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HEKADEMIA INC. | 27 Main Street North, Bayfield, Ontario, Canada, N0M 1G0 p: 647.874.4517 f: 519.565.4100 e: [email protected] Advanced Mastery eLearning A COMPLETE APPROACH TO COMPETENCY-BASED LEARNING

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HEKADEMIA INC. | 27 Main Street North, Bayfield, Ontario, Canada, N0M 1G0 p: 647.874.4517 f: 519.565.4100 e: [email protected]

Advanced Mastery eLearning A COMPLETE APPROACH TO COMPETENCY-BASED LEARNING

Advanced Mastery Learning

1

Preface

Elements of competency-based learning have been popular amongst instructional designers for

decades. More recently, competency-based education has become popular in some states to improve

student success.

Currently, however, the definition of competency-based learning varies from district to district, and the

implementation of such programs is often inconsistent. In response, Hekademia has developed the

Advanced Mastery eLearning (AMe) courses: competency-based courses incorporating modern concepts

of mastery learning, competency-based evaluation and standards-referenced instruction. This

document, based on 15 years of eLearning experience, provides the working definitions, design best-

practices, and implementation strategies of an Advanced Mastery eLearning course.

Introduction

Competency-based learning can mean many things to many people. To some, it means aligning closely

with curriculum standards. To others, it means evaluating students using a binary checklist of

competencies rather than percentage-based grades. AMe courses simplify the debate by focusing on

the three pillars of education: learning objectives, assessment, and instruction. AMe courses build on

each of these three elements and define each element to make each one optimal for competency-based

learning.

Objectives refer to the national or regional standards described by curriculum documents. Assessment

refers to the tools and strategies used to gather information on student understanding of learning

objectives, either for the purpose of informing instruction or for the purpose of reporting. Finally,

instruction refers to the tools and strategies which create student learning opportunities.

Learning Objectives in an AMe Course

Learning Objectives are clear statements that describe the knowledge and skills that students should

achieve upon completion of a course of study. Curriculum documents, including national documents

such as the Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation Science Standards, often refer to

these statements as standards or performance expectations. Hekademia refers to these statements as

standards.

Competency-based education, however, uses the term competency to refer to course objectives and

curriculum standards. A competency, much like a standard, is a knowledge goal or a skill goal which a

student is expected to achieve.

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However, in an AMe course, a competency is different from a standard in a number of ways:

1. Standards are defined by the curriculum documents 2. Competencies are created by an institution or instructional designer. 3. Competencies are often created in response to standards. 4. Competencies require a demonstration of both knowledge and skill. 5. Standards can be sub-divided in to competencies. 6. Standards can be combined to form competencies.

When discussing an AMe course it is permissible to refer to standards and competencies using the term

competency. That is, the term competency also implies the term standard.

Designing Competency Structures AMe courses must have a hierarchy of competencies to guide instruction and assessment. If a course

has a related curriculum document, then the competencies of that course will be created by the

instructional designer based on the standards of the curriculum document. If the course does not have

a curriculum document, the instructional designer (ID) must be sufficiently knowledgeable to create the

competencies for that course. Alternatively, the ID can coordinate with a content expert to write the

competencies.

Sub-division Beginning with the curriculum standards, an ID must construct the nested-hierarchy of competencies.

Most often, curriculum documents are already arranged in a hierarchy of standards which can be

translated into competencies. However, the lowest tier of standards in a curriculum document is often

quite broad and insufficiently detailed for the lowest tier of competency tracking.

Therefore, most curriculum standards must be divided into a finer level of competency by establishing

learning goals which are often used directly for instruction and assessment and seen by the student.

Consequently, learning goals must be written in student-friendly language. IDs divide a curriculum

standard by identifying simple concepts, processes, and skills that must be mastered to support any

competencies based on that standard.

Super-Competencies Competencies are hierarchical. Therefore, just as competencies can be sub-divided into smaller,

supporting competencies, they may also be combined to create larger, super-competencies.

These super-competencies best describe collections of knowledge and skill traditionally associated with

units and courses. For example, a conventional biology course is composed of units such as

microbiology, evolution, and ecology. Super-competencies align well with this level of knowledge and

skill.

Competencies, however, are not merely replacement terms for conventional organizational terms.

Remember that competencies are often skill-based and as such reflect a unique approach to recognizing

understanding. For example, a super-competency describing a unit on evolution in a biology course may

say “Construct an explanation for neo-Darwinian evolution including concepts of natural selection and

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heritably, and buttress this explanation with evidence from a variety of fields.” Notice how the

competency is skills-based, is composed of sub-competencies, and encompasses a large body of skill and

knowledge.

Assessment in an AMe Course

Current literature on competency-based education suggests that there are four guiding principles for

assessing students in a competency-based environment (Priest, Rudenstine, Weisstein & Gerwin, 2012;

Sturgis, 2014):

an emphasis on formative assessment,

assessments that measure mastery of learning objectives,

assessments that are embedded throughout the curriculum, and

summative assessments that are initiated after a student has demonstrated mastery, ensuring that students are prepared for statewide exams.

These recommendations outline the fundamental principles of competency-based assessment, and are,

in fact, the fundamental principles of all assessment. All Hekademia courses implement these principles

of assessment.

