ePortfolio for competency management

Mart LaanpereHead of the Centre for Educational Technology,

Tallinn UniversityMart.laanpere@tlu.ee

Competency

Defined as “the behaviours that employees must have, or must acquire, to input into a situation in order to achieve high levels of performance”

Highly context-bound Should not be broken down to “atomic level” knowledge and skills

Uses: outcome-based education, quality assurance of training programmes, accreditation of prior learning and experience

Case: ICT in national curriculumUntil 1996 informatics was a compulsory subject in Estonian schools

2002 national curriculum introduced ICT as a compulsory cross-curricular theme, defined by 11 competencies

National sample-based testing of ICT competencies in grade 9 in 2002-2005

ICT competencies in grade 9 Operates hard- and software Manages files Uses correct ICT terminology Follows legal & ethical aspects of ICT use Creates effective and aesthetical presentations

Uses ICT tools to find information and communicate with others

Understands the needs for critical evaluation of Internet information

Collects and analyses data with ICT tools

National test on ICT competencies Written test, 13 multiple-choice questions (30 min) Keyboard, computer misuse Op.system: user interface, file types Word processing and WWW mistakes Computer viruses, error messages What is not allowed (copyrights, personal)

Practical task (60 min) Find, rename, edit and save text file Find additional information on WWW Design a booklet

Discussion

No more testingStudy: few schools are concerned with teaching and assessing cross--curricular themes

Portfolio-based assessment of new ICT competencies - needs legitimisation in new national curriculum 2010

The same model for all cross-curricular themes

Case: Ed.tech competenciesEducational technology competency standard for teachers in Estonia (similar to OPEFI):Three levels: basic user, advanced user, expertSix domains: the use of ICT, designing the learning environment, e-learning in curriculum development, assessment in e-learning, ICT in professional development, social and technical aspects of technology use at school

No audience, no legitimisation, are used only for developing/assessing training programmes

Case: teacher educationUntil 2006: the teacher education framework and teachers’ accreditation requirements

2006: professional qualification standard for teachers: 8 domains: planning and leadership, designing the learning environment, facilitating learning, motivating the learners, collaboration, communication, analysing and assessing the learning, self-directed professional development

Not fully compatible with de facto standards: curricula and accreditation rquirements

Technical standards

IMS: Instructional Managent Systems (see imsglobal.org), a global consortium of major players in e-learning development

Three entry points for standardising competency descriptions: IEEE LOM, curriculum mapping for learning objects

Learner information: IMS LIP vs. IEEE PAPIIMS RDCEO (Re-usable Description of Competencies and Educational Outcomes)

E-portfolio DiPo

Competency Manager: a self-developed add-in module for Plone CMS

Two views to competency model: Global view: publicly accessible, can be edited by admin and commented by registered member of the portal

Personal view: used for organising learning goals, reflections and other evidences

Several parallel competency models: teachers’ PQS, ed.technology competencies, mentor etc

Discussion and conclusions E-portfolio seems to be a suitable tool/approach for competency-based education and assessment

Legitimisation is needed (both for competency standards and tool)

Future: e-portfolio as a state-provided free service in citizen’s portal?

Thank You!

Please visit:http://www.htk.tlu.ee/dipohttp://eportfoolio.opetaja.ee