and Competencies Rubrics v8.2
User and Reference Guide Second Edition (Oct 15, 2007)
2007 by Desire2Learn, Inc. All rights reserved
2006 by Desire2Learn, Inc. All rights reserved. 305 King Street West, Suite 200 Kitchener, Ontario N2G 1B9 Canada www.Desire2Learn.com
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Contents
About this guide .................................................................................................................. vii Audience.................................................................................................................................. vii Organization ............................................................................................................................ vii Related guides ........................................................................................................................ vii Diagram legend ...................................................................................................................... viii
Introduction to competencies..............................................................................................9 What are competencies used for? .......................................................................................... 9 How does the Desire2Learn competency model work? ...................................................... 10 Are competencies part of course offerings?......................................................................... 12 Getting started ....................................................................................................................... 12
Accessing competencies .................................................................................................. 14 The Competency List page (standard view).......................................................................... 14 Advanced View ....................................................................................................................... 16 Switching between Standard and Advanced Views ............................................... 17 The Competency Home page .................................................................................. 17 How to follow the procedures in this guide when using Advanced View .............. 18 Browsing elements by hierarchy ............................................................................. 18 Searching for an element........................................................................................ 18 The View Orphans page........................................................................................... 19
Managing competencies, learning objectives, and activities........................................ 20 Creating competencies: an overview .................................................................................... 20 Creating a competency .......................................................................................................... 21 Creating a learning objective................................................................................................. 23 Creating an activity ................................................................................................................ 24 Creating an activity from another tool .................................................................................. 26 Creating competencies with the competency wizard........................................................... 27 Editing a competency, learning objective, or activity ........................................................... 29 Deleting a competency, learning objective, or activity......................................................... 31
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Archiving instead of deleting................................................................................... 33 Copying competencies, learning objectives, and activities ................................................. 33 Hiding a competency ............................................................................................................. 35 Tracking competency versions .............................................................................................. 36 Controlling which types of elements are visible ................................................................... 36
Structure: Creating and maintaining links between elements ...................................... 37 The Structure page ................................................................................................................ 38 Linking elements (adding a parent or child)......................................................................... 39 Removing links (removing a parent or child)........................................................................ 41 Viewing the entire structure (viewing all descendants) ....................................................... 42 Advanced concepts................................................................................................................ 43 Creating nested structures...................................................................................... 43 Attaching an element to multiple parents.............................................................. 44
Evaluating learners & monitoring progress ..................................................................... 45 Evaluating activities ............................................................................................................... 45 Evaluating a manual assessment activity .............................................................. 45 Evaluating a quiz or grade item activity.................................................................. 46 Evaluating a survey activity ..................................................................................... 48 Evaluating a discussion activity .............................................................................. 48 Evaluating a dropbox activity .................................................................................. 50 The Results page.................................................................................................................... 50 Overriding results ................................................................................................................... 54 Monitoring progress ............................................................................................................... 55 Monitoring progress from the Results page........................................................... 55 Monitoring progress from the User Progress tool .................................................. 55 Viewing activity statistics ....................................................................................................... 56
Making changes and re-evaluation of learner progress ................................................. 57 Changes that trigger re-evaluation........................................................................................ 57 Re-evaluation and status....................................................................................................... 58 Suspending re-evaluation of a learning objective ................................................................ 58 Manually initiating re-evaluation ........................................................................................... 58 Allowing re-evaluation of learners who've achieved a competency.................................... 59 Information for administrators .............................................................................................. 60
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Choosing between manual and automatic re-evaluation...................................... 60 Disabling automatic re-evaluation .......................................................................... 60 Monitoring the re-evaluation service ...................................................................... 60
Status, revision control and workflow.............................................................................. 62 Overview ................................................................................................................................. 62 Status settings and their effects ........................................................................................... 63 Status effects and nested competencies............................................................... 64 Status effects and overlapping competencies....................................................... 66 Changing a competency's status .......................................................................................... 66 Making changes to an Approved competency ..................................................................... 66 Information for administrators .............................................................................................. 67 Deciding whether to use Status.............................................................................. 67 Disabling Status....................................................................................................... 68 Using competency permissions to support workflow ............................................ 68
Shared competencies........................................................................................................ 70 Overview ................................................................................................................................. 70 Sharing a competency with other org units .......................................................................... 70 Making a competency unavailable in its home org unit........................................ 72 Editing and deleting shared competencies .......................................................................... 72
Rubrics................................................................................................................................ 74 Types of rubrics ...................................................................................................................... 74 The Rubric List page .............................................................................................................. 75 Creating a rubric..................................................................................................................... 75 Editing a rubric ....................................................................................................................... 77 Sharing a rubric with other org units..................................................................................... 78 Copying a rubric ..................................................................................................................... 79 Re-ordering rubrics ................................................................................................................ 80 Deleting a rubric..................................................................................................................... 80 Alternatives to deleting--retiring a rubric................................................................ 80 Viewing rubric statistics ......................................................................................................... 81 Scenario: creating two dimensional rubrics ......................................................................... 81
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Appendix A: Revision History ............................................................................................ 83
Glossary .............................................................................................................................. 84
Index ................................................................................................................................... 86
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About this guide
About this guide
Audience
This guide is intended for anyone involved in administering competencies or rubrics, including creating, modifying, reviewing, or approving competencies, creating and maintaining rubrics, or evaluating learner activities. Some sections of this guide contain information about configuring organization-wide settings, and are intended for site administrators. Important Access to features in the Desire2Learn Learning Environment is dependent on your role and the permissions assigned to it. You may not have sufficient permissions to access all of the features described in this guide.
Organization
Most of this guide contains information about competencies; information about rubrics can be found in a separate chapter at the end of the guide. Information about competencies has been divided into a number of chapters, each dealing with a set of related features and tasks.
Related guides
For course instructors, graders and instructional designers: Teaching with Desire2Learn For site administrators: Site Management Guide Roles and Permissions Desire2Learn Organization Management Environment (DOME) Reference Guide Desire2Learn documentation is available in the Documentation Library on the Desire2Learn Community website: http://community.desire2learn.com. (Enrollment in the Desire2Learn Community is required to access this site. Information about enrollment can be found on the Community login page.)
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About this guide
Diagram legend
Diagrams are frequently used in this guide to illustrate sample competency structures and key concepts. The following legend explains what each of the shapes used in these diagrams corresponds to:
Note Your organization may use different terms for competencies, learning objectives, and activities.
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Introduction to competencies
Introduction to competencies
What are competencies used for?
Competencies are used to track information about the knowledge, skills and abilities the people in your organization acquire as they participate in courses or other learning experiences. The Desire2Learn competency model includes a way of assessing learning outcomes to determine whether a person has really acquired the knowledge, skills or abilities a learning experience was supposed to provide. A competency can be used to track virtually anything that can be attributed to a person as the outcome of a learning experience. Some examples might include: certification to operate a forklift the ability to troubleshoot a network familiarity with the publishing conventions used in scientific research understanding the significance of the printing press in the historical development of democracy knowing how to assemble a flute The types of competencies you decide to model and track will depend on your institution and what you ultimately want to do with the information. For example, a high school program might use competencies to track general requirements that extended beyond individual courses. Perhaps part of a high school's mandate is to ensure that learners attain a certain degree of media and advertising awareness before graduating. This school could create a Media Literacy competency and connect it with a number of different courses and extra-curricular activities to provide learners ample opportunities to acquire this competency. A corporate learning system, on the other hand, might use competencies to track employee job skills, especially ones acquired through programs and seminars offered through internal training. The corporation might then create competencies like "Customer Service: Level 2," and competency data might ultimately be used for skills gap analysis to help employees plan their professional development and take full advantage of training opportunities available to them. Your institution may use a different vocabulary to describe these same ideas. What we've called "competencies" are also often called proficiencies, learning outcomes, standards, objectives, or skills. All of these terms refer to the same general idea of knowledge and abilities acquired by learners through a learning process.
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Introduction to competencies
How does the Desire2Learn competency model work?
In Desire2Learn's competency model, a competency is made up of one or more learning objectives, and each of these learning objectives is evaluated by one or more activities. Learners do not complete competencies directly; they complete individual learning objectives by passing all of the activities associated with that learning objective.
Learning Objectives
Learning objectives represent the things a person needs to learn in order to acquire a competency--the skills, abilities or knowledge a person must acquire to become competent in a given domain. For example, to become competent at assembling a flute, a person might have to learn how to identify the parts of a flute and how to assemble these parts into an instrument through which sound could be produced. These, then, would be the two learning objectives that made up the competency "Assemble a Flute." A competency could have one learning objective, or six, or fifteen--there's no limit to the number of learning objectives a competency can have, but every competency must have at least one. (This is because activities can only be attached to learning objectives, not to competencies.) A more complex competency could contain more learning objectives; for example, fluency in conversational German might be made up of vocabulary knowledge, basic grammar knowledge, pronunciation, understanding spoken words in various dialects, and so on. A competency like Media Literacy is so broad in scope that it might be made up of multiple levels of learning objectives. The highest level might include something like "Awareness of Advertising Techniques," which might be broken up into a number of sub-objectives of its own. You can do this inside the Learning Environment either by creating multiple levels of learning objectives, or by creating sub-competencies (one competency nested beneath another). Media Literacy might be made up of two or three levels of learning objectives, or it might be made up of a number of smaller subcompetencies (each one a competency in its own right; for example, "Awareness of Advertising Techniques" might be a competency on its own, and also a component of Media Literacy). Learning objectives are often known by other names and your institution might have its own vocabulary. Common alternatives include indicators, criteria, requirements, or learning outcomes. The general idea behind all of these terms is that a learner must demonstrate that they have met each of the associated learning objectives in order to complete the competency.
Activities
Activities are used to evaluate Learning Objectives. They are the tests used to measure a learner's completion of a learning objective, the proof a learner provides to demonstrate what they have learned. You can use more than one activity to evaluate a learning objective; if you do, learners must pass all of the activities associated with a learning objective in order to complete it.
