Students, parents, and policymakers are increasingly focused on post-graduation outcomes when assessing their options to attend university. This is a shift for many higher education institutions (HEI), especially those that characterise themselves as research-intensive, such as the UK’s Russell Group or R1 institutions in the US. These institutions have traditionally prioritised academic pursuits over vocational outcomes.
Competency-based education (CBE) is quickly emerging as an approach for HEIs to connect the dots between their teaching, learning and assessment practices, and students’ future beyond higher education.
Given the differences between competency-based education and traditional assessment practices, institutions often find themselves requiring specialist tools to support CBE. In this post, we’ll dive into the value of e-portfolios that support competency-based education.
What is competency-based education, and why is it important?
Competency-based education is an approach that “focuses on the student’s demonstration of desired learning outcomes as central to the learning process” (TeachThought, 2014). Competencies are typically pre-defined, and the focus of assessment is for students to continually show their progress towards the competencies that they are expected to achieve. As a result, a competency-based curriculum places more emphasis on continuous (low/medium stakes) assessment as opposed to a single, summative assessment.
There are several benefits to a competency-based approach to assessment that allow students to be better prepared for life beyond graduation.
- Explicit focus on competencies. By placing competencies front and centre in teaching, learning, and assessment, students are more aware of the competencies they are developing as part of their course. This makes it easier to connect the dots between their academic and professional journeys. For example, they will have a better grasp of the skills they have acquired including their strengths and weaknesses, which is a question that comes up during job interviews. As such, a competency-based curriculum enables students to better articulate their own skill development and learning journey.
- Authentic, holistic assessment. A competency-based assessment approach shifts the focus from recalling knowledge to demonstrating competency development in a real-world, authentic context. This means that assessment more closely matches the situations that students will find themselves in throughout their careers.
- Growth and reflection. Continuous assessment encourages students to reflect on their own development. This is a necessary component of self-directed and lifelong learning, which has a positive impact on learner employability.
Due to the differences between a competency-based assessment approach and a more traditional approach that relies solely on high-stakes exams, institutions have often found themselves requiring specialist tools that can underpin a competency-based curriculum. This is where e-portfolios come in.
How do e-portfolios support competency-based education?
These characteristics make e-portfolios, that are well-integrated into your existing institutional systems (e.g. your VLE), an instrumental part in supporting competency-based education. In this section, we’ll dive deeper into the natural fit between a competency-based curriculum and the tools that e-portfolios provide to support.
Longitudinal approach to skill development
Unlike most HEI systems that are built around academic units (e.g. modules, courses, programmes), e-portfolios operate within the learning journey. This means that students are able to capture their entire learning journey within their portfolio.
This lends itself well to a competency-based approach, since competency development is not restricted to individual academic units (i.e. modules). Instead, students will progress on a set of competencies across their entire curriculum. This is typically the case when competencies are grouped together into programme-level learning outcomes, or graduate attributes.
An e-portfolio is ideally suited for capturing this longitudinal view to competency development.
Work-integrated learning
When the focus shifts from reproducing knowledge to demonstrating competency development in an authentic context, it opens up the door towards different learning contexts. This is because students further their skills not only in the classroom, but also in other environments such as co-curricular engagements, volunteer work, and work-integrated learning (internships, placements). Traditional university systems have
Using an e-portfolio, students are able to capture evidence from these different learning contexts in order to create a more holistic overview of their development.
Alternative forms of assessment
As previously mentioned, a competency-based education approach to assessment entails a shift towards demonstrating competency development in a more authentic context. These different contexts can be captured in an e-portfolio solution to show a rich picture of a students’ development.
This rich picture, in turn, allows institutions to shift from traditional, exam-based assessments towards alternative forms of assessment that are more aligned to what students can expect beyond their academic careers. These approaches include, but are not limited to, holistic assessment, authentic assessment, and programme-level assessment.
As an additional benefit, these alternative approaches to assessment are more AI-resistant than typical assessment methods such as writing essays.
Conclusion
HEIs are increasingly looking at employing a competency-based education approach to prepare learners for their lives beyond graduation. However, the success of CBE depends on having the right tools to make it a reality. An e-portfolio provides the ideal solution, acting as the dynamic, student-owned platform that allows learners to capture evidence of learning from real-world contexts. They are the vehicle through which students can build a complete, compelling narrative of their skills, ready to share with the world.
Sources:
TeachThought. (2014). What is competency-based learning? TeachThought. Retrieved from https://www.teachthought.com/learning-posts/what-is-competency-based-learning/
About the Author: Thomas Ohlenforst
