Universities and Colleges are under increasing pressure to provide real-world relevance or ‘skills’ to their undergraduates to increase student success and transition into the workforce. This is especially crucial for programs in Humanities and Social Sciences. In support of the development of these ‘skills’, some institutions and faculties have mandated curriculum redesign through the development of program learning outcomes and competencies that are applied to curriculum mapping across courses in the program. Some institutions are also increasing experiential learning opportunities for students, supporting e-portfolios, and increasing career services. These projects are often developed in isolation from each other, with faculty working on course redesign, staff on experiential learning opportunities and career counselling, and administrators finding funding. This session will provide a case study of an integrated project in the Faculty of Arts at University of British Columbia where staff, faculty and experiential educators work together to redesign curriculum through the development of learning outcomes and competencies which are mapped to existing curriculum. Enriched educational experiences—such as capstone community based research courses, field courses and e-portfolios—are being integrated into curriculum. The intention is that students in this program will build skills and competencies as they go through their undergraduate degree, and will have opportunities for structured reflection on this learning so they build the capacity to see and represent themselves as young professionals with unique expertise. We aim to graduate students who feel empowered about their futures, clear on the potential of their degrees, and confident about the transition out of university.
Abner, B., Bartosh, O., Ungerleider, C., & Tiffin, R. (2014). Productivity Implications of a Shift to Competency-Based Education: An environmental scan and review of the relevant literature. Toronto: Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario.
Klein-Collins, R. (2012). Competency-based degree programs in the U.S. Postsecondary credentials for measurable students learning and performance. Council for Adult and Experiential Learning. Retrieved fromhttp://www.cael.org/pdfs/2012_CompetencyBasedPrograms
Zubizarreta, John. “The Learning Portfolio: A Powerful Idea for Significant Learning.” IDEA Center: Idea Paper #44. Manhattan, Kansas. 2008.