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Introduction to competencies
Activities can be associated with quizzes, surveys, dropbox folders, discussion topics and grade items, or they can exist independently without being tied to any other tool in the Learning Environment. This gives you the opportunity to use existing tools to assess learning objectives as well as the flexibility to draw on other forms of assessment. For example, take the "Assemble a Flute" competency mentioned earlier. We said that this competency might have two learning objectives: being able to identify the parts of the flute and being able to physically assemble the parts into a whole. You might test the first of these with a quiz, and the second with an in-person demonstration. Most activities are assessed using rubrics. Rubrics are a descriptive assessment tool that assigns a specific level or category to a learner's performance. For example, a simple rubric might contain three possible levels: Good, Satisfactory, and Poor. When evaluating a learner, the grader assigns one of these three levels. (Quiz activities and grade item activities can be configured to use a learner's quiz score or grade instead of a rubric.) To complete an activity, a learner's assessment must meet the minimum required level for that activity. When a learner completes all of the activities beneath a learning objective, they attain that learning objective. Once a learner completes all of the learning objectives within a competency, they complete the competency itself. This means that competencies have no grades or levels of achievement associated with them--they are either complete or they are not. It doesn't matter if one learner achieves the highest levels on all activities, while another barely meets the minimum thresholds; from the point of view of the competency, both learners are equal. (You can think of competencies as an inventory of the skills or knowledge a person possesses, rather than a measure of how good someone is at something.) However, you could create two different competencies, one representing basic knowledge and the other expertise. You might even make the basic one a sub-competency of the other, since no one can be an expert without first having been a beginner. This would allow you to distinguish between levels of competence in a single domain. Activities are the only elements that are actually graded.
Summary
A competency is a structure made up of different elements; the competency, its subcompetencies (if any), its learning objectives and sub-learning objectives (if any), and finally, at the bottom, its activities. Each time a learner completes everything beneath one of these elements, they complete the element. In this way the learner completes the competency from the bottom up by passing each of the activities at the base of the structure.
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Introduction to competencies
Figure 1: The simplest possible competency structure must include one of each type of element (left). Complex structures can include sub-competencies and sub-learning objectives (right).
Are competencies part of course offerings?
You can create competencies inside course offerings or within other types of org units. If you create a competency as part of a course offering, it will only be accessible within that course offering, just like any other tool in the Learning Environment. This can be an effective way to ensure that learners master all of the material in a course: you can create a competency to represent the entire course, and create learning objectives to represent each unit. You could then associate each of these units with multiple activities (a test and an essay, say), and learners would be required to pass both the test and the essay for every unit in the course; they would have to learn all the course material in order to complete the course competency. In this way, competencies have an advantage over traditional grading mechanisms based on overall averages, which can mask significant gaps in learner comprehension. You can also create competencies inside other types of org units, like a department, a semester, or the organization as a whole. This lets you track learners' achievements beyond the bounds of individual course offerings. Also, when you create a competency outside of a course offering, you can share it with multiple course offerings and use different activities to evaluate the competency's learning objectives inside each offering. This allows learners to complete the competency in stages over time, working on different learning objectives within different courses, and will be useful if the competency is large or complex and acquiring all the knowledge or skills associated with it will involve a number of different learning experiences. (For more information see Shared competencies, p. 70.)
Getting started
To make use of competencies, you need to create a complete competency structure, with at least one learning objective and at least one activity. The section Managing competencies,
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Introduction to competencies
learning objectives, and activities, p. 20 describes how to create each of these elements, while the section Structure: Creating and maintaining links between elements, p. 37 describes how to link them together into a hierarchy. Unless you plan to use quiz activities exclusively, you will need to associate your activities with rubrics. Rubrics must be created before creating activities; you will not be able to save a new activity unless it is associated with a rubric. To learn how to create a rubric, see Creating a rubric, p. 75. Also, if your activities will be associated with another tool in the Learning Environment, you need to create the corresponding assessment item before creating the activity. (In fact, it may be easiest to create the activity from within, for example, the quiz while creating and configuring the quiz itself.) The Teaching with Desire2Learn guide contains information about creating these assessment items, while the topic Creating an activity from another tool, p. 26 explains how to create activities from within an assessment item. Once you have finished creating the competency, make sure the status is set to Approved (see Changing a competency's status, p. 66) and the competency is visible to learners (see Hiding a competency, p. 35). As learners submit work for each of the activities, it must be evaluated using the activity assessment tools and the rubrics you've created (see Evaluating activities, p. 45). As learners successfully complete activities, you can monitor their achievements using the Competency Results page (see The Results page, p. 50).
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Accessing competencies
Accessing competencies
Accessing the Competencies tool
To access the Competencies tool within an org unit, click the Competencies link in the navigation bar.
Three views
The main competencies interface has three different views: Student view Standard Administrative View Advanced Administrative View Users who do not have permission to administer competencies will see the Student view. Users with permission to administer competencies will see the Standard View by default. Additional permission is required to switch between Standard and Advanced Views. Permissions vary with org unit. A user might have permission to administer competencies in one org unit and not in another. Important This guide assumes that you have access to the Standard Administrative View. Many of the procedures discussed start from the Competency List page, the main page of the Standard View.
The Competency List page (standard view)
If you have permission to administer competencies, the first page you see when you access the Competencies tool is the Competency List page. (If you see a page split into two panes with the Competency Home page displayed in the right pane, you have changed your personal settings to display the Advanced view. See Advanced View, p. 16) The Competency List page is the central page for managing competencies; it lists all of the competencies, learning objectives, and activities available within the current org unit. From here you can create new elements, edit existing elements, create competency structures by linking elements together, access learner results, etc.
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Accessing competencies
Tool menu
Click a column heading to sort
Select # of elements to show at once Change the page to view other elements
The Competency List page
! To access the Competency List page The Competency List page displays automatically when you access the Competencies tool within an org unit. (To access the Competencies tool, click the Competencies link on the navigation bar.) To return to the Competency List page from another page within the Competencies tool, do one of the following: Click Manage Competencies on the tool menu. Competency List in the
If Manage Competencies is already selected, click lower section of the tool menu. Click the Competencies link in the navigation bar. ! To find a competency, learning objective, or activity 1 2
Type part of its name or description into the Search For field and click Search. To narrow your search further, click Show Search Options. Additional options will be displayed in the area beneath the Search For field. Select the applicable options and click Search again.
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Accessing competencies
You can use the additional search options to narrow your search results
Advanced View
Advanced View is an alternate interface for accessing competencies. The Advanced View interface is split into two panes. The left pane shows a tree view of all competency structures available in the current org unit along with options for displaying "orphans" and searching for specific elements; it is used to navigate quickly to certain pages within the Competencies tool. The right pane displays the current page. In terms of functionality, Advanced View and Standard View are equivalent except for two features: In Advanced View you gain the ability to view orphans (elements not attached to any parent). In Standard View you have access to the available in Advanced View). Competency Wizard (the Wizard is not
With Advanced View you can navigate between elements using a tree structure displayed in a separate pane. The tree structure lets you see an overview of your competency structures, view elements in the context of the structures they belong to, and drill down into a competency's structure to locate specific elements.
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Accessing competencies
Advanced View with the Competency Home page displayed in the right pane
Switching between Standard and Advanced Views
! To switch to Advanced View 1 2 3 4 From the Competency List page, click Settings on the tool menu.
Under Personal Settings, select Advanced View. Click Save. To go to the main page for Advanced View, click the the top of the page in the right pane. Competency Home link at
! To switch back to Standard View 1 2 3 4 On the Competency Home page, click Settings.
Under Personal Settings, select Standard View. Click Save. To go to the main page for Standard View, click menu at the top of the page. Competency List in the tool
The Competency Home page
The Competency Home page displays in the right pane when you first access Competencies (if you are using Advanced View). This page lists all of the tasks related to managing competencies. In Standard View, the same tasks are accessed through the tool menu on the Competency List page.
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Accessing competencies
You can return to the Competency Home page at any time by clicking Home in the top left-hand corner of the right pane.
Competency
How to follow the procedures in this guide when using Advanced View
The procedures in this guide are written from the perspective of someone using Standard View. The only difference between the two views is in the navigation (the way that you access the pages where tasks are performed). When using Advanced View, you will sometimes need to adjust the first one or two steps in a procedure in the following ways: You can access the Edit page for any element either by selecting it from the tree in the left pane, or by using the Search page to find the element and then clicking on its name. From the Edit page, you can access the Structure, Results, and Stats pages through tool menu links at the top of the page. All other tasks can be accessed from the Competency Home page. If you cannot determine how to perform a task from Advanced View, you can always switch back to Standard View at any time.
Browsing elements by hierarchy
The left pane displays a tree list of all competencies available in the current org unit and their descendents (all the sub-competencies, learning objectives, and activities attached to each competency). You can drill down through this structure by clicking the expand icon next to By Hierarchy (at the top of the list), and then clicking the expand icon next to any competency, and then one of the elements within that competency, and so on. Each time you click the expand icon next to an element, the list will display all of the children attached to that element. Click the collapse icon to hide an element's children.
Click an element's name to display the Edit page in the right pane.
Searching for an element
1 2 3 At the bottom of the left pane, select Search. On the Search page in the right pane, type part of the element's name or description in the Search For field and click the Search button. To narrow your search further, click Show Search Options. Additional options will be displayed in the area beneath the Search For field. Select the applicable options and click Search again. Click an element's name to open the Edit page.
4
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Accessing competencies
The View Orphans page
The View Orphans page lists any element not attached to any parent (including competencies). With the View Orphans page, you can locate orphan learning objectives and activities that will not appear in the left pane's hierarchy because they are not part of any competency structure. If you have any orphan learning objectives or activities, you will either want to attach them to a competency structure or delete them. Both of these tasks can be performed from the View Orphans page. You can think of this page as a "clean up" area that helps you catch elements that are floating about in the system without being incorporated into any competency structure. ! To access the View Orphans page Click the View Orphans node at the bottom of the left pane.
! To delete an element 1 2 Select the element(s) you want to delete using the checkboxes next to each element's name. To select all elements, select the checkbox at the top or bottom of the list. Click the Delete icon at the top or bottom of the list.
! To attach an element to a parent 1 2 Click the Add Parent icon to the right of the element (in the Actions column).
In the pop-up that appears, select the checkboxes next to each of the competencies or learning objectives you want to attach the element to. You can search for a specific competency or learning objective by typing part of its name or description in the Search For field and clicking Search.
3
Click Add Selected.
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Managing competencies, learning objectives, and activities
Managing competencies, learning objectives, and activities
This section deals with creating, editing, and maintaining the individual elements that make up competency structures (competencies, learning objectives, and activities). A competency structure is made up of the links between these elements. For information about creating and maintaining the structure of a competency, see the section Structure: Creating and maintaining links between elements, p. 37.
Creating competencies: an overview
Elements and the links between them
Creating a complete competency structure involves two different tasks: creating the elements that make up the structure (the competency, the learning objectives, and the activities), and linking these elements together into parent-child relationships.
Figure 2: Elements exist independently until they are linked together into a complete structure
When creating a competency structure, you can link elements together as you create them or you can create all of the elements independently and link them together later. (Being able to link elements together later allows you to create more complex, overlapping structures--for example, a learning objective attached to two different competencies.)
