Learning through projects Competence-based education

Structure of this presentation  Previous situation  Solution  Competences in general  Competences and education How to use them in education? How to examine them?  Advantages and risks  The future

Previous situation  In education: Knowledge transfer most important Skills where thought, without context  Students didn’t know how to apply that knowledge and skills in a real-life situation  Effect: employers where not satisfied with graduates: Missing correct attitude Missing ‘learnability’ Graduates where not directly usable by employers

Solution  Transferring knowledge and skills in a context to learn the correct attitude  Competence-based education  Source of competences: Employers Cooperation between education

Competences in general  A competence is a demonstrated ability to apply knowledge, skills and attitudes to achieving observable results. (European e-competence framework 1.0, 2008)  Three aspects: Knowledge Skills Attitude

An example: system and network engineer (1/4)  Source: competences description of The ICT- Office NL

An example: system and network engineer (2/4)  The job: Design IT infrastructure Compose technical design infrastructure Advise application of technical components in IT systems Construct IT systems according to design and agreed structure Produce technical documentation Exploitation and maintenance of IT infrastructure

An example: system and network engineer (3/4)  Basic knowledge & skills IT knowledge  Design & build information systems and IT infrastructures  How machines work  Network technology incl. software  Server technology incl. software  Maintenance of technical infrastructure Business knowledge  General knowledge of business processes Linguistic knowledge  Both writing and oral skills in English (and the own language)

An example: system and network engineer (4/4)  Basic attitude & skills Management skills  Methodical way of working Interpersonal skills  Communication skills  Customer intimacy  Cooperation  Able to withstand stress Analytical skills  Analytical power  Problem solving ability Dynamics & decisiveness  Independence  Perseverance  Persuasiveness  Initiative  Self development

Competences and education (1/x) KnowledgeSkillsAttitude Courses (hard) XX Professional Skills (soft) XX Projects (Integrated) XXX InternshipXXX

Competences and education (2/x)  Principles for decomposition: Assignment:from simple to complex Context:from defined to self-explore Coaching:from intensive to exceptions Disciplines:from mono to multi Consultancy:from mandatory to optional  Decomposition of competences per stage in curriculum End of first year (starter) During (first) internship (junior) End of study (young professional)

Competences and education (3/x)  Example of decomposition Competence: be able to design an IT infrastructure  The first and second year: Courses: intro Networks, intro computer architecture, intro business engineering, professional skills, course CISCO Projects: contribute to a simple mobile device application, design and develop and test client/server architecture  During the internship: Internship at a company active in system and network management  Third and fourth year: Courses on advanced Network Management, Interface Scripting, Unix Network Programming etc  End of study: Final thesis: setting up Security Policy for SARA Computing and Networking Services for Universities

Competences and education (4/x)  Assessment of competences: Based on levels student have to prove  Has shown knowledge of …  Has contributed to …  Has accomplished independently …  Examples of levels to assess: Knowledge:from basic to applied scientific Skills:from using methods to contributing to profession Attitude:from open minded to innovative  Examples of assessments: Peer-to-peer Portfolio assessment Final thesis with exam session

Advantages and disadvantages  Advantages: Deducted from (end-)competences needed to be a young professional Clear framework for education and profession Learning attitude is part of the curriculum Framework enables the measurement of growth more clear  Risks: Implementation of a competence-based curriculum is difficult Framework is clear, but the use of it takes time to build best-practices

The future  European e-Competence Framework Developed by major European companies  Enables Universities/Høgskolen/Companies to compare and understand qualifications of IT-students across Europe better.

Questions