This document provides an overview of competency-based education and assessment methods that can be used in higher education. It discusses the need for competency-based approaches to focus learning on critical skills for career success. Specific assessment methods described include the one-minute paper for gathering in-class feedback, calibrated peer review where students evaluate peers' work, and the benefits of incorporating games and simulations into learning. The document aims to provide faculty with tools and strategies for implementing competency-based learning and improving the quality of teaching.
3. Changes curently witnessed across the entire field of education are impacting a far
reaching population at both institutional and individual practitioner levels. The
relentless evolution of new information and communication technologies and the
emergence of freely accessible social software on the Web have been instrumental
in repurposing the manner in which pedagogy is conceived and delivered in
schools, colleges, and universities.
Change is therefore an important process to manage effectively for the future
success of education.Higher education is going through a reinventing phase a kind
of transformation in which effectiveness, relevance and very exisistence of
graduadtion and post graduation courses are being questioned. These courses are
struglling and falling short in filling the gap between higher education and
employbility. This gap seems to be widening day by day as a result at the tactical
level the quality of higher eduction is suffering in India.if indian education system
will not redifine itself it will be reduced to a monotonous exercise which wil result
in empty classes.
Student’s who have most of the access to the so called knoweledge at the click of
the button. Now the question is why student should come to the class? For that
there has to be some innovative out of box pedagogy adopted by the faculty in its
day to day routine apart from just imaprting routine lecturers. Every faculty should
4. strive for excellence. It will not be able to contribute to the young minds if it will
not invent and reinvent itself, continuously, persistently to achieve excellence.
This guide for teachers will help them in their self assessment and will guide them
how to communicate with their student effectively, figuring out there own
limitations while reaching out to the students, and in the process overcoming those
limitations.
Example: Getting Feedback on Your Teaching:
The One-Minute Paper
Q. What is the One-Minute Paper?
A. The One-Minute Paper is a brief, anonymous feedback instrument given
randomly during the semester. It can be administered several times during the
semester at the end of any class. It supplies you with a local response to that day's
course material.
For the One-Minute Paper, simply dictate these two questions to your
students:
1. What is the most important information that you have learned in today's class
period?
5. 2. What question about the material in today's class is uppermost in your mind?
Q. When should I administer the One-Minute Paper?
A. Use of the One-Minute Paper is appropriate whenever your goal is to check
comprehension and effectiveness of your presentation of material. Responses
might point to terminology that wasn't understood, or a comment might suggest a
more complex concern.
Q. What benefits derive from giving the One-Minute Paper?
A. Normally, you receive student feedback on their instructional methods and
choices only well after the end of a semester .By that time, of course, it is too late
to apply anything learned from student ratings to the teaching of the particular
course from which they originated.
The One-Minute Paper, on the other hand, provides reactions to the class and your
teaching that can be applied during the same semester. In addition, it is a very
time-efficient method. Even in the largest classes it takes just a few minutes to scan
through the papers looking for patterns of responses. Students perceive that you
care about teaching and care about their opinions.
Purpose of this guide is not to teach a teacher how to teach but laying down a
ground work on which teacher can create his or her own building through their
own knowledge, creativity, personality and perseverance.
7. EXCELLENCE
Accredited institutions -As of March 2010, NAAC had rated 62% of the
universities and 90% of the colleges as average (B) or below average (C) on
specified quality parameters.
Faculty shortage — 40% and 35% shortage of faculty in state and central
universities, respectively
Low citation impact — India’s relative citation impact being half the world
average
EQUITY
There is wide disparity in the GER of higher education across states and the
GAR* in urban and rural areas, and gender-and community-wise.
Inter-state disparity — 47.9% in Delhi vs 9% in Assam
Urban-rural divide — 30% in urban areas vs 11.1% in rural areas
Differences across communities —14.8% for OBCs, 11.6% for SCs, 7.7%
for STs and 9.6% for Muslims expansion
Gender disparity —15.2% for females vs19% for males
EXPANSION
India’s GER of16% was much below the world average of 27%, as well as
that of other emerging countries such as China (26%) and Brazil (36%) in
2010.
EMPLOYBALITY
Only 13% of Indian educated class is employable.most of the students lack soft
skills, or do not have access to quality educaton.
9. Competency-Based Education
Competency Based Education
What is it?
Competency-based learning refers to systems of instruction, assessment, grading,
and academic reporting that are based on students demonstrating that they have
learned the knowledge and skills that they are expected to learn as they progress
through their education.
At the college level, competency based education may entail prospective adult
students receiving academic credit for knowledge and skills they acquired in their
former careers-an approach that can reduce tuition costs and accelerate their
progress towards earning a degree.
Why is it needed?