Formative and summative assessments, scaffolding, and rubrics, for example, are implemented

consistently across all Hekademia courses. For more on Hekademia’s approach to assessment, please

refer to the document Instructional Design. There are however, several major differences between

conventional Hekademia courses and AMe competency-based courses.

Elements of Competency-Based Grading AMe courses use a competency-based grading system instead of a traditional grading system based on

percentages. Competency-based grading systems are modular rather than holistic, binary rather than

analog and set a high standard for graduation.

Modular Evaluation Percentage-based grading systems are holistic. Student work is assigned a percentage evaluating the

student’s average success on all the competencies covered on an assignment. AMe competency-based

grading is not holistic. Instead, students are evaluated on the individual competencies composing an

assignment.

For example, a business class assignment may ask a student to write a report on a topic. Several

competencies may be involved in writing this report: researching and referencing, explaining concepts in

business, and writing for a particular audience. Using rubrics, teachers assess student products on these

competencies and no percentage grade is issued for the assignment. Instead, students are declared

either competent or non-competent on the competencies. Ultimately, these competencies will combine

to form super-competencies and a student can be declared competent for a large set of knowledge and

skills.

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Hybrid Evaluation This modular approach can be blended with traditional percentage-based grading systems to produce a

robust hybrid model of evaluation. In this hybrid model traditional percentage-based grading is used to

holistically assess students for their ability to integrate competencies, while a parallel competency-

based assessment system ensures that students master all competencies.

This hybrid approach is appropriate for districts that must integrate with traditional percentage-based

systems at the postsecondary level.

Binary Evaluation Percentage-based evaluation systems are analog in nature, meaning that they use a finely graded scale

to approximate the level of student success. Competency-based evaluation systems are binary in nature

meaning that there are only two conditions describing student success: competent and non-competent.

AMe courses use a competency-based evaluation system and report student success on competencies

as either competent or non-competent.

There are several advantages to a competency-based evaluation system. This type of system

deemphasizes the importance of numerical evaluation and focuses the student’s attention on the

formative learning process. This approach also ends the progressive grade inflation that plagues many

districts and institutions.

It should be noted that the rubrics used to assess student success use a five-point scale to evaluate

student success on competencies. At first glance, this may appear to be at odds with the binary

reporting method. The five-point rubric system is necessary, however, for effective formative

assessment during the learning process. The five-point rubric system allows students to understand

their progress towards achieving a competency. The five-point rubric system is also required to integrate

with the mastery learning system.

Setting a Standard In reality, this binary system is describing a complex, analog system of student knowledge and skill. For

practical reasons, however, there must be an inflection point at which a student is judged to be either

competent or non-competent. That is, because a five-point rubric system is used to evaluate student

work, and because student success on quizzes and tests is determined by the number of questions

correctly answered, an inflection point must be set to translate the results from these assessments into

terms of competency. AMe courses set this inflection point at 75%. On tests and quizzes, students must

correctly answer 75% of the questions to achieve competency. Similarly, students must achieve a level

III score on pieces of student work evaluated with a rubric.

This standard aligns well with common practice in competency-based learning and also aligns well with

common practice in apprenticeship programs (the original competency-based programs).

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Instruction in an AMe Course

Competency-based education is often closely associated with the concept of mastery learning. Mastery

learning is an instructional approach that requires students to master a concept before proceeding to

subsequent or more advanced learning tasks. The high success standards and binary nature of

competency-based education in many ways force students to master concepts to graduate. However,

competency-based learning does not explicitly restrict student progress through a course. That is to say,

not all competency courses are mastery courses.

Mastery Learning AMe courses, however, enforce mastery learning. Using a variety of tools available within the

Hekademia learning environment, AMe courses require students to master a concept before proceeding

to subsequent or more advanced learning tasks. This process ensures that students develop the

competencies required to understand subsequent concepts and to complete the course at large.

Mastery learning has its drawbacks. It is possible for students to become “stuck” at topics they find

challenging. With nowhere to proceed, students may become discouraged. Mastery learning is also

challenging to implement in classroom settings where students master concepts at different rates.

AMe courses are uniquely suited to address both of these concerns. Because AMe courses are

eLearning courses and are implemented in online and blended environments, varying rates of student

success become less of an issue. Students may move through their blended or online courses at their

own pace, independent of their classmates, and other time and place-based variables.

Remediation AMe courses also offer a powerful solution to address variation in student need and ability. Using a

variety of tools available within the Hekademia learning environment AMe courses differentiate student

Instruction based on their success on various assessments. Students struggling to meet a competency

are automatically directed by the learning environment to remedial instruction addressing common

misconceptions and failure points relating to a topic. This remediation pathway helps reduce the

number of students trapped at any given competency.

Enrichment AMe courses, however, are not only about meeting competencies. They are about truly differentiated

learning and ensuring that all students receive challenging and personalized education. Just as struggling

students are directed to a personalized remedial pathway, students exceeding standards for

competency are directed to an enrichment pathway. This enrichment pathway offers a variety of

enrichment topics depending on the course. Such topics may include Advanced Placement material,

postsecondary material, social engagement tasks, inquiry tasks, or partnership activities with third-party

groups.

Remediation and enrichment are essential to AMe courses and create personalized learning

progressions for each student. Remediation and enrichment are powerful instructional strategies for

ensuring that students of all levels are engaged and succeeding.