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Competency Definitions - Overview
Competency Definition data objects are used to specify competencies, skills and learning objectives in a Learning Management System and in Competency Profiles.
The data values that describe a competency can be stated very formally, as in a three-part skill or learning objective that qualifies a performance with conditions and criteria, or less formally if there is no easily expressible way to measure the competency.
These specifications provide a means to create common understandings of competencies that appear as part of a learning or career plan, as learning pre-requisites, or as learning outcomes. The information models in these specifications can be used to exchange these definitions between learning systems, human resource systems, learning content, competency or skills repositories, and other relevant systems. |
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These contents have been obtained from the CEN/ISSS WS-LT Web site and edited for presentation. Please refer to the CEN/ISSS WS-LT for additional information on terms of use.
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CEN Workshop on Learning Technologies
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The CEN Workshop on Learning Technologies has worked on competency definition issues. Their work is based on the adoption of the IMS RDCEO specification be
used as the means of defining and referencing competency or educational objective instances in a standardized way and thus enable the exchange of information between organisational entities according to the individual models adopted.
Two CWAs have been produced dealing with issues and recommendations concerning the application of the RDCEO specification within an European context:- CWA 14927:2004 Recommendations on a Model for expressing learner competencies. This CWA deals with issues and recommendations concerning the application of the RDCEO specification for the creation of competency repositories.
- CWA 15455:2005 A European Model for Learner Competencies. This CWA deals with the elaboration of an application profile of the IMS RDCEO specification in order to facilitate the creation of competency repositories within a European context, provides guidelines and recommendations for the use and extension of complementary specifications for expressing competency data and discusses other relevant standardisation activities.
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These contents have been obtained from the IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee (LTSC) official Web site and edited for presentation. Please refer to the IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee (LTSC) official Web site for additional information on terms of use.
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IEEE LTSC
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The IEEE Reusable Competency Definitions (RCD) specification is a standard (IEEE 1484.20.1) issued by the Learning Technology Standards Committee of the IEEE Computer Society. It defines a data model for describing, referencing and sharing competency definitions, primarily in the context of online and distributed learning. IEEE RCD specify the mandatory and optional data elements that constitute a Competency Definition as used in a Learning Management System, or referenced in a Competency Profile.
The standard is needed because there are currently many definitions of the terms "Learning Objective", "Competency" and "Skill", and very little agreement between how those definitions can be used to define reusable data models. This standard uses a general definition that can be semantically "tightened" or "loosened" in the data itself, while conserving the same data model regardless of how strictly a particular organization or institution requires the data to be formulated. |
Purpose
The purpose of this standard is to define a universally acceptable Competency Definition model to allow the creation, exchange and reuse of Competency Definition in applications such as Learning Management Systems, Competency or Skill Gap Analysis, Learner and other Competency profiles,etc.
This standard also addresses the following needs:- A common data model that allows the building of various competency models,hierarchies and maps (however, the definitions for such applications are outside the scope of this standard).
- A standard that allows persistent, long lived Competency Definitions to be created, exchanged among systems, and maintained.
- A standard method by which Competency Definitions can be identified as globally unique among compliant systems and repositories.
- A standard method to mark a superseded or obsolete Competency Definition,and to point to a more current Competency Definition.
- A common data model for the meta data that give a reusable Competency Definition its value in a reuse environment, such as the source of the Competency Definition, validation information, and other meta information useful to locate an objective in a repository or collection.
- Correspondence with the Learning Objects Metadata Standard developed by a parallel group.
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IEEE LTSC
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The Simple Reusable Competency Map (IEEE SRCM), developed by the Learning Technology Standards Committee of the IEEE Computer Society, defines an information model for simple, reusable competency maps to be used for describing, referencing, and exchanging data about the relationships between competencies, primarily in the context of online and distributed learning. The information model allows the representation of relationships between competencies or complementary aspects of competency, such as they have often been captured in competency models. In this model, the word competency is used in a very general sense that includes skills, knowledge, attitude, and learning outcomes. This specification references the IEEE P1484.20.1 Reusable Competency Definition (IEEE RCD) standard. The IEEE RCD standard specifies how any arbitrary competency definition can be captured using standard data model. In this specification, the relationships between RCDs are represented as a map in which each node may reference a RCD. Simple "roll up" rules are specified to allow representation of how sub-competencies specified in the map can "roll up" to a broader competency. |
Scope
IEEE SRCM specify the mandatory and optional data elements that constitute a Simple Reusable Competency Map as used in a Learning Management System, or referenced in a Competency Profile. This specification is intended to satisfy the following objectives:- Provide a Standardized data model to represent the parent, child or sibling relation ships that may exist between Reusable Competency Definitions.