Competency based education is required for effective learning and development
by identifying the behaviors, knowledge, skills and abilities that are necessary for
successful performance in a career/job. Teachers can assess student’s competencies
and develop strategies accordingly.
Competencies support learning by:
10. Focusing learning on the critical competencies needed for success in the
career chosen.
Providing standards for measuring student’s performance and capabilities.
Providing the framework for identifying learning
options/curriculum/programs to meet student and institutional needs.
Supporting effective forecasting of institution, as well as project-related
learning requirements.
Providing standards for determining how well learning has occurred, both at
the individual and institutional level.
What will it lead to?
Competency-based learning ensures that more students learn what they are
expected to learn.
The approach can also provide educators with more detailed or fine-grained
information about student learning progress, which can help them more
precisely identify academic strengths and weakness, as well as the specific
concepts and skills students have not yet mastered.
Academic progress is often tracked and reported by learning standard in
competency-based courses and schools, educators and parents often know
more precisely what specific knowledge and skills students have acquired or
may be struggling with. For example, instead of receiving a letter grade on
11. an assignment or test, each of which may address a variety of standards,
students are graded on specific learning standards, each of which describes
the knowledge and skills students are expected to acquire
How to conduct Competency based education?
Some basic characteristics of CBE are:
Different type of teaching methods and aids are used
Adequate material ,space and equipment are available
Each student’s programme is individualized and self placed
Learning activity is repeated/reinforced until competence is achieved
Individual student records are maintained and should reflect his/her progress
Continuous and detailed feedback is given to students on their progress
Students ‘rating will reflect the level of competence achieved
Some of the common benchmark competency-based practices in learning and
development are:
1. Identify and/or develop competencies that define the broader outcomes for young
people in college community. This might include grouping Common Core State
12. Standards into “habits of mind” or 21st century skills. No matter which
competencies you use, make sure that educators and learners are familiar with the
rubrics that are being used to assess them.
2. Foster active and engaged inquiry through a project-based approach to the
competencies. Here, the key is to design a project that scaffolds learning for
students but also embeds authentic assessments that allow them to demonstrate
their growing knowledge and skills.
3. The four common concepts can help structure this type of inquiry- and project-
based learning: Investigate the World, Recognize Perspectives, Communicate
Ideas, and Take Action Collaboratively and regularly look at student work for
evidence of proficiency in the competencies. This requires continuous evaluation
which focuses on what competencies students are demonstrating and how, by
focusing on observation of evidence rather than interpretation into a grade. The
process creates a shared understanding of what proficiency looks like when
students demonstrate it, and more relevant feedback on what the student needs to
do to progress towards it
13. Calibrated Peer Review
What?
Calibrated Peer Review (CPR) is a web-based, instructional tool that enables
frequent writing assignments in any discipline, with any class size, even in large
classes with limited instructional resources.
CPR offers instructors the choice of creating their own writing assignments or
using the existing assignments in the rapidly-expanding central assignment library.
Although CPR stems from a science-based model, it has the exciting feature that it
is discipline independent and level independent. CPR has been adopted in
undergraduate and graduate institutions, in professional medical and business
schools, and even in secondary schools.
Calibrated Peer Review (CPR) melds the pedagogy of ‘writing-across-the-
curriculum’ with the process of academic peer review. This web-based,
instructional tool can be used in any discipline with any class size. The 10-year
track record of the first version shows CPR adopted in over a thousand institutions,
in undergraduate and graduate programs, in professional medical and business
14. schools, and even in secondary schools. Faculty in small private schools through
large state universities have integrated CPR assignments in over 5000 courses.
Why?
Faculty recognizes that CPR provides an opportunity to teach students using the
higher-order thinking skills required in writing and reviewing processes. In a
Calibrated Peer Review assignment, students not only learn their discipline by
writing, they also learn and practice critical thinking by evaluating calibration
submissions and authentic submissions from their peers. Throughout each part of
an assignment they gain a deeper understanding of the topic.
What does CPR entail?
A student encounters three components in each CPR assignment: Writing,
Calibration Training, and Peer Review
1. Students first write and submit an essay on a topic and in a format specified by the
instructor.
2. Training to evaluate comes next. Students assess three 'calibration' submissions
against a detailed set of questions that address the criteria on which the assignment
is based. Students individually evaluate each of these calibration submissions
according to the questions specified by the rubric and then assign a holistic rating
out of 10. Feedback at this stage is vital. If the evaluations are poorly done and
15. don’t yet meet the instructor’s expectations, the students get a second try. The
quality of the evaluations is taken into account in the next step evaluation of real
submissions from other students.
3. Once the deadline for calibration evaluations is passed, each student is given
anonymous submissions by three other students. They use the same rubric to
evaluate their peers’ work, this time providing comments to justify their evaluation
and rating. Poor calibration performance decreases the impact of the grades they
give to their peers’ work. After they’ve done all three they evaluate their own
submission.
