Critical Thinking
  • Customer contact skills
  • Information use skills
  • Presentation skills
  • Problem recognition, definition, solution,
    formulation

Source Paulson, 2001
31
21st Century Workplace SkillsPremium 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

Source Paulson, 2001
32
Strong Practices in Competencies
  • A senior administrator is the public advocate,
    leader, and facilitator for creating an
    institutional culture that is open to change,
    willing to take risks, and fosters innovations by
    providing real incentives for participants.
  • The appropriate stakeholders fully participate in
    identifying, defining, and reaching consensus
    about important competencies.
  • Competencies are clearly defined, understood, and
    accepted by relevant stakeholders.

33
Strong Practices in Competencies (Continued)
  • Competencies are defined at a sufficient level of
    specificity that they can be assessed.
  • Multiple assessments of competencies provide
    useful and meaningful information that is
    relevant to decision-making or policy-development
    context.
  • Faculty and staff fully participate in making
    decisions about the strongest assessment
    instruments that will measure their specific
    competencies.

34
Strong Practices in Competencies (Continued)
  • The precision, reliability, validity,
    credibility, and costs are all considered and
    examined in making selections about the best
    commercially-developed assessments and/or
    locally-developed assessment approaches.
  • The competency-based educational initiative is
    embedded within a larger institutional planning
    process.
  • The assessments of competencies are directly
    linked with the goals of the learning experience.

35
Strong Practices in Competencies (Continued)
  • The precision, reliability, validity,
    credibility, and costs are all considered and
    examined in making selections about the best
    commercially-developed assessments and/or
    locally-developed assessment approaches.
  • The competency-based educational initiative is
    embedded within a larger institutional planning
    process.
  • The assessments of competencies are directly
    linked with the goals of the learning experience.

36
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 to
    document students mastery of competencies that
    supplement the traditional transcript.

37
References
Adelman, 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
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