competency-based assessment at new century college
DESCRIPTION
Presentation at ePorfolio 2006, Oxford, England, October 12, 2006TRANSCRIPT
October 12, 2006 ePortfolio 2006, Oxford, UK
Competency-based Assessment
At New Century College: Towards Reflection Within The Responsive Learning
Organization
Darren CambridgeGeorge Mason University
October 12, 2006 ePortfolio 2006, Oxford, UK
Overview
• Universities as ethical learning organizations
• Competencies in reflective assessment
• Portfolios and competencies at New Century College
• The role of digital space
October 12, 2006 ePortfolio 2006, Oxford, UK
Flexibility vs. Commitment
• Dual outcomes of reflective learning– Flexibility and accountability– Integrity
• Being forced to be constantly flexible and mobile in the workplace can make it difficult to craft coherent life narratives, make long term commitments
October 12, 2006 ePortfolio 2006, Oxford, UK
Lack of integrity in the Learning Organization
• “Learning organization” discourse emphasizes flexibility and assumes this also supports integrity, ignoring the tension
• There’s little space for dialog between individual and institutional goals: They’re assumed to be the same
• Universities can provide an alternative model of how organizations and individuals interact
October 12, 2006 ePortfolio 2006, Oxford, UK
The University as an Ethical Learning Organization• Help students discover and
document what’s important to them about learning, based on evidence
• Put those individual articulations in conversation with organizational understanding
• Student inputs must have real influence on decision making
October 12, 2006 ePortfolio 2006, Oxford, UK
A New Role for Competencies
• Old: Matching performance to a pre-defined set of outcomes
• New: Capture standards all stakeholders value as enacted in practice and examining alignment of alignment of both student and programmatic performance
October 12, 2006 ePortfolio 2006, Oxford, UK
Competencies in Organizational Learning
• Old: Articulating expectations to students• New: Means for mutually accountable
connection between individual and organizational learning
• Boundary objects: “Boundary objects are objects that are both plastic enough to adapt to local needs and constraints of the several parties employing them, yet robust enough to maintain a common identity across sites” (Leigh Star 1989)
October 12, 2006 ePortfolio 2006, Oxford, UK
Reflective Assessment
• Old: Objectivist/utilitarian vs. subjectivist/intuitionist approaches (Gray 2002)
• New: Reflective assessment – Learning complex and situated – Judgment based in embodied expertise– Students as authoritative informants
about their own learning (Yancey 1998)
October 12, 2006 ePortfolio 2006, Oxford, UK
New Century College
• Integrative studies college of George Mason University, founded 1994
• Approximately 800 students within a University of about 30,000
• Learning community model• Connecting the classroom to the world:
internships, service learning, study abroad, co-curricular activities
• Nine competencies run throughout the curriculum
October 12, 2006 ePortfolio 2006, Oxford, UK
NCC Competencies
• Communication• Critical Thinking• Strategic
Problem Solving• Valuing• Group Interaction
• Global Understanding
• Effective Citizenship
• Aesthetic Awareness
• Information Technology
October 12, 2006 ePortfolio 2006, Oxford, UK
Portfolios at NCC
• Multiple iterations of electronic portfolios throughout the curriculum– First-year portfolios– Course portfolios– Graduation portfolios
• Common structure using competencies– Integrative section – Sections focusing on selected essays– Looking forward
October 12, 2006 ePortfolio 2006, Oxford, UK
Graduation Portfolio
• No predefined standard for what constitutes satisfactory performance in each competency
• Students exposed to many models and standards through coursework and experiential learning
• Students redefine each competency, beginning with “official definition”– Synthesizing multiple perspectives – Integrating evidence from own experience – Taking ownership and planning for the future
October 12, 2006 ePortfolio 2006, Oxford, UK
Portfolio outcomes
• Demonstrate learning power (Broadstreet 2006) or learning competencies– Key affordance of the portfolio genre (Meeus,
Petegem, and Looy 2006)
• Input to a community conversation about what it means to be an educated person in the 21st Century– Competencies are means of connection – Analysis of student competency essays and
evidence a central feature of program review
October 12, 2006 ePortfolio 2006, Oxford, UK
Embracing the digital
• NCC portfolio practice evolved from a print model, still has many print-like characteristics
• Beginning to utilize the capabilities of digital portfolio space
• Two examples– Individual: Contextualizing portfolios through
concept maps– Organizational: Capstone Conversations
portfolio
October 12, 2006 ePortfolio 2006, Oxford, UK
Concept Map Portfolios
• Holistic visual representation of learning experiences related to the course through linking – Competencies– Course goals– Course concepts– Samples of work
• Reflective writing focused on articulating relationships, the core element of portfolios
October 12, 2006 ePortfolio 2006, Oxford, UK
October 12, 2006 ePortfolio 2006, Oxford, UK
Capstone Conversations
• Senior capstone experience– Taken by all seniors– Site of individual graduation portfolio composition– Key site for community conversation about what it
means to be an educated person
• Capstone Conversations– Student-facilitated panel discussions of each NCC
competency, simultaneous with individual portfolio writing
– Involve students, NCC faculty members, NCC alumni, guests from across the University
– Influence shared understanding of the competencies that shapes the curriculum
October 12, 2006 ePortfolio 2006, Oxford, UK
Capstone Portfolios
• Capstone Conversation Portfolio– Audio of panels– Synthesis of panel outcomes and competency
research by facilitators – Collection of student competency essays and
evidence – Space for ongoing discussion and community
memory
• Capstone Course Portfolio – Working portfolio using MediaWiki– Includes course materials, reflection– Interlinked with public capstone conversation
October 12, 2006 ePortfolio 2006, Oxford, UK
Learn More
• Darren [email protected]
• New Century Collegehttp://ncc.gmu.edu/– Competencies:
http://ncc.gmu.edu/competencies.html
– Graduation portfolio: http://www.ncc.gmu.edu/graduation/grad_portguide.html