Once all the reviews are done, each student gets their grade, which includes the
peer reviewers’ evaluation and comments, their own performance on the
calibration training, and the quality of the reviews of their peers’ work and their
own submission. Students also get to see the reviews submitted by the two other
reviews of the submissions they reviewed, giving them a better sense of how good
their evaluations were.
What does the instructor need to do? Basically, design the assignment and create
the calibration submissions and the grading rubric. A number of premade
assignments are available to be used or modified, or just used as guides for creation
of a new one. These models are really helpful, because the 'calibration submissions'
need to be carefully designed to allow students to learn to identify the errors. An
16. instructor also needs to set up the grading criteria for the assignment, weighting the
various components in a way that is consistent with the goals of the course. And
finally, the instructor needs to handle problems that may arise if there are
defaulting students or inconsistent grading.
CPR allows instructors to spend their time effectively on teaching and adjudicating
the few student submissions that require the more advanced expertise that only
they bring to the classroom. It is a much more rewarding and effective use of time.
The minimum system requirements for CPR, as well as additional
recommendations for running our software.
Hardware
Dual Intel Xeon 3.2 GHz processors
4 GB of RAM or more (16 GB recommended)
136 GB or larger hard drive (we use SCSI RAID with a hot spare for peace of
mind)
CD-ROM drive
Ethernet adapter (1000 Mbits/sec Intel)
SuperVGA (1024x768) or higher resolution video adapter
Keyboard and mouse
17. Software
Microsoft Windows 2003 Server (Standard or Enterprise Edition) with Service
Pack 1 installed
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard or Enterprise Edition
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 or later
Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 5.0 or later and ASP.NET 2.0 or later
To insure reliability you may want to consider things like:
RAID storage for hard drive fault tolerance and hot spare setup
dual power supplies
anti-virus software
uninterruptible power supply (UPS) plugged into an emergency power source
18. Games and Learning
Games which are explicitly designed with educational purposes, or which have
incidental or secondary educational value. All types of games may be used in an
educational environment. Educational games are games that are designed to help
people to learn about certain subjects, expand concepts, reinforce development,
understand an historical event or culture, or assist them in learning a skill as they
play.
Game types include board, card and video games An educational game is a game
designed to teach humans about a specific subject and to teach them a skill. As
educators, governments, and parents realize the psychological need and benefits of
gaming have on learning, this educational tool has become mainstream. Games are
interactive play that teaches us goals, rules, adaptation, problem solving,
interaction, all represented as a story. They give us the fundamental needs of
learning by providing - enjoyment, passionate involvement, structure, motivation,
ego gratification, adrenaline, creativity, social interaction and emotion.
Games have five major characteristics: conflict, control, closure, contrivance, and
competency. Games encourage active learning, interaction between multiple
19. people, encourage team work, and also provide a free environment that allows for
skill enhancement. Games based learning provides versatility for more than one
learning style, and also can affect cognitive and psychomotor skills. While learning
through games can be very effective, they can become a distraction, causing them
to become too focused on the game and not on learning. It describes an approach to
teaching, where students explore relevant aspect of games in a learning context
designed by teachers. Teachers and students collaborate in order to add depth and
perspective to the experience of playing the game.
Good game-based learning applications can draw us into virtual environments that
look and feel familiar and relevant.
Within an effective game-based learning environment, we work toward a goal,
choosing actions and experiencing the consequences of those actions along the
way. We make mistakes in a risk-free setting, and through experimentation, we
actively learn and practice the right way to do things. This keeps us highly engaged
in practicing behaviors and thought processes that we can easily transfer from the
simulated environment to real life.
While similar, gamification is a different breed of learning experience. It takes
game elements (such as points, badges, leader boards, competition, achievements)
and applies them to a non-game setting. It has the potential to turn routine,
mundane tasks into refreshing, motivating experiences.
20. Some benefits of using Game-Based Learning
Get students attention. Students easily engaged to game activities due to
their willingness in playing.
Students get a positive experience about learning. The use of games
encourages students to keep learning and to erase the idea that learning is
boring.
Rememorize concepts or facts. Activities such as solving a crossword or
alphabet soup are activities more engaging than a regular test. Prepare some
contests such as “Who wants to be a millionaire” or “The wheel of fortune”.
Encourage students to work in teams to achieve the goal where
their knowledge is the clue to succeed.
Reinforce and consolidate knowledge in a friendly environment. The
most effective way to turn content in something meaningful is to find out
where and when to use it. With games students can reinforce and consolidate
their knowledge through practicing and getting reward for their
achievements.
