What are Competencies and do I need them?
A Competency can best be described as one of two things: a “skill” grade or a “specialized testing” grade. A “skill” grade is a rating or score given to a Student as they complete specific tasks throughout their program training. For example, an Automotive program may require a Student to prove their skill in performing an oil change. In this particular program, there happens to be twelve separate steps to completing an oil change, therefore twelve separate Competency records would be recorded to describe each step of the oil change, therefore providing a grade for each step of the process the Student must complete.
A “specialized testing” grade is usually a score given to a Student for a specialized exam that must be taken in order to acquire a Certificate for a particular program. For example, a Student must complete a __________ in order to practice _________, as well as completing a certain amount of hours of study.
Competency
records are tied directly to each Student and follow them throughout their
progress in a program. All Competencies have the capability to appear on
transcripts as well.
When should I use Competencies and not the Grade Book?
Grade Book
grades are traditional grades that are given to Students as they complete
regular program exams, quizzes, homework assignments, projects, etc. Competency
grades should be used when a Student is required to prove a skill to an
instructor. Competencies are usually an embedded part of a program’s curriculum
because Competencies are usually skills that a Student must have in order to
gain employment on completion of their program, whereas Grade Book grades are
usually created as curriculum designed by the instructor of a class to make sure
that all lessons are being completed.
Do I need to create a record for every Competency I offer?
Before a Student can be required to complete a Competency, a “master” Competency record must be created. Only one Competency record needs to be completed per skill. This is because that one “master” Competency record will then be used when assigning Competencies to each Student who will be mandated to complete it for their program requirements. In other words, a Competency Catalog must be entered in order to have records for User to choose from when assigning Competencies to Course records, or Students individually.
How do I create a Reference ID for my Competency records?
The Reference ID field holds a unique value that is used to identify a particular Competency master record. This field has safeguards to ensure that no Competency record can have the same Reference ID. Because of this, Reference IDs should be created in a series. The first things to consider when creating a series of Reference IDs, is first, what are the Competency records going to be used to track, such as skills or certification tests, and second, how are they going to be grouped.
If a User is beginning to create Competency records for “skill” grades within a program’s curriculum, an important process will be to determine how these Competency records will be grouped. It is not unusual to find a catalog of Competency records refer to the program in which the Competencies are related. For example, a Cosmetology program (with a program code equal to “COS”) may have Competency records that all begin with the program code, “COS”. Therefore, being able to distinguish their Cosmetology Competency catalog from their Massage Therapy Competency catalog whose program code was “MAS” for example.
The second consideration to be made when creating a Reference ID is how each program’s Competencies will be grouped. Usually Competencies are given to Students in a series beginning with the basic curriculum and gradually getting more difficult or complex as the Student moves through the program. Each skill that a Student must master should be within its own group and can be named using a sequential number system, such as 001. Each Competency that a Student must complete within that group would be an incremented number within that group. For example, COS.001.01, COS.001.02, COS.001.03, …, COS.002.01, COS.002.02, COS.002.03, …, etc.
Do I have to enroll all of my Students into every Competency?
How do I manually enroll a Student into a
Competency?
How do I rate a Student on a Competency?
How do I rate /score Students in my Class on Competencies?
Can I rate many Students on a Competency at one time?
How is the Hours field to be used on the Competency Enrollment form.