What are Competencies?
Competencies describe the level of understanding or proficiency a learner has in certain subject-related skills. Competency-Based Education (CBE), also known as Competency-Based Learning or Skills-Based Learning, involves systems of assessment and grading where students demonstrate these competencies. It’s possible to create and apply frameworks for evaluating students against competencies in Cutebrains.
How is it Set Up?
- Enable Competencies: An administrator can enable competencies in Site Administration > Competencies.
- Set Up Frameworks: Administrators can create competency frameworks and add competencies to them. Refer to Competency Frameworks for more details.
- Create Learning Plans: Administrators can create learning plan templates, add competencies to them, and assign learning plans to individual students or entire cohorts. See Learning Plans for more information.
- Teacher Actions: Teachers can add competencies to subjects and subject activities. They can view a competency breakdown report and rate competencies.
- Student Actions: Students can view their learning plans, upload evidence of prior learning, and request reviews. For more information, refer to Competencies FAQ.
- Learning Plans Block: A new Learning Plans block is available for those with the necessary permissions, which can be added to the dashboard.
Subject Competencies
In Cutebrains, a teacher can list the competencies they will be teaching in their subject through Subject Navigation > More. Teachers can add or remove competencies from a subject and see which competencies are linked to specific activities. Clicking on a competency name takes the teacher to a grading page for that competency.
Student View:
- Students can view (but not change) the competencies linked to a subject from the Subject Navigation.
- They can also see their current rating for each competency.
- Students can filter competencies by activity to easily identify which competencies are connected to specific assignments.
Assignment Competencies
In Cutebrains, competencies can be linked to assignments. This ensures that each competency is supported by relevant assignments or study materials. Here’s how you can manage competencies:
- Linking Competencies: You can map multiple competencies to an assignment by selecting them from the competency dropdown when setting up the assignment.
- Automatic Completion: Use assignment completion to automatically complete or add evidence to subject competencies.
To Add a Competency to an Assignment:
- Edit the assignment settings.
- In the competencies section, select one or more competencies from the list of subject competencies.
- Optionally, set actions upon assignment completion—such as attaching evidence, sending for review, or marking the competency as complete.
Example of Assignment Completion with Competencies
A student must demonstrate a skill four times to achieve a competency:
- Create Four Assignments:
- Set each assignment’s completion to require receiving a grade.
- Define a pass grade in the assignment settings.
- Restrict Access:
- For assignments 2, 3, and 4, restrict access until the previous assignments are completed.
- Final Assignment Settings:
- In the settings for the final assignment, expand ‘Subject Competencies’.
- Select the required competency.
- Set ‘Upon assignment completion’ to ‘Complete the competency’.
Process:
- Students submit work as usual.
- Teachers grade the work normally.
- If all four assignments receive a pass grade, the competency is automatically achieved.
