Competence-based education (CBE) was initially developed in order to bridge the gap between the labor market and vocational and technical education and nowadays is utilized in interdisciplinary fields. Competence is defined as the ability that one person can effectively use both their knowledge and skills to achieve their goals. However, there is a challenge for instructors to design a CBE curriculum aligning with real-world learning outcomes, rather than a list of contents that students have to comprehend or memorize. After identifying a specific competence in a CBE curriculum, instructors decide the relevant knowledge and skills required for this competence. Then related activities and ways to assess student performance can be developed. In addition, instructors also feel hard to manage and customize any one component (e.g., skill, knowledge level, activity, assessment) in such a structural environment if there is no technological support.
Different from general learning management systems (e.g., Brightspace, Blackboard, Moodle) organizing contents in a topic or weekly base, Acrobatiq provides a platform that allows instructors to effectively organize and embed competence, knowledge, and skills used into a course. A skill graph can help instructors structurally see how competence, knowledge, skills, activities, and assessments can be integrated and can interrelate to each other (see Figure 1). According to these, contents can be developed (see Figure 2 and 3).
Figure 1. Skill Graph in Acrbatiq Platform
Figure 2. Content Design in Acrobatiq
Figure 3. Assessment Design in Acrobatiq
After students complete each component in Acrobatiq, the learning dashboard provides a large amount of information and data to know individual and overall student learning progresses (see Figure 4.). Instructors can check how students achieve the desired learning outcomes involving competence, knowledge, and skills and determine if any extra support should be provided to individual students. Also, this learning dashboard can give some information with instructors to revise or redesign some components in a CBE curriculum.
Figure 4. Learning Dashboard in Acrobatiq