- Reconcile various existing and emerging data models into a widely acceptable model
- Provide a Standardized way to represent the result of grouping and decomposing competency information captured in Reusable Competency Definitions. Nodes that represent groupings or products of decompostion can be mapped to new or existing Reusable Competency Definitions.
- Provide a unique identifier as the means to unambiguously reference a Simple Reusable Competency Map, regardless of the setting in which this Competency Map is stored, found, retrieved, or used. For example, metadata that describe learning content may contain a reference to one or more Simple Reusable Competency Maps that provide the context for a classification of the learning objectives for the content.
- Provide a Standardized data model for additional information about a Simple Reusable Competency Map, such as a title, description, and source, compatible with other emerging learning asset metadata Standards.
- Given any Reusable Competency Definition and a Simple Reusable Competency Map that contains a reference to this Reusable Competency Definition, provide the data structure that allows the discovery of related competency definitions through the structure of the map.
- Provide a Standardized data model for additional information about relationships between groups of competencies represented by a Reusable Competency Map Definition, such as relative weights, rollup rules governing how component competencies can be considered to add up to higher level competencies, and proficiency levels required to assert mastery of a competency in the context of a hierarchy of competencies defined by the map.
- Provide a controlled vocabulary to express how Simple Reusable Competency Maps are semantically related in a list or hierarchical model.
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IEEE SRCM specifically does not cover:- A data format, bindings or coding, except as minimally required for the purpose of exchange between compliant implementations.
- Quality and accuracy in the data itself, although it will describe recommended best practices. For example, this Standard does not cover the quality or validation of the various component competencies that make up a higher level competency, or the relevance of the Reusable Competency Definitions referenced by a node in a Reusable Competency Map.
- The processes by which a SRCM is created, generated, maintained or published.
- How the relationships between competencies are stored in a database or learning management system.
- Any representation of relationships between competencies that requires a general graph rather than a list or directed acyclic graph.
- Mapping or references to data objects other than Reusable Competency Definitions or other Simple Reusable Competency Maps.
- Certification data models and how they may be referencing SRCMs.
- Individual competency records, as would be found in the competency profiles of individuals or groups, and how they may be referencing SRCMs.
- Confidence or trustworthiness of competency records; confidence in results of summation that includes rolling up proficiency for multiple competencies shown by a map to be related, where some competency records may vary in trustworthiness.
IEEE SRCM specification |
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These contents have been obtained from the IMS Global Learning Consortium official Web site and edited for presentation. Please refer to the IMS Global Learning Consortium official Web site for additional information on terms of use
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IMS Global Learning Consortium
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The Reusable Definition of Competency or Educational Objective (RDCEO) specification provides a means to create common understandings of competencies that appear as part of a learning or career plan, as learning pre-requisites, or as learning outcomes. The information model in this specification can be used to exchange these definitions between learning systems, human resource systems, learning content, competency or skills repositories, and other relevant systems. RDCEO provides unique references to descriptions of competencies or objectives for inclusion in other information models. |
Purpose
The purpose of this specification is to provide an information model for describing, referencing, and exchanging definitions of competencies, primarily in the context of online and distributed learning. In this specification, the word competency is used in a very general sense that includes skills, knowledge, tasks, and learning outcomes. This specification gives a way to formally represent the key characteristics of a competency, independent of its use in any particular context. It enables interoperability among learning systems that deal with competency information by providing a means for them to refer to common definitions with common meanings. |
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These contents have been obtained from the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36 web site and edited for presentation. Please refer to the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36 web site for additional information on terms of use.
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Scope
ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36 logo
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ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36-WG3 Participant Information has been formed in the beginning of year 2002 (36N0167), with the original purpose “to track LTSC, IMS, CEN/ISSS, National Body and other progress in the area of learner information standards” (36N0068). The original terms of reference were worded as follows: “IT-related standardization for information associated with or about learners, and its supporting technologies”. One year later, it was decided to replace the word “learner” by the word “participant” in all projects title and in the title of the Working Group as well (36N0406) in order to broaden the scope.