Process
Creating a competency involves the following steps: 1 2 Create any rubrics that will be used to evaluate activities. Create any assessment items (e.g. quizzes, dropbox folders, or discussion topics) that will be associated with activities.
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3 4 5
Create the competency element that will sit at the top of the structure. Create and attach learning objectives. Create activities, associate them with their corresponding assessment items and rubrics, and attach them to each of the learning objectives.
Using the competency wizard
You can use the Competency Wizard to create a competency, learning objectives, and activities and link them all together within a single, step-by-step process. The Wizard is an ideal place to begin if you are creating simple, three-tiered structures. (See Creating competencies with the competency wizard, p. 27.)
Additional steps
Depending on the complexity of the structure being created and the way it will be used, there may be additional steps involved. The process will become more involved if you are: Using competency Status to establish a formal review process around the creation and release of competencies. (See Status, revision control and workflow, p. 62.) Sharing a competency across multiple org units and attaching different activities in each org unit. (See Shared competencies, p. 70.) Creating "nested" structures involving sub-competencies (one competency used as part of the criteria of another) or multi-tiered learning objectives. (See Creating nested structures, p. 43.) Creating "overlapping" structures in which a learning objective, activity, or subcompetency is attached to multiple parents. (See Attaching an element to multiple parents, p. 44.)
Creating a competency
This topic describes how to create a competency element--the element at the top of any competency structure. This is normally the first step in creating a competency structure; however, to complete the entire competency you will also need to create and attach learning objectives (page 23) and activities (page 24).
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Managing competencies, learning objectives, and activities
! To create a competency
1 2
From the Competency List page, click the tool menu at the top of the page, and then select Competency. On the New Competency page, enter a Name for the competency. Tip Use a name that clearly identifies the competency.
New on
3
Enter a Description of the competency. The description will only be visible to learners if they view the competency's details. Click the HTML Editor icon to create a formatted description.
4
Select the appropriate settings for the remaining properties: Status Determines whether learners can see and complete the competency, and whether changes can be made to the competency's definition. The status field may not be available. See Status, revision control and workflow, p. 62. Make Competency and children visible to learners Controls whether learners are able to see the competency and its attached learning objectives and activities. See Hiding a competency, p. 35. Ready for Versioning If set to "Yes," any time a change is made to the competency's definition, the existing version will be saved in the database and the version number of the competency will be incremented. This setting may not be available. See Tracking competency versions, p. 36. Tip Leave Ready for Versioning set to "No" until the competency definition (the competency and its attached learning objectives and sub-competencies) has been finalized. Allow re-evaluation of learners who have completed this Competency Controls whether learners who have completed the competency will have their accomplishment re-evaluated (and possibly revoked) if any changes are made to the competency structure. Depending on the nature of the competency, you may or may not want learners to have to meet new requirements after a change is made. See Allowing re-evaluation of learners who've achieved a competency, p. 59. Make Competency Available To This section is only visible if you are creating the competency in an org unit above the course offering level. You can share the
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competency with other org units beneath the current one by clicking Add Org Units. See Shared competencies, p. 70. 5 Click Save to save the competency, or Save and New to save the competency and create another one.
Alternative ways to create a competency Method From the Structure page of a learning objective, select Add Parent > New Competency Copy an existing competency Advantages Creates a new competency and automatically attaches the learning objective as a child If the new competency's properties or structure are similar to an existing one, this will save time For more information See Linking elements (adding a parent or child), p. 39
See Copying competencies, learning objectives, and activities, p. 33
Creating a learning objective
1 2
From the Competency List page, click the tool menu at the top of the page, and then select Learning Objective.
New on
On the New Learning Objective page, enter a Name for the learning objective. Tip Use a name that clearly identifies the learning objective.
3
Enter a Description of the learning objective. The description will only be visible if a learner views the learning objective's details. Click the HTML Editor icon to create a formatted description.
4
If you want to restrict the types of activities that can be attached to this learning objective, select "Yes" beside Enforce evaluation method, then select the types of activities you want to allow. Note You cannot change this setting once the learning objective is saved.
5
Specify whether the learning objective is Ready for Evaluation by selecting "Yes" or "No."
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Tip Select "Yes" unless you have a good reason to do otherwise. Learners will not be able to complete the learning objective if "No" is selected. For more information about this setting, see Suspending re-evaluation of a learning objective, p. 58. 6 Click Save to save the learning objective, or Save and New to save the learning objective and create another one.
Alternative ways to create a learning objective Method From the Structure page of a Competency, select Add Child > New Learning Objective From the Structure page of an Activity, select Add Parent > New Learning Objective Copy an existing learning objective Advantages The new learning objective will automatically be attached to the competency Creates a new learning objective and automatically associates it with the activity If the new learning objective's properties or associated activities will be similar to an existing one, this will save time For more information See Linking elements (adding a parent or child), p. 39
See Linking elements (adding a parent or child), p. 39 See Copying competencies, learning objectives, and activities, p. 33
Creating an activity
Types of activities
Activities can be attached to a tool in the Learning Environment or they can be freestanding "manual assessment" activities. Quiz Activities are associated with a quiz created in the Quiz tool. The Quiz tool allows you to test students using different types of questions, including true and false, multiple choice, and short and long answer. Quiz activities can be evaluated automatically based on a student's quiz score or by linking the score to a numeric rubric, or they can be evaluated manually using a rubric. Survey Activities are associated with a survey created in the Survey tool. Surveys can be used in place of quizzes to test students. Unlike quizzes, surveys do not have a scoring mechanism built in. They are easier to create and complete than a quiz if questions are open-ended and you plan to evaluate the test using a rubric the does not use numeric scores. Dropbox Activities are associated with a dropbox folder created in the Dropbox tool. The Dropbox tool allows you to evaluate other types of submitted work, such as reports, media presentations, or assignments. Dropbox activities are evaluated using a rubric.
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Managing competencies, learning objectives, and activities
Discussion Activities are associated with a discussion topic created in the Discussions tool. You can evaluate student participation in group conversations, reflections on course content, or peer mentoring. Discussion activities are evaluated using a rubric. Grade Item Activities are associated with grade items in the Grades tool. Like quiz activities, grade item activities can be evaluated automatically based on a student's grade or by linking the grade to a numeric rubric, or they can be evaluated manually using a rubric. You can also associate activities with text grade items that are not tied to a numeric grade. Manual Assessment Activities are not associated with any other tool. They allow you to evaluate work that cannot be physically submitted, such as a LiveRoom presentation, a musical recital, or a number of hours of community service. Manual Assessment activities are evaluated using a rubric.
Before creating an activity
If you are creating an activity associated with another tool in the Learning Environment you will need to create the corresponding assessment item (e.g. quiz, discussion topic, or dropbox folder) first. ! To create a new activity
1 2 3 4 5
From the Competency List page, click on the tool menu at the top of the page.
New
Select the type of activity you want to create (Quiz, Survey, Dropbox, Discussion, Grade Item, or Manual Assessment). On the New Activity page, enter a Name for the activity. If you are creating an activity associated with another tool in the Learning Environment, select the item from the Select Existing Item drop-down. If you are creating a Quiz or Grade Item activity, select the Evaluation Type you want to use. Select Numeric to use the learner's quiz score or grade instead of a rubric to determine whether a learner passes the activity.
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Select Rubric to use a rubric to assess the activity. (You can still automatically assess the activity based on the learner's quiz score or grade as long as you select a numeric rubric in step 6. For more information about numeric rubrics, see Types of rubrics, p. 74) 6 Select the Rubric to be used to assess this activity, or click Create Rubric to create a new rubric. (Not applicable if you are creating a Quiz or Grade Item activity and you selected the Numeric evaluation type.) For an explanation of rubrics and information about creating them, see Rubrics, p. 74. 7 Specify the Achievement Threshold--the minimum result a learner must achieve to complete or pass the activity--by selecting a rubric level from the drop-down list. If you are creating a Quiz or Grade Item activity with a Numeric evaluation type, select a comparison operator (>, <, >=, <=) and enter a percentage. For example, if you select "<" and enter "25" then a learner will need to attain less than 25% on the quiz or grade item to complete the activity. 8 If you are creating a Quiz or Grade Item activity with a Rubric evaluation type, and you selected a numeric rubric in step 6, you have the option to Manually Evaluate learners' attempts instead of automatically assigning rubric levels based on quiz scores or grades. Select the Manually Evaluate checkbox if you want to enter results manually, or clear this checkbox if you want rubric levels to be assigned automatically based on the quiz score or grade. Click Save to save the activity, or Save and New to save the activity and create another one.
9
Alternative ways to create an activity Method From the Structure page of a Learning Objective, select Add Child > New Activity Copy an existing activity Advantages The new activity will automatically be attached to the learning objective If the new activity uses the same assessment item or rubric, this may save time For more information See Linking elements (adding a parent or child), p. 39 See Copying competencies, learning objectives, and activities, p. 33
Creating an activity from another tool
1 Do one of the following:
For A dropbox activity A quiz activity Do this On the main dropbox page, click the dropbox folder. Edit icon for the
On the main quizzes page, click the name of the quiz.
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For A survey activity A grade item A discussion topic
Do this On the main surveys page, click the name of the survey. From the Manage Grades area, click the name of the grade item. On the main discussions page, click the discussion topic. Edit icon for the
2 3 4 5
Click the Activities tab. Click the Add Activity button. Enter information for the activity. To attach the activity to an existing learning objective, click the Add button beside Associated Learning Objectives. On the pop-up that appears, select the learning objective(s) and click Insert. Click Save Activity.
6
Detailed information about quizzes, surveys, dropboxes, grades, and discussions can be found in the Teaching with Desire2Learn guide.
Creating competencies with the competency wizard
The wizard allows you to create a complete competency structure, including the competency element, learning objectives, and activities, in a simple, step-by-step process. The wizard takes you through this process in four steps: Step 1 Create the competency element Step 2 Create one or more learning objectives attached to this competency Step 3 Create one or more activities attached to each learning objective Step 4 Review the structure The wizard is a useful way to create simple, three-level competency structures (Figure 3, left). However, you cannot create more complex structures with nested competencies or learning objectives through the wizard (although you can create part of a complex structure, and then add additional elements afterwards).
