Proposals for improving evaluation systems in higher education: An approach from the model 'Working with People'

Abstract

The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) represents a challenge to university teachers to adapt their evaluation systems, directing them towards continuous assessment. The integration of competence-based learning as an educational benchmark has also led to a perspective more focused on student and with complex learning situations closer to reality; however, its evaluation entails an increase in lecturers’ workload and a continuous demand for students due to the diversity of evaluation tests required to assess each aspect of competences. After a period in which the changes have been introduced and within the framework of educational innovations cross-cutting project named "Analysis of the UPM Degree Programmes Evaluation Procedures and Proposal for Improvements" (EVALÚA)", supported by the Educational Innovation Department, the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) considered to analyse the assessment systems and the ways to improve them, at both levels bachelor's and master's degree programmes. The methodology is based on the model "Working with People", which for the first time at the UPM, creates a participatory process with students and lecturers aimed at knowing their opinion and their feelings about the evaluation process and the potential for improvement. Eight focus groups were developed, with 33 students and 39 university teachers in total. The results indicate that the perception of students and lecturers regarding the evaluation systems have many common points, as well as the need to undertake an improvement strategy for integrating actions from all three model dimensions, seeking a balance in joint work among lecturers, university administrators and students.

Towards competence-oriented higher education: a systematic literature review of the different perspectives on successful exit profiles

“…Several studies (e.g. de los R ıos- Carmenado et al, 2016;Ordonez, 2014) note that students who follow competence-based education manage their learning better than other students. Because progress is not predetermined by course offerings and academic calendars, these students are given more autonomy to further their studies.…”

“…Several studies included in the qualitative synthesis argue that the competence-based approach could be suitable for HE (e.g. de los R ıos-Carmenado et al, 2016;Mulder et al, 2009). References to the Bologna Process should be noted as well, including citizenship, lifelong employability, international mobility (Davies, 2017) and harmonisation of key competences on an international scale (Schulze et al, 2013).…”

Protocol: action planning for action research about kaizen in public organizations. The case of higher education

“…Por todo ello, parece poco probable que exista investigación realizada en organizaciones que compartan las características de los servicios públicos españoles y, del mismo modo, no es previsible encontrar datos acerca de si los sistemas de sugerencias en grupo son, o pueden ser, beneficiosos para las universidades públicas españolas. Este es un hecho bastante llamativo pues uno de los problemas que afrontan las universidades en la actualidad es cómo afrontar el reto de la mejorar continuamente y ser más eficientes (de los Ríos-Carmenado et al, 2016;Sunder, 2016).…”

Management of Entrepreneurship Projects from Project‐Based Learning: Coworking StartUPS Project at Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (Salesian Polytechnic University), Ecuador

“…At the same time, values are being incorporated to the people who are involved in this process and participate and develop with the entrepreneurship projects [19][20][21]. This WWP process has been applied in numerous innovation projects by working with university agents (students and teachers) and society involved in the design and implementation of projects [33][34][35]. This methodological framework integrates project-based learning (PBL) processes for the building of entrepreneurship initiatives considering three dimensions of competencies: social-ethical, technical-entrepreneurial, and political-contextual, based on the standards of the International Project Management Association [22,23] and ISO 21500 [36].…”