My courses utilize a competency-based evaluation system. You’ll be given a set of competencies, either in the syllabus or in a separate document, at the start of the semester. Throughout the semester you will perform self-evaluations of your learning and overall course performance based on the provided course competencies. You will then discuss your evaluation with me and get feedback based on my own observations and evaluation of your learning. The overall evaluation process is not grade-based. Learning is not quantified by the accumulation of points on assignments. A final course grade is determined based on your self-evaluations and subsequent discussions and deliberations with the instructor.

This document explains the course competencies and how to use them as the basis for a critical self-evaluation. Determining grades from self-evaluations is briefly discussed in the course syllabus and will be further discussed during class and as part of the self-evaluation process.

Competency = Task + Knowledge + Skill + Disposition

Along with the syllabus, you were given a competencies document for my course. On this document you’ll see four things.

Task-Based Competencies - Something you’re learning to accomplish through completing course.
Knowledge Areas - The knowledge needed to perform the task.
Skill-Levels - How adept you need to be at utilizing the required knowledge in order to successfully complete the task.
Dispositions - The attitudes and mannerisms you need to embody while performing the task.

As the above descriptions imply, there is a clear hierarchy at play here. You want to learn to complete a task with competence, but to do that you must possess certain knowledge, be able to apply that knowledge with a certain level of skill, and all this while displaying desirable dispositions. By encapsulating knowledge, skill, and disposition within a task, we’re acknowledging that while knowledge and skill might let us achieve a successful result, going about that work with sufficient maturity, responsibility, and professionalism is just as important. Before we move on to the details of a competency based self-evaluation, let’s look just a bit closer at each of the four parts of our competencies.

Tasks

Tasks are relatively straight forward to understand. Each competency begins with a simple task statement and a more generalized statement of competency. For example, here’s a competency from COMP235:

Task: Assess the performance implications of cache memories in your application. Competency: Critically analyze the performance of an application concerning caching issues and produce a report summarizing key results.

The task is straight forward and provides a context in which you apply your knowledge and skill. The competency statement sheds more light on the skills needed to complete the task. In general, we look to tasks and their related competency in order to describe what we’re doing, who we’re doing it with, and why we’re doing it.

Knowledge Areas

Knowledge areas are the obvious content of the course. The competencies list key, required knowledge areas, but our goal is to engage in the complete list of knowledge listed in the document. You’ll spend a lot of your self-evaluation time evaluating which knowledge areas the current material and assignments are addressing, the level of skill you need to complete an assignment, and the level of skill you displayed during while completing the assignment.

Skill-Levels

We use skill-levels to assess the depth of your understanding and ability to make use of of each knowledge area. Our skill-levels are adapted from Bloom’s Taxonomy. Each level of skill includes and builds upon the level below it. That is, you must achieve the first level of skill in order to reach the second, and so on. There are four levels of skill. Below you’ll find them listed with verbs typically associated with that level of skill.

Explain - define, describe, discuss, enumerate, express, identify, indicate, list, name, select, state, summarize, tabulate, translate
Apply - backup, calculate, compute, configure, debug, experiment, install, iterate, interpret, manipulate, map, measure, predict, randomize, restore, schedule, solve, test, trace
Evaluate - analyze, compare, classify, contrast, distinguish, categorize, differentiate, discriminate, order, prioritize, criticize, support, assess, choose, defend, rank
Develop - combine, compile, compose, create, design, generalize, integrate, modify, organize, produce, rewrite, refactor, write

To help you interpret these skill-levels in a more computing centric environment, let’s look at them in terms of a classic programming task:

Explain - You recognize a for loop and could explain some basic examples when you see them in code. You struggle to write all but the most basic loops and literal copies of loops you’ve seen before.
Apply - You are more adept and writing your own loops but often need to manipulate existing loops to get started. Without a loop to adapt, you might not be able to complete your code at all.
Evaluate - You can write a working for loop and can talk about how it executes given different data. So, not only do you have it working but you understand the nuance of how it will work and perform under specific conditions.
Develop - You’ve got your for loop on lock but also see some ways to optimize loop performance by either modifying the loop control or the code in the body of the loop. repetition in the code by another means and still produce the same result.

Early stages of our self-evaluation process will focus on getting you comfortable assessing skill-levels in the context of our course and course competencies.

Dispositions

Dispositions are listed separate from the competencies as they apply to all competencies and not just a select few. A professional disposition describes the attitudes and mannerisms you should bring to the table while carrying out the task. Again, building these into the self-evaluation process reinforces the idea that it’s not just about what you accomplish but how you accomplish it. You should be practicing responsible, professional behavior now so that it’s second-nature when you’re on the job. In general, you should think of dispositions as covering things like in-class participation, attendance, meeting deadlines, contributing to groups, and generally taking a active role in the course and your learning.

How to do a Competency-Based Evaluation

Your self-evaluation begins with a critical, reflective examination of your accumulated and in progress work, i.e. your portfolio. Your portfolio consists of digital or printed copies of your work and any instructor feedback given on that work. At regular intervals throughout the semester you will meet, one-on-one, with me and discuss your current portfolio. You should leave these meetings with a clear sense of your progress in the class, what that progress equates to in terms of a letter grade, and steps you might take to maintain or improve your learning.

Do Before The Meeting

Meetings will begin with a quick presentation of your current portfolio. You spend time preparing for this prior to the meeting. The presentation consist of two parts.

Provide a high-level overview of all your work thus far and discuss your overall sucess at meeting the desired competencies. In short, give me a big-picture self-evaluation. You should consider the following when looking at the big-picture:

a. How sucessful have you been with the material?

b. Learning is a developmental process, where have you seen your knoweldge, understanding, and skill grow and develop?
Present, with some detail, a handful of key examples (postivie and less-positive) from the portfolio and discuss how they are idicative of your current level of learning and meeting the competencies. In short, justify your big-picture self-evaluation with key points of evidence. When choosing examplars, consider the following:

a. Which parts of the porfolio (whole assignments or parts of assignments) stand out to you as a success? Which best represent your current and ongoing struggles?

b. How does recent work compare to older work? Does it show progress? Does it demonstrate continued understanding of previously learned ideas?

c. Are the items that you feel merit contined work and study? Why?

Above all else, the presentation of your portfolio should demonstrate that you’ve returned to and evaluated your completed work, reflected on what it says about the state of your learning, and have considered what, if any, changes to your approach to the class that you might need to make.

The Meeting

Meetings will take 15-30 minutes and will follow the following pattern.

Present and discuss your porfolio.
Discussion of dispositional characteristics and their impact on learning. By this I mean attendance, meeting deadlines, and overall attitudes towards the work.
Proposal and deliberation of current grade. You will propose a grade that best capturers your current progress and then we’ll come to an agreement on that or another grade.
Discussion of next steps. What should you focus on to improve or maintain learning? What steps can I take that might help you moving forward?

You should leave these meetings with a clear sense of where you stand in the course and what, if anything, you should focus on moving forward.