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Figure 3: the wizard is an easy way to make simple structures (left), but you cannot create more complex structures (right) with the wizard alone
Note Make sure that any quizzes, surveys, dropbox folders, discussion topics, and grade items you want your activities to use have already been created before using the wizard. ! To create a competency with the wizard 1 2 From the Competency List page, click the top of the page. Competency Wizard in the tool menu at
On the New Competency page, enter information about the competency in the same way you would when creating a competency by itself (see Creating a competency, p. 21). Click Next to continue, or click Finish to skip to the end without adding learning objectives or activities (skip to step 10). On the New Learning Objectives page, enter information about the first learning objective the same way you would when creating a learning objective by itself (see Creating a learning objective, p. 23). To add additional learning objectives, enter the number you want to add in the field beside the Add Learning Objectives link at the top or bottom of the page, and then click the link. The new learning objectives are added to the bottom of the page, where you can enter information for each one. Note You can add up to nine learning objectives at once. If you need to add more than nine, add the first nine and then add as many more as you need. To remove a learning objective, click the learning objective. Delete icon in the top right corner of the
3 4
5
6 7
When you have finished creating learning objectives, click Next to continue, or click Finish to skip to the end without adding activities (skip to step 10). On the New Activities page, enter information about the first activity: a) Enter a Name. b) Select a learning objective (created on the previous page) to attach the activity to. c) Select the type of activity from the Evaluation Method drop-down list.
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d) Complete the rest of the information for the activity the same way you would when creating an activity by itself (see Creating an activity, p. 24). 8 To create additional activities, enter the number you want to add in the text field beside the Add Activities link at the top or bottom of the page, and then click the link. The new activities are added to the bottom of the page, where you can enter their information. Note You can add up to nine activities at once. If you need to add more than nine, add the first nine and then add as many more as you need. To remove an activity, click the 9 Delete icon in the top right corner of the activity.
When you have finished creating activities, click Next.
10 On the Competency Structure page, verify that the structure displayed is correct. If you want to make changes, use the Back button to return to the appropriate step, make your changes, and then use the Next button to return to the verification page. Caution Do not use the Finish button to return to the verification page or you will lose any of the elements created in between--for example, if you go back to make a correction to the competency and then click Finish, you will lose all of your learning objectives and activities. If this happens, you can use the Back button and then the Next button to recover the lost elements. 11 To create the competency structure, click Create.
Editing a competency, learning objective, or activity
This section describes how to change the properties of a competency, learning objective, or activity element. For information about making changes to the structure of a competency, see Structure: Creating and maintaining links between elements, p. 37. ! To edit a competency, learning objective, or activity 1 2 3 On the Competency List page, click the element's name. Make the appropriate changes. Click Save.
! To edit an activity from another tool 1 Do one of the following:
For A dropbox activity A quiz activity Do this On the main dropbox page, click the dropbox folder. Edit icon for the
On the main quizzes page, click the name of the quiz.
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For A survey activity A grade item A discussion topic
Do this On the main surveys page, click the name of the survey. From the Manage Grades area, click the name of the grade item. On the main discussions page, click the discussion topic. Edit icon for the
2 3 4 5 6
Click the Activities tab. Click the name of the activity you want to edit. Make the appropriate changes. Click Save Activity. Click Go Back to Activities to return to the activities tab.
Editing and status
If you are using status and a competency's status is Approved or Archived, the only properties you will be able to change are Status and Make competency and children visible to learners. To change any other properties, you will first need to change the status and save the competency. If a learning objective is attached to an Approved or Archived competency, the only property you will be able to change is Ready for Evaluation. Activities can always be edited. See Status settings and their effects, p. 63 for more information.
Editing and re-evaluation
If you change an activity's Achievement threshold, any learners already assessed will be re-evaluated to determine whether they meet the new threshold. If you change the Rubric used by an activity (by selecting a different rubric), all learner assessments will be cleared. If the activity is associated with a quiz or grade item that is evaluated automatically, learners will be re-evaluated. In both cases, the rest of the structure above the activity will also be re-evaluated (unless the competency structure the activity belongs to has a status of Draft or In Review). For a full discussion, see Making changes and re-evaluation of learner progress, p. 57. If you are making a series of changes to the activities attached to a single learning objective, you may want to set the learning objective's Ready for Evaluation property to "No." See Suspending re-evaluation of a learning objective, p. 58.
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Editing shared competencies
Most of the properties of shared competencies and their attached learning objectives can only be changed in the competency's home org unit (the org unit where it is shared from). Each org unit can independently set the competency's Make competency and children visible to learners property and each learning objective's Ready for Evaluation property--these properties can be changed in any org unit where the competency is shared. Changing these properties will only affect the current org unit. For more information, see Shared competencies, p. 70.
Deleting a competency, learning objective, or activity
Deleting an element removes it from the system, along with any links it may have had to other elements. It does not affect any other elements--deleting an element will not delete any elements attached to it. For example, if you delete a learning objective, any activities attached to it will still exist, but will no longer be attached to a parent (unless they were attached to other learning objectives as well). Similarly, if the learning objective belongs to a competency, the competency will still exist but the link to the learning objective will be removed. Deleting a competency element will not delete the entire structure beneath it, only the top-level element itself; any learning objectives and activities attached to the competency will still exist. To delete an entire competency structure, you will have to select and delete all of the elements in the structure.
Figure 4: This competency contains two learning objectives, L1 and L2. If L2 is deleted, links to it are also removed, but its activities remain.
Elements that cannot be deleted
The following elements cannot be deleted: A competency whose status is Approved or Archived (only Draft or In Review competencies can be deleted). A learning objective attached to an Approved or Archived competency (this would change the competency's definition).
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A competency or learning objective that has been shared from another org unit (shared competencies and learning objectives can only be deleted in their home org unit). On the Delete page, these elements will be disabled and you will not be able to select them. Click the Information icon next to a disabled element to see why it cannot be deleted. You also will not be able to delete an element if it is part of a relationship that you do not have permission to modify. For example, if you do not have permission to modify links between learning objectives and activities, you will not be able to delete any activities attached to a learning objective.
Deleting and re-evaluation
Deleting elements that are part of a competency structure may cause learner progress to be re-evaluated. If you delete all children attached to a learning objective or competency, any learners who had previously completed the parent element will have their result changed to Incomplete. This is because an element is only considered complete if all of its children are complete; elements that have no children cannot be completed. Note Not all competencies are subject to re-evaluation; see Allowing re-evaluation of learners who've achieved a competency, p. 59.) For more information see Making changes and re-evaluation of learner progress, p. 57. ! To delete a competency, learning objective, or activity 1 2 3 From the Competency List page, click Delete on the tool menu.
On the Delete page, select the element(s) you want to delete. Click the Delete Selected button at the top or bottom of the page.
! To delete an activity from another tool 1 Do one of the following:
For A dropbox activity A quiz activity A survey activity A grade item A discussion topic Do this On the main dropbox page, click the dropbox folder. Edit icon for the
On the main quizzes page, click the name of the quiz. On the main surveys page, click the name of the survey. From the Manage Grades area, click the name of the grade item. On the main discussions page, click the discussion topic. Edit icon for the
2
Click the Activities tab.
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3 4
Select the activities you want to delete. Click the Delete icon at the top or bottom of the list of activities.
Caution All learner assessments for the activity are deleted along with it.
Archiving instead of deleting
If you don't want a competency to be used any more and your organization is using the Status feature, you can change the competency's status to Archived. Archived competencies are old competencies no longer in use. Learners cannot see or complete archived competencies. (There is a special permission for viewing archived competencies, so access to archived competencies can be restricted to specific user roles only.) By archiving a competency, you keep a record of the learners who achieved the competency while it was active. If you delete the competency instead, learner results for that competency are deleted along with it. ! To archive a competency 1 2 3 On the Competency List page, click the name of the competency. On the Edit Competency page, set the Status to Archived. Click Save.
For more information about status settings and their effects, see Status, revision control and workflow, p. 62.
Copying competencies, learning objectives, and activities
You can copy a competency, learning objective, or activity to create a new one that is identical with the original. Copying can save you time if you are creating a new competency that is substantially similar to an existing one. For example, you may have created a competency for playing the flute, and now want to create one for playing the clarinet. Both competencies will have very similar structures, descriptions, and so on--only the names and the assessment items the activities link to will change. In this case it would be easier to make a copy of the Flute competency than to create the Clarinet competency from scratch. Tip You can also create a copy of a competency if you want to try making changes to it without impacting learner progress. For example, you could make a copy of a competency and try changing the achievement thresholds on some activities to see what impact that would have on learner progress. If you didn't like the results, you could simply delete the copy. (Be sure to hide the new competency from learners when experimenting with changes.)
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Children
If the element you copy has any children (other elements attached beneath it), you have the choice of copying only the element itself (creating another element with the same properties) or copying the structure beneath the element as well. For example, if you copy a learning objective that has activities attached, you can copy only the learning objective or you can copy the learning objective and all of the attached activities, creating a new set of elements with the same properties and structure as the original.
Activities associated with other tools
If you copy an activity that is associated with a quiz, survey, dropbox folder, discussion topic or grade item, the new activity will be associated with the same assessment item.
Copying between org units
The Copy command will only allow you to copy an element or structure within a single org unit; that is, you can create a copy of any competency available in the current org unit (including ones that have been shared from other org units), but your copy will also exist in the current org unit. For information about copying between org units, see the section on copying course components in your Teaching with Desire2Learn guide.
Copying vs. sharing
When you copy a competency, the new competency will be identical with the first but distinct from it (there will be two different competencies with all the same properties). If you want learners to have access to the same competency in different places, you need to share the competency rather than copying it. See the section Shared competencies, p. 70 for more information. ! To copy a competency 1 2 3 4 5 6 On the Competency List page, click Select Competency. Select the competency you want to copy from the Competency To Copy list. Enter a name for the copy in the New Competency Name field. Select a status for the copy from the New Competency Status list. In the Copy Options section, select the appropriate option: Select Copy entire Competency Structure (including Activities) to copy everything in the competency's structure. Select Copy entire Competency Structure (excluding Activities) to copy any learning objectives or sub-competencies, but none of the activities. (This is useful if you plan to attach new activities to the copied structure.) Select Copy Competency if you do not want to copy any children. Copy on the tool menu at the top of the page.
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7 8
If you chose to copy any children in the previous step, click Next and then use the fields in the New Name column to enter names for the copied children. Click the Copy button.
! To copy a learning objective 1 2 3 4 5 On the Competency List page, click the the page. Select Learning Objective. Select the learning objective you want to copy from the Learning Objective To Copy list. Enter a name for the copy in the New Learning Objective Name field. In the Copy Children section, select the appropriate option: Select Copy child Learning Objectives and Activities to copy the entire structure beneath the learning objectives. Select Copy child Learning Objectives to copy any sub-learning objectives, but none of the activities. (This is useful if you plan to attach new activities to the copied structure.) Select Copy Learning Objective if you do not want to copy any children. 6 7 If you chose to copy any children in the previous step, click Next and then use the fields in the New Name column to enter names for the copied children. Click the Copy button. Copy link on the tool menu at the top of
! To copy an activity 1 2 3 4 5 On the Competency List page, click the the page. Select Activity. Select the activity you want to copy from the Activity To Copy list. Enter a name for the copy in the New Activity Name field. Click the Copy button. Copy link on the tool menu at the top of
Hiding a competency
To hide a competency from learners, on the Edit Competency page, clear the checkbox labelled Make Competency and its children visible to learners. Hidden competencies are indicated by the Hidden icon.