Understand the consequences of our choices. Using games enables users
to understand the consequences of their choices. In other words, the
students learn through experiences, through trial and error. Games offer a
21. safety environment to test and learn through mistakes so the information
becomes meaningful when students understand its use.
Conclusion
Games can be your best ally to turn the information in meaningful content. You do
not have to throw away your traditional methods and use only game-based
learning. Instead try to merge traditional methods with the new ones to make your
classes more engaging so students get a positive experience of the learning process.
22. Pedagogy adopted with the post Graduate students of economics was the mixture
of the above given techniques and the results were astoundingly positive and got
whole hearted support of the students.
1. Number of group discussion was conducted by me as an incharge of
activities in the P.G department of Economics.detailed case study is given
below.
Moderator guide
1. Call the group to order and welcome participants.
2. No of participants- nine to twelve.
3. Time limit- The entire session will be of one hour. Group will be given 45
minute to discuss the topic.
4. RULES
one person speaks at a time rather than talking over one another;
the moderator will actively look for everyone to participate, with no one person
dominating the conversation;
No one person’s comments will be singled out or tied back to that person at the
end of the discussion.
5. Ask for each person to briefly introduce themselves,
6. Topic of the Group Discussion -Is Lap top distribution and unemployment
allowances a short sighted political gimmick to cover up the glaring
unemployment problem in Uttar Pradesh?
23. Today’s topic of discussion is very relevant to all of us present here. As I see in front of me
young people sitting who will be going out very soon and look for jobs. Now I will ask the group
to begain the discussion.
In Uttar Pradesh, the jobless get money. Not jobs
7. Open with a general topic question as a warm-up, sometimes a "what if" question
Cabinet meeting on 15 March to obtain its approval for giving an allowance of Rs
1,000 per month to every jobless youth in the state.
Government will add an additional recurring burden of Rs 2,000 crore on the
state, even as Uttar Pradesh reels under an accumulated debt burden of close to Rs
2 lakh crore as on 31 March.
Instead of adding to a burden of over Rs 16,000 crore in annual debt servicing
obligations, the government could have done well to fill over 5 lakh sanctioned
government posts lying vacant in various departments. This includes 2.18 lakh
posts of police personnel, 2.78 lakh teachers’ posts in government- run primary,
upper primary and secondary schools, besides 6,000 sanctioned posts of doctors
and over 1,000 para-medical staff, including nurses.
“Recruitment against vacant posts will not be an unforeseen burden as the
appointed persons will draw salary and allowances from the treasury,” says a
senior official of the finance department on condition of anonymity
Against the sanctioned strength of 191 police personnel per lakh people, as many
as 116 posts are lying vacant. of the total 58,794 sanctioned posts of head
constables, 44,177 are vacant. of 2.5 lakh posts for constables, as many as 1.62
lakh remain unfilled. Important wings like the Special Task Force and anti-
terrorist squad are also crippled by a paucity of staff.
The health department too fares no better. Against the total sanctioned 14,103
posts for doctors, as many as 5,621 are vacant. Close to 7,000 posts for medical
staff such as pharmacists, lab technicians, x-ray technicians, auxiliary nurse
midwives and basic health workers are also waiting to be filled.
24. “The tentative cap on age is 35 years but it could also be higher and the age limit
will ultimately decide the number of beneficiaries, which is expected to be around
10 lakh,” says Shailesh Krishna, principal secretary of the labour department.
Uttar Pradesh’s employment exchanges, which come under the labour
department, register every person above age 14 in a job queue, who become
eligible only at 18. The list includes the illiterate as well as those with degrees in
technical education.
8. Thank respondents for participating and now I would like to call Dr A. srivasrtava to
share some words.
Topic of the Group Discussion
Is Lap top distribution and unemployment allowances a short sighted
political gimmick to cover up the glaring unemployment problem in Uttar
Pradesh?
The parameters on the basis of which the candidates will be
judged by the evaluators are
Name of
the
candidate
Content
The moderator would like
to understand how well-
versed you are with the
knowledge relevant to the
topic.
Communication
1. Correctly conveying
what you want to say
2. Listening
3. Language
Group behaviour
Deals with style,
manners
and body language of the
aspirants. It is evaluated
to what extent the
aspirant is a team player
Leadership skills
giving vision to the
group and aligning
group members to this
vision through positive
motivation.
25. Many other activities like desert survivial was conducted by me.purpose was
to bring out team work and weather students can work to strenthen team or
to weaken team amd weather they have good communicative skills and
analytical power.
Conlusion:
Holistic development of students is the need of the hour.along with syllabus
studies students should be engaged in field work as well as in the activities
which bring out their hidden talents.students profile in which each and every
students progress report along with their internal assesment test marks
should be made for individual students and record have to be updated with
one on one conversation with the students sharing with them their progress.