Competence Frameworks - how far to drill down Vs courses...

Competence Frameworks - how far to drill down Vs courses...

von Michelle Hollister -
Anzahl Antworten: 3

Greetings all, 

I am not sure where I should post this, so starting here, let me know if it should be elsewhere.  

MOODLE v3.2 - Competence Frameworks, 

I am creating a framework at site level (we have no defined standard internationally or nationally).  I have my 5 top level competencies, and I am breaking them down into smaller chunks against which activities will be judged.   

What I want to know, is at what level I should be defining, or breaking down the competencies into performance criteria at the framework level  and where I I stop and then have the remainder defined within a course.   This is hard to explain.  

For example, if I have a top level competence, say COMMUNICATE then that is one of the top level competence elements in the framework.   Then say I am testing communication in terms of written and oral.  So I have two subcompetencies COMMUNICATE - written and COMMUNICATE- oral.  Then the written communication requires that the people use the correct systems or technology, use appropriate language, and, say, cover the right material.  Should those three sub-sub-competencies be in the framework, or in the course?  

Is there any kind of standard that anyone knows of?  

Many thanks for any thoughts, or any advice on where else this kind of topic is discussed, I know it isn't really to do with moodle, moodle is just the tool, but I figured someone here might have hit this problem before me! 

Cheers

Michelle

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Als Antwort auf Michelle Hollister

Re: Competence Frameworks - how far to drill down Vs courses...

von Joost Elshoff -
Nutzerbild von Particularly helpful Moodlers Nutzerbild von Testers

Hi Michelle,

This is more a CBE (Competency Based Education) question than a tool one, but I'll see if I can help you (as the topic has my particular interest). 

The key is to be as concrete as possible when elaborating the competencies in your framework, limiting each competency to one specific behaviour/skill/situation. For your example, this could mean:

Communicate

  1. Oral
    1. Informal
      1. I can have a phone conversation
      2. I can ask questions about something personally relevant, such as directions to the nearest bus stop
      3. etc...
    2. Formal
  2. Written
    1. Informal
      1. I can write a post card from my vacation address
      2. I can IM with a friend
      3. I can write a status update for my social media
    2. Formal
      1. I can write a formal letter to apply for a job
      2. I can write a resumé to accompany my job application
      3. I can write an email to a potential employer to apply for a job
And so on... one good source for this elaborate breakdown of competencies/skills/can-do statements is the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, aka CEFR. If this is not a foreign language thing you're after, you might want to look into descriptors for soft skills, that are bound to be out there.
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Als Antwort auf Joost Elshoff

Re: Competence Frameworks - how far to drill down Vs courses...

von Michelle Hollister -

Hi Joost! 

Thanks for the reply,  I have done more research and thought and discussed this at work.  I am going to add one thing.  Thanks for your post, that helped to get me started! 

Basically I have decided to split the framework elements Vs course measurables using elements that are non-perishable (and hence in framework which stands the test of time) Vs perishable (measurable in course that might change in the future).  

i.e.  Oral - informal and Oral - Formal would be part of the framework, we can assume that these will be required forever (non-perishable).  However, the medium used for oral communication (phone/video.) is perishable, the phone may cease to exist, video may become hologram (?!) .  I'd argue that the ability to ask questions is non-perishable, where as using a particular system (phone/twitter/facebook etc) are perishable.  So I'd be putting the system based performance criterion in the course, and the non-perishable in the framework. 

Does this sound sensible to others? 

Joost, should I be adding this to CBE discussion? Not sure where that is....

Thanks! 

Michelle

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Als Antwort auf Michelle Hollister

Re: Competence Frameworks - how far to drill down Vs courses...

von Joost Elshoff -
Nutzerbild von Particularly helpful Moodlers Nutzerbild von Testers

It sounds sensible to me... focus on behaviors, skills (or whatever taxonomy you plan to use) and make them about as specific as is needed, without restricting a behavior to a tool that's presently being used for it. You're right in saying that communication skills don't necessarily depend on the tool used: even when humans used drums or smoke signals, they still needed to master the skill of asking questions, answering them and exchanging information in an efficient way.

Same goes for computer skills: tool-related stuff can be managed in in-course tasks (being able to store a document made with MS Office Word on a laptop by using the short key Ctrl-S), whereas the skill 'I can create, edit and save a text document' would be handled in a competency framework.

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