Since then, some of the standards such IMS-LIP or the IMS-RDCEO which were considered as “not matured enough” (36N0068) have been implemented or used as a basis for implementation, and new needs for standardization appeared, due to the increased variety of learning environments.
In the meantime, several new projects relating to “participant information” were launched by SC36. Some of them were then transferred to the newly formed WG7, others are emerging in other working groups, such as the need for information models about roles in WG2.
In 2008, Canada has proposed to revise WG3 scope (36N1356), and a first discussion was hold during the Wuhan meeting. The necessity to align the new scope with strategic documents appeared there, and the discussion was supposed to continue in London. This discussion was differed due to other priorities, but needs to be resumed in Toronto. |
Purpose
As a basis for discussion, the following wording is proposed for the scope of ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36-WG3:
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC36-WG 3 develops standards related to Participant Information, i.e. information associated with, tracked by, tracked for, and about participants in information technology systems for learning, education and training (ITLET). This includes:- information about social roles and organisational positions endorsed by participants within an ITLET system;
- personal information about participants using an ITLET system, including factual, contextual and biographical information;
- shared information between a participant using an ITLET system and an organisation, about the activity of the participant within the organisation;
- any information needed by a learning environment to provide adequately the relevant services of an ITLET system to which the participant is a registered member.
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ISO/IEC 24763 Conceptual Reference Model for Competencies and Related Objects
The standardization concept is the Conceptual Reference Model defined as a framework for potential information models related to competencies. The standarization work is focused on providing classes and properties that are common across multiple use cases. These classes and properties provide reference points for attributes and information structures included in the information models. The information models in turn can provide frameworks that may be used to develop bindings to specific data structures and formats.
ISO/IEC TR24763 provides a formal representation of the conceptual scheme, or "world view", underlying the database applications and documentation systems related to competencies that are used by learning, education, and training organizations and their respective communities. |
| This category includes a number of specifications and recommendations related to the Competency Definitions area which either are not targeted specifically to the learning technologies field either have been developed by institutions not specifically focused to defining standards. |
HR-XML Competencies (Measurable Characteristics)
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HR-XML Competencies is a world-wide standard for the formalization and ranking of competencies and learning outcomes, supported by HR-XML Consortium. The competencies schema allows the capture of information about evidence used to substantiate a competency and ratings and weights that can be used to rank, compare, and otherwise evaluate of the sufficiency or desirability of a competency.
This schema is intended as a fragment or module that would be incorporated within broader process-specific schema. The competencies schema is particularly relevant to processes involving the rating, measuring, comparing, or matching an asserted competency (for example, a skill claimed in a resume) against one that is demanded (for example, a skill required in a job description or requisition).
Particularly, HR-XML Competencies schema is designed to fulfill the following requirements:- The competency schema is simple and sufficiently flexible and generalized so that it is useful within a variety of business contexts.
- The schema provides structure to enable competencies to be easily compared, ranked, and evaluated.
- The schema is capable of referencing competency taxonomies from which competency descriptions were taken or used.
- The competency schema is relatively simple and compact so that it does not add to the complexity of the process-specific schemas within which it is used. For instance, the competencies schema would likely be used as an alternative or replacement for the “Skill” element within the HR-XML Consortium’s Staffing Exchange Protocol. Thus, the Competency element is as compact and as simple as possible, while still meeting the other design goals listed above.
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Main data elements of the HR-XML Competencies schema:- CompetencyId: An identification code assigned to identify or classify the Competency. A taxonomy might include an identification code for each Competency or identification codes might be agreed upon by trading partners.
- TaxonomyId: A code that identifies the taxonomy.
- CompetencyEvidence: CompetencyEvidence is used to capture information to substantiate the existance, sufficiency, or level of a Competency. CompetencyEvidence might include test results, reports, performance appraisals, evaluations, certificates, licenses, or a record of direct observation, such as a report given by a former supervisor or other employment reference.
- CompetencyWeight: CompetencyWeight allows the capture of information on the relative importance of the Competency or the sufficiency required or other type of dimension. An extensible “type” attribute is available so that custom weights or dimensions may be specified. Multiple CompetencyWeights are permitted since more than one type might apply to the competency.
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