If you are using competency status, note that Draft, In Review, and Archived competencies will always be hidden from learners, regardless of their visibility setting.
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Tracking competency versions
Each competency element has a "Ready for Versioning" property. If this property is set to "Yes," whenever a change is made to the competency's definition the system will retain a backup copy of the previous version and increment the version number of the competency by 1 (beginning with version 1). For example, suppose you have a Flute competency that is currently at version 7. If you add a new learning objective to this competency, the system will keep a copy of the old version (before the learning objective was added) and change the Flute competency's version number to 8. The competency definition includes everything in the competency structure except activities. Changes that will create a new version include: changing a competency's name, description, status, or "Allow re-evaluation of learners who have completed this Competency" setting changing the name, description, or "Ready for Evaluation" setting of a learning objective attached to a competency adding or removing learning objectives or sub-competencies You cannot track learning objective or activity versions. In fact, because activities are not part of a competency's definition, they are not stored along with the previous versions of a competency the way learning objectives are, and changes to activities (including adding and removing activities) will not create a new version of the competency they are connected to. Currently there is no way to access previous versions of a competency; however, your organization may want to begin tracking competency versions in case functionality is introduced in future releases of the product that provides access to competency versions.
Controlling which types of elements are visible
You can choose which types of elements (competencies, learning objectives, activities) are visible to learners. For example, you might want to provide learners with a simple list of activities to complete by displaying only activities. ! To specify which elements are visible to learners 1 2 3 From the Competency List page, click the top of the page. Settings link on the tool menu at the
In the Org Unit Settings section, under Display to Learner, select the checkbox next to each type of element you want learners to see. Click Save.
Note Activities and learning objectives are only visible if they are attached to a competency that learners can see. You must attach activities to learning objectives attached to competencies with the option "make competency and children visible to learners" selected.
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Structure: Creating and maintaining links between elements
Structure: Creating and maintaining links between elements
A competency is only complete, and can only be achieved by learners, when it is associated with one or more learning objectives and those learning objectives are each associated with activities. This network of associations is the competency's structure. Links or associations between elements are parent-child, meaning that one element is always below the other or attached to the other. For example, if an activity is attached to a learning objective, the activity is the child and the learning objective is the parent. Because links are always parent-child, a competency structure takes the shape of a hierarchy, with the competency element at the top. In order to complete any element in a competency structure, all of the elements beneath it must first be completed. The links between elements are managed separately from the elements themselves. This section explains how to add and remove links between elements--how to create and maintain a competency's structure.
Rules of composition
Only certain kinds of links can be created. For example, you can attach an activity to a learning objective, but not to a competency. The following diagram and table summarize the types of links that can be created.
Figure 5: You can use nested links to create sub-competencies or multiple levels of learning objectives
Element competency
Parents other competencies
Children learning objectives other competencies
learning objective
competencies other learning objectives
activities other learning objectives --
activity
learning objectives
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The Structure page
Competencies, learning objectives, and activities all have a Structure page where you can view the other elements they are linked to, add new links, and remove existing ones.
The Structure page of a learning objective
The Structure page is divided into two sections: Parents and Children. The Parents section lists all of the parents of the current element (if any)--that is, it lists all of the elements the current one is attached to. Note It only shows immediate parents--the elements the current one is directly attached to--not its parents' parents or anything higher up in the structure. The Children section lists all of the children of the current element. Again, it does not show children's children, only the elements directly attached to the current one. Note Because nothing can be attached to an activity, the Activity Structure page does not have a Children section.
Figure 6: a simple competency structure
For example, consider the competency structure shown in Figure 6. If you were to view the structure page for C (the competency), the Parents section would be empty while the Children section would list L1 and L2. The Children section would not show any of the activities, since they are not directly linked to the competency. If you were to look at the Structure page for L2, the Parents section would list C while the Children section would list A2 and A3.
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! To access the Structure page Do one of the following: From the Competency List page, click the View Structure icon next to a competency, learning objective, or activity. From the Competency List page, click the name of a competency, learning objective, or activity. In the tool menu on the Edit page, click Competency Structure, Learning Objective Structure, or Activity Structure.
Linking elements (adding a parent or child)
A competency structure is created by linking elements together two at a time. To create the final structure shown in Figure 7, you would have to create two new links, one between the competency and the learning objective, and one between the learning objective and the activity.
Figure 7: links are added one at a time until the structure is complete
You can create the link from either element, by adding the other element as a parent or a child. To create the link between the learning objective and the competency shown in Figure 7, you could go to the competency's Structure page and add the learning objective as a child, or you could go to the learning objective's Structure page and add the competency as a parent. You can also use the structure page to create a new element and automatically link to it. So you could go to the Structure page of the competency shown in Figure 7 and choose to add a new learning objective as a child; this would prompt you to enter the information about the learning objective and would then create this new learning objective and automatically attach it to the competency. Note If you are using Competency Status, you will not be able to add or remove links that would change the definition of an Approved or Archived competency. The Add and Remove features will not be displayed on the Structure page of an Approved or Archived competency or of a learning objective attached to an Approved or Archived competency. For more information, see Status settings and their effects, p. 63. ! To link two existing elements (to add an existing parent or child) 1 2 On the Competency List page, click the name of one of the elements. Competency Structure, In the tool menu, click or Activity Structure. Learning Objective Structure,
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3
On the Structure page, click Add Parent or Add Child to display a list of the types of parents or children that can be added. (If a list is already visible, go on to the next step.) Click Add Parent if you want to attach the current element to another, higher element (for example if you are on a learning objective's page and you want to attach the learning objective to a competency) Click Add Child if you want to attach another element beneath the current one (for example if you are on a learning objective's page and you want to attach an activity to that learning objective)
4 5
From the list that appears, select Existing Competency, Objective, or Existing Activity.
Existing Learning
On the pop-up that appears, select the element(s) you want to link to. You can select all displayed elements by selecting the checkbox at the top or bottom of the list. To find a specific element, type part of its name or description into the Search For field and click Search.
6
Click Add Selected. The selected element(s) appear on the Structure page, showing that the link has been established.
! To create a new element and associate it with an existing one 1 2 3 On the Competency List page, click the name of one of the elements. Competency Structure, In the tool menu, click or Activity Structure. Learning Objective Structure,
On the Structure page, click Add Parent or Add Child to display a list of the types of parents or children that can be added. (If a list is already visible, go on to the next step.) Select New Competency, New Learning Objective, or New Activity.
4 5 6
In the pop-up, enter the information about the new element. Click Add.
For more information about creating new elements, see Creating a competency, p. 21, Creating a learning objective, p. 23, and Creating an activity, p. 24. ! To link an activity to a learning objective from another tool 1 Do one of the following:
For A dropbox activity A quiz activity A survey activity Do this On the main dropbox page, click the dropbox folder. Edit icon for the
On the main quizzes page, click the name of the quiz. On the main surveys page, click the name of the survey.
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For A grade item A discussion topic
Do this From the Manage Grades area, click the name of the grade item. On the main discussions page, click the discussion topic. Edit icon for the
2 3 4 5 6 7
Click the Activities tab. Click the name of the activity. Click the Add button beside Associated Learning Objectives. On the pop-up that appears, select the learning objective(s) and click Insert. Click Save Activity. Click Go Back to Activities to return to the Activities tab.
Removing links (removing a parent or child)
You can remove the link between two elements without deleting either element. (However, if either element is deleted, the link between them will automatically be removed.) As with creating a link, you can remove a link from either of the two linked elements. So if you no longer want a given learning objective to be attached to a given competency, you can either go to the competency's Structure page and remove the learning objective (listed under Children), or go to the learning objective's Structure page and remove the competency (listed under Parents). Note If you are using Competency Status, you will not be able to add or remove links that would change the definition of an Approved or Archived competency. The Add and Remove features will not be displayed on the Structure page of an Approved or Archived competency or of a learning objective attached to an Approved or Archived competency. For more information, see Status settings and their effects, p. 63. ! To remove a link 1 2 3 4 On the Competency List page, click the name of one of the elements. Competency Structure, In the tool menu, click or Activity Structure. Learning Objective Structure,
On the Structure page, select the checkbox next to each parent or child you no longer want the current element linked to. Click the Delete icon at the top of the list.
! To remove a link between an activity and a learning objective from another tool 1 Do one of the following:
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For A dropbox activity A quiz activity A survey activity A grade item A discussion topic
Do this On the main dropbox page, click the dropbox folder. Edit icon for the
On the main quizzes page, click the name of the quiz. On the main surveys page, click the name of the survey. From the Manage Grades area, click the name of the grade item. On the main discussions page, click the discussion topic. Edit icon for the
2 3 4
Click the Activities tab. Click the name of the activity. In the Associated Learning Objectives section, click the Delete icon next to the learning objective(s) you no longer want the activity attached to. If you select the wrong learning objective by mistake, click the to it. Restore icon next
5 6
Click Save Activity. Click Go Back to Activities to return to the Activities tab.
Viewing the entire structure (viewing all descendants)
The Structure Summary page displays all elements attached beneath the current one. Viewing Structure the Summary page for a competency shows you the complete structure of that competency. Note The Structure Summary page is not available for activities. If a competency or learning objective is available in multiple org units, you will only see the activities attached within the current org unit. There is no way to view all the activities attached in all org units from one location. Tip The Summary View page makes a good base for working with the elements in a competency's structure. You can right-click (or CTRL-click) on the name of an element and open it in another browser window, then close that window when finished to return to the original page.
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The Structure Summary page showing a competency structure
! To access the Structure Summary page 1 2 3 From the Competency List page, click the name of a competency or learning objective. In the tool menu on the Edit page, click Competency Structure, Objective Structure, or Activity Structure. Click the Structure Summary tab. Learning
Advanced concepts
Creating nested structures
You can "nest" competencies and learning objectives by attaching one competency beneath another competency, or one learning objective beneath another learning objective. In this way you can create structures with as many levels as you want. You may want to create nested learning objectives in cases where you have one learning objective that is very broad in scope; by breaking it down into smaller sub-objectives you can provide opportunities for learners to complete the objective in smaller pieces, which may more accurately reflect the learning involved in the objective. For example, suppose you have a competency called "Critical Thinking," and one of its associated learning objectives is learning how to "Evaluate Arguments." You might want to break this objective down into smaller sub-learning objectives, like "Distinguish between Inductive & Deductive Arguments," "Identify Premises & Conclusions," "Develop Counterarguments & Objections," and so on. If you nest two competencies, the sub-competency will still be considered a competency in its own right; it will have its own definition, its own status, its own visibility settings, and so on. A nested sub-competency will be displayed twice to learners, once on its own and once as a child of its parent competency. Because the sub-competency is also a competency itself, nested competencies are ideal for situations where one competency is a prerequisite for another or where you want to distinguish between different levels of proficiency in a given domain. For example, you might have to complete the competency
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Structure: Creating and maintaining links between elements
"Flute (basic proficiency)" as a part of completing "Flute (intermediate proficiency)"; or you might have to complete a standard B.A. in History before completing an Honors B.A.
