Students’ competencies discovery and assessment using learning analytics and semantic web

Traditional content-based assessment systems, which depend on the score as a key criterion for students’ evaluation, have proven to have many drawbacks, especially with the development of learning methods in recent years. Based on these developments, there is a need to adopt new assessment methods to assess the actual skills of students in the digital age. Therefore, the competency-based assessment approach is adopted in this paper to address the subject of students’ competency modelling and discovery in technology-enhanced learning systems. This method of assessment is perfectly suited to modern teaching trends. The authors proposed an approach of assessment semantic analytics to be used for discovering and assessing students’ competencies. This study notes that, all knowledge about students and their competencies has been modelled by semantic representations. Student’s models have been subjected to a set of learning analytics approaches to analyse data generated by students’ activities in order to discover their explicit and latent competencies hidden behind their activities. This experimental study indicates that the competency-based assessment approach is efficient and expected to show significant advantages in evaluating students’ competencies. Implications for practice or policy: Students become able to organise their gains, then integrate and employ them in solving life's problems. Educators get to know more about the extent to which the objectives of their educational process are achieved by evaluating the intellectual, cultural, knowledge, and skilful assets that the learners obtain. Educational policymakers can have a pedagogical and technical vision to move from the culture of content-based evaluations to a competency-based assessment.

A Document Analysis of Nationally Available Faculty Assessment Forms of Resident Performance

ABSTRACT Background Written feedback by faculty of resident performance is valuable when it includes components based on assessment for learning. However, it is not clear how often assessment forms include these components for summative and formative feedback. Objective To analyze prompts used in forms for faculty assessment of resident performance, guided by best practices in survey research methodology, self-regulation theory, and competency-based assessment. Methods A document analysis, which is a qualitative approach used to analyze content and structure of texts, was completed on assessment forms nationally available in MedHub. Due to the number of forms available, only internal medicine and surgery specialties were included. A document summary form was created to analyze the assessments. The summary form guided researchers through the analysis. Results Forty-eight forms were reviewed, each from a unique residency program. All forms provided a textbox for comments, and 54% made this textbox required for assessment completion. Eighty-three percent of assessments placed the open textbox at the end of the form. One-third of forms contained a simple prompt, “Comments,” for the narrative section. Fifteen percent of forms included a box to check if the information on the form had been discussed with the resident. Fifty percent of the assessments were unclear if they were meant to be formative or summative in nature. Conclusions Our document analysis of assessment forms revealed they do not always follow best practices in survey design for narrative sections, nor do they universally address elements deemed important for promotion of self-regulation and competency-based assessment.

La búsqueda de un modelo de evaluación competencial en educación básica. Un estudio de caso en el colegio los pinos de Algeciras

Entre el conjunto de los parámetros que miden la calidad de los sistemas educativos, se encuentra la evaluación, el elemento curricular que lo abarca todo, convirtiéndose en la pieza clave del dispositivo pedagógico (Sanmartí y Jorba, 1993). En estos momentos, la educación, y con ella la evaluación educativa, se encuentra inmersa en un proceso de transformación hacia un nuevo paradigma de la educación basado en competencias (EBC). Un modelo que asigna a la escuela una nueva función, dirigida a formar ciudadanos competentes, preparados para resolver problemas en situaciones reales, con capacidad de aprender a lo largo de toda la vida. El panorama de la educación española, medido en porcentaje de fracaso escolar, requiere que se adopten medidas urgentes al respecto. Y, aunque tocar la evaluación educativa siempre es un tema de controversia por las consecuencias implícitas, tanto sociales como económicas, muchas investigaciones (Tonda y Medina, 2013) confluyen en que, solo tocando la evaluación desde el nivel micro del sistema, puede modificarse el currículo y, para ello, se necesita una transformación en la mentalidad docente. Y mientras los docentes se resisten a dejar sus metodologías tradicionales, una alerta sanitaria mundial paraliza sus actuaciones, haciéndoles dudar de su modelo educativo. El nuevo panorama de la educación basado en competencias (De la Orden, 2011) encuentra su oportunidad abriéndose paso entre las enseñanzas tradicionales basadas en la evaluación de objetivos educacionales y apostando por la evaluación competencial. En ese contexto se desarrolla la tercera fase de esta investigación (Tonda, 2012), que culmina con la implementación de un modelo de evaluación competencial en un centro educativo de Algeciras (Cádiz), el colegio Los Pinos, en sus etapas desde Infantil a Secundaria. Reinventar la evaluación, utilizando la adversidad como una oportunidad para crecer y transformarse, a través de la formación de grupos colaborativos de docentes que trabajan la investigación-acción. Utilizando estrategias formativas basadas en la elaboración de mapas evaluativos competenciales y en la reflexión vertical para encontrar la escalera de contenidos más ajustada que permita conseguir el desarrollo competencial pleno del alumnado. Educational assessment, the key piece of the pedagogical device (Sanmartí y Jorba, 1993), along with the rest of the parameters that measure the quality of education systems, is undergoing a process of transformation towards a new paradigm of education based on competences (EBC). A model that assigns a new role to schools, aimed at training competent citizens, prepared to solve problems in real-life situations, with the ability to learn throughout life. The picture of education in Spain, measured in terms of school failure rates, requires urgent action. And, although touching on educational assessment is always a matter of controversy because of the implicit consequences, both social and economic, many studies (Tonda and Medina, 2013) agree that the curriculum can only be modified by touching on assessment at the micro level of the system and, for this to happen, a transformation in the mentality of teachers is needed. And while teachers are reluctant to abandon their traditional methodologies, a global health alert paralyses their actions, causing them to question their educational model. The new landscape of education based on competences (Ministerial Order, 2011) finds its opportunity to break through traditional teaching based on the assessment of educational objectives and to focus on competency-based assessment. It is in this context that the third phase of this research is developed, culminating in the implementation of a competence assessment model in an educational centre in Algeciras, in its stages from Pre-school to Secondary Education. Reinventing evaluation, using adversity as an opportunity for growth and transformation, through the formation of collaborative groups of teachers working on research-action. Using training strategies based on the development of competency-based assessment maps and on vertical reflection to find the most appropriate content ladder to achieve the full competency development of students.

Challenge-based and Competency-based Assessments in an Undergraduate Programming Course

In this work, we investigate an optimal assessment strategy to measure student learning in the first-year undergraduate engineering course at X-Department at X University. Specifically, we evaluate and compare challenge-based and competency-based assessment strategies. In the challenge-based approach, the students are required to design a C++-based application that meet the required design objectives. The competency-based assessment involves assessing learning by asking a variety of pointed questions pertaining to a single or a small group of concepts. After studying the performance of 207 students, we found that in the challenge-based assessment, due to the complex nature of the questions that assess numerous concepts simultaneously, students who are not very thorough with even one or two concepts fared very poorly since they were unable to finish the challenge and present a functional prototype of the program. On the other hand, the competency-based assessment allowed for a more balanced approach in which the students’ learning was reflected more accurately by their performance in the various assessments.