Attaching an element to multiple parents
You can attach a competency, learning objective, or activity to multiple parents. This is ideal for situations where, for example, the same learning objective is relevant to two or more competencies. Imagine you have one competency called "Clarinet" and another called "Saxophone." Both of these are reed instruments; in learning to play either, a person will need to learn how to store, maintain, and handle a reed. But once you've learned to do this for one instrument, you know how to do it for the other. Here it would make sense to create a single learning objective, "Store, maintain, and handle reeds," and use it in both competencies. The learner who completes this learning objective in the context of either competency will have completed it for both. In the case of activities, you can use the same activity to evaluate two or more different learning objectives. In some situations it may be difficult to devise an activity that clearly differentiates between different learning objectives. For example, you might have a "Conversational German" competency that included the learning objectives "Understand German" and "Speak German," among others. A natural activity might be to have the learner actually engage in a conversation in German, yet in this case the activity will test both the learner's ability to understand and speak the language. Here it would make sense to attach the same activity to both learning objectives. You can do a similar thing by associating multiple activities with a single quiz, survey, dropbox folder, grade item, or discussion topic. For example, say you have a competency related to knowledge about the Cuban Missile Crisis. You might break this down into individual learning objectives reflecting the different aspects of the situation that you want learners to understand. Among others, these might include "Khrushchev's political situation at home," "America's relationship with Cuba prior to the crisis," etc. You might have a single exam for the Cuban missile crisis, but you might still want to make sure that learners know all aspects of the situation before completing the competency. To do this you could create a separate activity for each learning objective, but associate them all with the same quiz (or exam). This way you do not need to create multiple quizzes, and you can still grade each aspect of the learner's knowledge (each activity) independently using a rubric. (In this case, you would use one activity to assess all the questions relating to one learning objective, another activity, perhaps with a different rubric, for the next learning objective, and so on.)
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Evaluating learners & monitoring progress
Evaluating learners & monitoring progress
Evaluating activities
Activities are the only type of element that is directly evaluated--learners achieve learning objectives and competencies only by being assessed on individual activities. When a learner completes (or passes) all the activities attached to a learning objective, they achieve the learning objective. When they complete all of the learning objectives attached to a competency, they achieve the competency. Most of the time, activities are evaluated using rubrics. A rubric is a descriptive grading mechanism divided up into various levels of performance. A simple rubric might contain the three levels Good, Satisfactory, and Poor. Quiz and Grade Item activities can be evaluated without a rubric by using the learner's quiz score or grade. All other activities must use rubrics. Each activity has an achievement threshold, which is the minimum result a learner must achieve in order to pass the activity. Evaluating an activity consists of assigning a rubric level to a learner. For example, a dropbox activity might employ the sample rubric described above (Good, Satisfactory, Poor), with an achievement threshold of Satisfactory. When evaluating a learner's submission, the grader would select one of the rubric's three levels. If the grader selected either Good or Satisfactory, the learner would pass the activity; if the grader selected Poor, they would not.
Evaluating a manual assessment activity
Evaluations for manual assessment activities are entered from the Activity Results page. ! To access the Activity Results page Do one of the following: On the Competency List page, click the activity. View Results icon to the right of an
From any of the main activity pages (Edit Activity, Activity Structure, or Activity Stats), click Activity Results in the tool menu. From the Structure Summary page of an activity's parent, click the View Results icon next to the activity. (This will open the Activity Results page in a pop-up.) ! To enter results for a single learner 1 On the Activity Results page, select the learner you want to evaluate.
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2 3
Click the
Evaluate icon at the top or bottom of the list.
On the Manual Evaluation page that appears, type any comments you want to convey in the Feedback area. Click the HTML Editor icon if you want to format your feedback.
4 5
Select the appropriate rubric level from the Selection column of the table. Click Save.
! To enter results for multiple learners 1 2 3 On the Activity Results page, select the learners you want to evaluate. To select all learners, check the box at the top of the list. Click the Evaluate icon at the top or bottom of the list.
On the Manual Evaluation page that appears, select the appropriate result for each learner from the Rubric Level column. Tips You can change everyone on the page to the same rubric level using the Set All Rubric Levels to drop-down list at the top of the page. This will change the Rubric Level for all users on the page to the specified level. (From there you can change individual learners before saving.) You can find a specific learner by typing part of their name or Student Id into the Search For field, and clicking Search. Click Show Search Options to narrow your search further. You can view learners in a particular group by selecting "Groups" from the View By list, then selecting the group you want to view. This way you can quickly evaluate all learners in the same group. (You can use the Set All Rubric Levels to drop-down list to assign the same rubric level to all group members--ideal for evaluating group assignments.) You can then switch the view back to "Users" and your selections will be retained.
4 5
To leave feedback for a learner, click the Feedback icon in the Feedback column, enter your comments in the pop-up that appears, and click Save. When you have finished evaluating learners, click Save.
Evaluating a quiz or grade item activity
Configuring a quiz or grade item activity for automatic evaluation
Quiz and grade item activities can be configured for automatic evaluation, meaning that the learner's completion of the activity is determined automatically based on their quiz score or grade on a grade item. Results can be automatically calculated using either the learner's percentage score or grade directly or in conjunction with a numeric rubric. To automatically evaluate a quiz or grade item activity without using a numeric rubric, you must set the Evaluation Type of the activity to "Numeric" and then specify an
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Achievement threshold based on the percentage score for the quiz or Max. Points for the grade item. To use a rubric when automatically evaluating a quiz activity, you must set the Evaluation Type to "Rubric," select a numeric rubric, and ensure that the Manually Evaluate checkbox is empty. You can configure a quiz or grade item activity from the Edit Activity page. Quiz activities notes You may also want to turn on the "Automatic Grade" property of the quiz. (Consult your Teaching with Desire2Learn guide for more information.) Quizzes can be configured to allow learners to take multiple attempts. In this case, the quiz's Overall Grade Calculation setting specifies which attempts will count-- highest, lowest, average, etc. A quiz activity that is set for automatic evaluation will take its result based on these settings. This means, for example, that if a quiz is configured to take the average of all attempts as the overall grade, a learner may have completed the activity at one moment, and then not at the next after another attempt is made (if they score lower on the second attempt). Grade item activities notes Learner's grades can be modified at any time. If a grade is change it may change whether a learner has completed an activity. If a grade item activity is added to a grade item or changed from Manually Evaluate to Automatically Evaluate after grades have been entered for students, the grades must be re-entered or the rubric achievement manually entered for student results to appear.
Configuring a quiz or grade item activity for manual evaluation
Quiz and grade item activities can also be configured for manual evaluation, in which case a grader will need to manually assign a rubric level. This is useful in cases where judgment is required in assigning a grade, for example if a quiz includes long answer (essay) questions. To configure a quiz or grade item activity for manual evaluation, the Evaluation Type must be set to "Rubric" and the Manually Evaluate checkbox must be selected. (If the activity uses a text only rubric, this checkbox will be selected automatically.) You can configure a quiz or grade item activity from the Edit Activity page. ! To manually evaluate a quiz activity 1 2 3 4 On the Quiz List page, click the Grade Quiz icon for a quiz.
Click the Overall Grade link for the learner you want to evaluate. In the Activities section at the bottom of the Overall Results page, locate the activity and click Expand Evaluation. Select a rubric level from the Selection column of the table.
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5
Click the Save button at the top of the page.
Tip From the Overall Results page, you can quickly view a learner's individual responses by selecting an attempt from the Attempt list at the top of the page. ! To manually evaluate a grade item activity 1 2 3 4 On the Student List page, click the Click the Enter Grades icon for a grade item.
Evaluate Activities icon for the learner you want to evaluate.
Select a rubric level from the Selection column of the table. Click Save.
Evaluate Activities page for a grade item activity
Evaluating a survey activity
1 2 3 4 5 On the Survey List page, click the Survey Results icon next to the survey. Click the Overall Results link for the learner you want to evaluate. In the Activities section of the Overall Results page, click Expand Evaluation beneath the activity. Select a rubric level from the Selection column of the table. Click Save.
Tip From the Overall Results page, you can quickly view a learner's individual responses by selecting an attempt from the Attempt list at the top of the page.
Evaluating a discussion activity
You can evaluate a discussion activity from two places: from inside a topic while reading user's messages, or from the Assess Topic page where you can view all learners' results together in one place. ! To evaluate a discussion activity from within a topic 1 From the main discussion page, click the name of the topic.
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2
Do one of the following: If you are using the Grid Style message list, open any message by the student you want to evaluate, then click
Assess on the action bar above the message. If you are using the Reading Style message list, click the Assess link below the message header of any message by the student you want to evaluate. 3 4 In the Activities section, select a rubric level from the table beneath the activity you want to evaluate. Click Save.
! To evaluate a discussion activity from the Assess Topic page 1 From the main discussions page, click the
Assess Topic icon for the topic.
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2
Do one of the following: On the Users tab, click the name of the activity beneath the learner you want to evaluate. Click the Assessments tab, select the activity from the Assessment drop-down list, then click the name of the user you want to evaluate.
3 4 5
Select a rubric level from the Topic Rubric Value drop-down list. Click Save. Click Close.
Evaluating a dropbox activity
1 2 On the main dropbox page, click the name of the dropbox folder. Click the Leave Feedback link for the learner you want to evaluate. (If you have already left feedback, this link will be changed to Feedback Left. Clicking Feedback Left will take you to the same page as Leave Feedback.) In the Activities section at the bottom of the page, click Expand Evaluation beneath the activity. Select a rubric level from the Selection column of the table. Click Save.
3 4 5
The Results page
From the Results page, you can see which learners have completed a competency, learning objective or activity, and which ones haven't. (If your organization is using manual re-evaluation, you can also use the results page to initiate re-evaluation of an element after changes have been made.) The Results page lists all users enrolled in the current org unit with the "Can be evaluated" permission. The Activity Results page also shows the achievement threshold for the activity.
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The Activity Results page
! To access the Results page Do one of the following: On the Competency List page, click the learning objective, or activity. View Results icon next to a competency,
From the Edit or Structure pages, click Competency Results, Learning Objective Results, or Activity Results on the tool menu. (For example, from the Edit Learning Objective page, you can click Learning Objective Results on the tool menu to view results for the learning objective you are editing.) On the Structure Summary page, click the View Results icon next to any child element. (This will display the Results page in a pop-up.)
Icons used
The Completed column on the Results page shows whether a learner has completed the current element or not:
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Status icons Icon Description Not attempted (activities only)
Incomplete Incomplete by manual override Complete Complete by manual override Completed in another org unit (learning objectives only)
The icons at the top of the list of learners can be used to email selected learners and to override results (these actions will apply to all selected learners):
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Action icons Icon Action Send email
Override and mark Complete Override and mark Incomplete Evaluate learners (manual assessment activities only)
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Icon
Action Clear overrides
Overriding results
You can override a learner's result for any competency, learning objective or activity, and manually set it to Complete or Incomplete. An override will always take precedence over a learner's actual result; if you override an activity, the system will ignore the learner's actual assessment; if you override a learning objective or a competency, it will ignore the number of children the learner has achieved. You might use the override feature to mark a learning objective as Incomplete if you deemed a learner had completed it unfairly, or to mark a competency as Complete if a learner presented alternative evidence that they had met the requirements of the competency (perhaps through prior experience or coursework at another institution). Override results are displayed with a red asterisk ( ). ! To override a learner's result 1 2 Competency Results, Learning Objective Results, or Activity On the Results page, select the learner or learners whose results you want to override. Click the Mark Complete or Mark Incomplete icon at the top of the list.
! To clear an override 1 2 On the Results page, select the learner or learners whose overrides you want to clear. Click the Clear Override icon at the top or bottom of the list.
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Monitoring progress
Monitoring progress from the Results page
The View Competency Results page shows you the Student View of competencies from the perspective of a single learner; from here you can see an overview of the competencies, learning objectives, and activities the learner has completed just as they would see it. Because this page represents the student's view, competencies not visible to students (either because they are hidden or because of their status) will not be displayed. ! To access the View Competency Results page 1 2 Go to the Results page for a competency, learning objective, or activity. Click the name of the learner whose results you want to see. The View Competency Results page appears in a pop-up.
The View Competency Results page displays a learner's results for all competencies accessible to learners in the current org unit
Monitoring progress from the User Progress tool
From the User Progress tool, you can view a summary of the competencies a learner has completed within the current org unit. If you access the User Progress tool from an org unit above the course offering level (e.g. department, organization), you can see the learner's completion of competencies within that org unit (including competencies created in that org unit and shared with others beneath it) as well as each of the course offerings below that org unit in the organization's hierarchy. Note To see a user's competency progress for a course offering, you must be enrolled in the course offering with the permission "Manage Competencies" and the user must be enrolled with the permission "Can be evaluated." To see progress for another type of org unit (e.g. organization, department) you must be enrolled in that org unit with the "Manage Competencies" permission; the user whose progress you want to view does not need to be enrolled in that org unit.
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! To view the Competency User Progress page 1 Do one of the following: For a course offering (or any org unit other than the organization), click the Classlist link on the navbar, locate the user in the classlist, and click the View Progress icon next to their name. For the organization, click the Manage Users link in My Admin Tools, locate the user, and click the View User Progress icon for that user. From either an org unit or My Home, click My Progress in the Welcome widget. Select the user whose progress you want to view in the Choose User drop-down if it is available. 2 3 Scroll down to the Competencies section. If you see an Expand icon in the top left corner of the section, click the icon to expand the section. If you accessed the page through a course offering, click the View Competency Progress link to view the learner's progress for that course offering. Otherwise, click the View Competency Progress link for the course offering you to view or the View Competency Progress in current Org Unit link to view progress for the current org unit (if it is something other than a course offering).
Viewing activity statistics
To view the Activity Stats page, do one of the following: On the Competency List page, click the View Stats icon next to an activity. Activity
From the Edit Activity, Activity Structure, or Activity Results page, click Stats on the tool menu.
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Making changes and re-evaluation of learner progress
Making changes and re-evaluation of learner progress
Many of the changes that can be made to competency structures, activity properties, rubrics, quizzes associated with activities, etc. will have an impact on learner results. For example, if you change the achievement threshold of an activity and learners have already been assessed, the system will need to examine each learner to determine whether they meet the new threshold and then update their results accordingly. This process is called re-evaluation; this section looks at a number of features and considerations surrounding it.
Changes that trigger re-evaluation
In general, any time you make a change that alters the criteria required to achieve an activity, learning objective or competency, learners will be re-evaluated. This includes the following: adding an activity, learning objective, or sub-competency to a competency's structure. removing an activity, learning objective, or sub-competency from a competency's structure. changing an activity's achievement threshold. selecting a different rubric for an activity to use (note that this will erase all assessments for that activity). changing a quiz associated with an automatically evaluated activity (adding, removing, or modifying questions)--this will cause the grades to be recalculated, which may change the activity results as well. changing a student's grade if a grade item activity is automatically evaluated. removing a competency previously available in an org unit ("unsharing" a competency with an org unit).
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Re-evaluation and status
If your organization is using Competency Status, only Approved competencies will be reevaluated. Changes made to a Draft, In Review, or Archived competency will not trigger a re-evaluation until the competency's status is changed to Approved. If your organization is not using Competency Status, re-evaluation will always take place when applicable changes are made.
Suspending re-evaluation of a learning objective
You can use a learning objective's Ready for Evaluation setting to prevent it from being re-evaluated. If Ready for Evaluation is set to "No," you will be able to add new activities to the learning objective and edit or remove existing activities without triggering a re-evaluation. This is useful if you are making a series of changes to the activities beneath a learning objective. You can set Ready for Evaluation to "No," make all of your changes, and then set it back to "Yes." This way, rather than triggering a re-evaluation after each change, re-evaluation will happen only once when Ready for Evaluation is set back to "Yes." Note This also suspends normal evaluation of the learning objective (meaning that learners will not be able to complete the learning objective while Ready for Evaluation is set to "No"). The Ready for Evaluation setting can be changed on the Edit Learning Objective page. Tip This will be most beneficial if you are editing activities attached to a shared competency (a competency that is available in multiple org units), since re-evaluation will extend to all learners in all org units where the competency is available, potentially placing a heavy strain on the server.
Manually initiating re-evaluation
If your organization is using Manual Re-evaluation, changes that normally trigger reevaluation will not automatically start the re-evaluation process; instead, you will have to manually initiate re-evaluation. (Check with your site administrator if you are not sure whether your organization is using Manual or Automatic re-evaluation.) If a competency, learning objective, or activity is out of date and in need of re-evaluation, a notice will appear on the Results page along with a Re-evaluate button.
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A notice appears at the top of the Results page when re-evaluation is required
This notice will appear on the Results page of all elements affected by a change. For example, if an activity's Achievement threshold is changed, the notice will appear on the Results page of the activity and all of its parents, all the way up to the competency. ! To initiate re-evaluation 1 2 Go to the Results page of any activity, learning objective, or competency element affected by a change. Click the Re-evaluate button. Note Re-evaluation requests are stored in a queue and processed in sequence. Depending on the number of requests already in the queue, there may be a lengthy delay before your request is processed and your learners are re-evaluated.
Allowing re-evaluation of learners who've achieved a competency
In some cases you may want learners to keep a competency once they've achieved it, regardless of any changes made afterwards. This happens with university degrees, for example; whatever happens to the degree requirements after graduation, a graduate's degree is not reassessed or revoked. The competency property Allow re-evaluation of learners who've achieved this Competency controls whether learners who've completed the competency should be exempt from re-evaluation, or whether their completion of the competency should be reevaluated if the competency is ever changed. You can change this setting on the Edit Competency page or set it when creating a new competency. Note Learning objectives attached to the competency will still be re-evaluated where necessary, regardless of this setting. The setting only affects completion of the competency element itself.
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Information for administrators
Choosing between manual and automatic re-evaluation
The re-evaluation process examines the accomplishments of all users enrolled in an org unit with the "Can be evaluated" permission. Depending on the number of users included, this process may be resource-intensive. You can configure your system to automatically re-evaluate learner progress every time an applicable change is made, or you can disable this feature and require users to manually initiate re-evaluation on out-of-date elements. Using manual re-evaluation allows users to control when the re-evaluation process takes place. This will help you to manage server load if you instruct users at your organization to postpone re-evaluations to non-peak times.
Disabling automatic re-evaluation
The DOME variable d2l.Tools.Competencies.Settings.AutomaticReeval controls whether re-evaluation takes place automatically within your organization. For more info about accessing the DOME and setting variables, see the Desire2Learn Organization Management (DOME) Reference Guide.
Monitoring the re-evaluation service
Re-evaluation is performed by a service running on a separate thread that processes elements requiring re-evaluation at regular intervals. When a change triggers re-evaluation, the elements affected are added to a table in the database and processed in order by the re-evaluation service the next time it runs. If automatic re-evaluation is disabled, elements are still added to the database table but they are flagged to be ignored by the re-evaluation service until a user manually requests reevaluation by clicking the Re-evaluate button on the Results page. Once an element has been processed by the service, it is removed from the table. The Competency Service Jobs page lists the elements in the database table. You can monitor whether the service is running by checking whether items are being removed from the list. If you have automatic re-evaluation enabled, the oldest items on the list will be the first to be processed; if these items are not removed after a suitable interval (normally the service runs at five-minute intervals), then the service may not be running. If you are using manual re-evaluation, you will need to manually initiate re-evaluation for an item on the list, then check to see if the element is removed after a suitable interval.
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! To access the Competency Service Jobs page From My Home, click the Competency Service Jobs link in the Organization Related section of My Admin Tools. (The permission "See Competency Service Jobs" is required to see this link.) Note The list is not updated automatically. To update the list, click the Refresh button.
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Status, revision control and workflow
Status, revision control and workflow
Overview
Note Competency Status is optional and may be disabled in your organization. If you are not sure whether your organization is using Competency Status, contact your site administrator. With the Status feature you can: Implement and enforce workflow around the creation, use, evaluation and archiving of competencies. Provide revision control that prevents competencies from being modified while learners are working towards completing them. When Status is enabled, each competency will have one of four statuses: Draft, In Review, Approved, or Archived. Each status is associated with a permission; users will only be able to see the competencies with statuses matching their permissions. If you only have permission to see Draft competencies, you will not be able to see competencies with any of the other statuses, and if a competency's status is changed from Draft to In Review, you will no longer be able to see it. When different user roles are set up for each status permission, the status property can be used to route competencies to the appropriate users--for example, changing a competency's status from Draft to In Review will remove it from the list of those users whose job it is to create new competencies and make it appear in the list of users whose job it is to review and approve them. Competency Status also provides revision control in that each status places certain restrictions on what can be done with a competency and how it behaves; for example, you can add a new learning objective to a Draft competency but not to an Archived one. This is intended to help keep incomplete competencies separate from ones that learners are actively working to complete, and to prevent changes from being made to competencies once they have been approved. Full details can be found in the section Status settings and their effects, p.63.
Learning objectives and activities
Status can only be set for competency elements (not learning objectives or activities) and applies to the entire structure beneath the competency, including any attached learning objectives and activities. So if a user can only see Approved competencies, they will not be able to see a learning objective attached to a Draft competency since the Draft status applies to the entire structure.
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Note Sub-competencies have their own status; the status of a competency does not apply to its attached sub-competencies (if any).
Organizations not using the Status feature
If status has been disabled for your organization, all competencies will be visible to all users (unless they are explicitly hidden), and there will be no restrictions on when competencies can be edited or evaluated.
Status settings and their effects
Each of the four status settings imposes different restrictions on what can be done with a competency and how it behaves. These restrictions are summarized in the following table and discussed below.
Draft Will it be visible in the student view? Can learners complete it? Can the definition be changed? Can activities be added, removed, or edited? Will changes trigger a reevaluation? No No Yes Yes No In Review No No Yes Yes No Approved Yes Yes No Yes Yes Archived No No No Yes No No Status* Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
*The No Status column represents the system's behaviour if Status is disabled
Will it be visible in the student view?
Only Approved competencies will be visible in the student view. (The student view is displayed to users who have the "See Competencies" permission but not the "Manage Competencies" permission.) Tip You can hide an Approved competency from learners with the "Make competency and its children visible to learners" property on the Edit Competency page. For more information see Hiding a competency, p. 35.
Can learners complete it?
Learners will only be able to complete Approved competencies. Although instructors or graders may be able to assess activities attached to a competency whose status is not Approved (depending on their permissions), the learner's completion of learning objectives or the competency itself will not be evaluated. Only when the competency's status is changed to Approved will learner results be calculated, taking these activities into account.
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Can the definition be changed?
The competency definition includes the competency and all of its learning objectives; it does not include activities. When a competency's status is Approved or Archived, its definition cannot be changed. This is part of the IMS RDCEO specification that the Desire2Learn competency model is based on; once a competency is approved (or "published"), it is not supposed to be changed. This means that for Approved and Archived competencies, you cannot edit the competency element or any of its learning objectives, and you cannot add or remove learning objectives or sub-competencies. (You can still add and remove activities because they are not considered part of the definition.) Note Some competency and learning objective settings can still be changed even when the competency's status is Approved or Archived. On the Edit Competency page, "Make competency and its children visible to learners" and "Status" can be changed, while on the Edit Learning Objective page the "Ready for Evaluation" setting can be changed.
Can activities be added, removed, or edited?
Because activities are not part of the competency definition, you can add, remove, and edit activities even when the associated competency's status is Approved.
Will changes trigger a re-evaluation?
Making changes to a competency will often impact the requirements learners must meet to complete the competency. If learners have already been assessed for some activities, then the changes you make may require them to be re-evaluated to update which activities and learning objectives have been completed by each learner. This re-evaluation may or may not apply to the competency itself, depending on its settings. Only Approved competencies will be re-evaluated. However, if a competency's status is changed from Approved to one of the other settings, changes are made, and the status is switched back to Approved again, a re-evaluation will be triggered at that point. For more information about re-evaluation, see Making changes and re-evaluation of learner progress, p. 57.
Status effects and nested competencies
Nested competencies are ones that include a sub-competency (one competency attached to another), as shown in Figure 8. Because two different competencies are involved, this has special implications for Status.
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C1
L1 L2 A A
C2
L3
A
A
Figure 8: a nested competency
With nested competencies, both the top-level competency and the sub-competency have their own status settings. For example, in Figure 8, C1's status might be Approved while C2's might be Draft.
Changes to the definition
The sub-competency, while part of the definition of the top-level competency, also has its own definition. Whether changes can be made to the definition of the sub-competency depends only on the status of the sub-competency. For example, in Figure 8, whether you can remove L2 from C2 depends only on the status of C2. If C2's status is Draft, then you can remove L2, even if C1's status is Approved (and even though this will, in effect, change the definition of C1 as well). However, you would not be able to remove C2 from C1. If, on the other hand, C1's status were Draft and C2's status were Approved, you would not be able to remove L2 from C2, but you would be able to remove C2 from C1.
Re-evaluation of learner progress
If changes are made to a Draft sub-competency, while the top-level (or parent) competency is Approved, these changes will not cause a re-evaluation of the top-level (parent) competency. In Figure 8, if C2's status is Draft and L2 is removed, C1 will not be re-evaluated. Only when C2's status is changed to Approved will C1 be re-evaluated based on the changes made.
Visible in the student view
In our example once again, if both C1 and C2 are Approved, then learners will see the full structure of C1 and they will also see C2 listed on its own. (This is because a subcompetency is also a competency in its own right.) If C1 is Approved and C2 is Draft, learners will see C1, L1 and the activity beneath L1, but nothing else. If C1 is Draft and C2 is Approved, learners will see C2 by itself and the rest of its structure, but not C1 or L1.
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Status effects and overlapping competencies
Two competencies overlap when they share a common learning objective (that is, when the same learning objective is attached to both of them). In Figure 9, C1 and C2 overlap because L1 is attached to them both.
Figure 9: overlapping competencies
If C1 and C2 have different Status settings, this has repercussions for what can and cannot be done to L1 and the structure beneath it. If a learning objective is attached to multiple competencies and any parent competency is Approved or Archived, then you will not be able to edit its properties or add or remove other learning objectives beneath it. For example, in Figure 9, if either C1 or C2 were Approved or Archived, you would not be able to edit L1, L2, or L3, and you would not be able to remove L2 or L3 from L1 or attach another nested learning objective beneath any of them.
Changing a competency's status
! To change a competency's status 1 2 3 On the Competency List page, click the competency's name. Select a new status from the Status list. Click Save.
Making changes to an Approved competency
When a competency's status is Approved, there are a number of changes that cannot be made--you cannot change the properties of the competency or attached learning objectives, and you cannot add new learning objectives or sub-competencies or remove existing ones. If you need to make these changes, you will first have to change the competency's status to Draft or In Review. Here are the steps involved:
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1
Go to the Edit Competency page for the competency element at the top of the structure, change the Status to "Draft" or "In Review," and save. Learners who have been working on the competency will no longer be able to see it, and you can now make the changes you want to make.
2
Make any changes you need to make. For example, if you want to make changes to the description of an attached learning objective, you can now go to the Edit Learning Objective page, edit the description, and save.
3 4
Return to the Edit Competency page and change the Status back to "Approved." Save the competency. If any changes were made that require a re-evaluation of learner progress, learners will be re-evaluated at this point (when the competency is saved). If your organization uses manual re-evaluation, you will need to manually initiate this re-evaluation: go to the Competency Results page for the competency and click Re-evaluate Now. Note Not all changes will require learners to be re-evaluated. Changing the description of a learning objective, for example, has no affect on learner achievement and will not trigger a re-evaluation. See Changes that trigger re-evaluation, p. 57 for more information.
Information for administrators
This section contains information relevant to deciding whether or not to use the Status feature in your organization, and, if so, how to use status permissions to implement a workflow process.
Deciding whether to use Status
There are two main reasons to enable the Status feature: You can use permissions associated with each status setting to implement a workflow process around creating, reviewing, approving, and archiving competencies. Each status setting automatically imposes restrictions on what can and cannot be done to a competency and how it behaves; this is designed to help prevent competencies from being edited while learners are working to achieve them, and to prevent learners from seeing competencies while they are being created or modified. If Status is disabled, you lose the ability to use a competency's status to separate "draft" or "in progress" competencies from "live" ones that learners are actively using. However, you can use the competency setting "Make competency and its children visible to learners" and the learning objective setting "Ready for Evaluation" to achieve similar effects.
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If competencies are typically created within a single course offering, learner enrollment and course start and end dates can also be used to prevent learners from accessing competencies before they are finished--as with any other tool used inside a course offering. Also, if competencies are typically created within a single course offering by one person, you may not have any use for the workflow functionality that comes with status. However, if competencies are created and tracked at a higher org level (perhaps they are organization-wide) and shared across multiple course offerings, if learners work toward them gradually over time, and especially if you have a formal workflow process surrounding the competency lifecycle that involves multiple users, then you could benefit from using status.
Disabling Status
The DOME variable d2l.Tools.Competencies.Settings.UseStatus controls whether status is enabled for your organization. For information about accessing the DOME and setting variables, see the Desire2Learn Organization Management (DOME) Reference Guide. Caution Changing the value of this variable has repercussions for all existing competencies and any learners working towards their completion. It is strongly advised that this value be set once during installation and not changed.
Disabling Status and "Not Ready" competencies
If status is disabled, any existing competencies that previously had a status of Draft, In Review, or Archived (before the change) will appear in the Learning Environment as "Not Ready," indicated by the Competency Not Ready icon. Not Ready competencies will be hidden from learners, and learners will not be able to complete them (that is, these competencies will not be evaluated as learners complete activities). This allows instructors and others responsible for managing individual competencies to decide how to configure these competencies now that status has been turned off. (For example, an instructor might want to clear the "Make competency and its children visible to learners" property to prevent learners from seeing the competency, now that the status will no longer handle this automatically.) To clear the Not Ready flag, a user must open the Edit Competency page and save the competency. The first time a Not Ready competency is saved, the Not Ready flag is cleared (and the Competency Not Ready icon disappears). There is no way to manually mark a competency as "Not Ready."
Using competency permissions to support workflow
There is a user security permission associated with each status. These permissions only apply to users who have access to the administrative interface (controlled by the permission "Manage Competencies"; users who do not have this permission will see the Student view, where only Approved competencies and their children are displayed).
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In the administrative interface, users will only be able to see the competencies whose status they have permission to see. For example, if a user only has permission to see In Review competencies, then on the Competency List page they will see: competency elements whose status is In Review learning objectives and activities attached to In Review competencies "orphaned" learning objectives and activities (that is, ones that are not attached to any competency--all users will see these elements since they have no status) In addition, there is a separate permission, "Set Competency Status," that controls whether a user is able to change the status of a competency. Using these permissions together you can establish a workflow process that controls which users have access to competencies at each stage in their lifecycle, and who has the authority to move a competency forward to the next stage (or bump it back to a previous one) by changing the status.
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Shared competencies
Shared compet...