Competency-Based Assessment and the Use of Performance-Based Evaluation Rubrics in Higher Education: Challenges Towards the Next Decade

Abstract

Rubrics are assessment guides for grading and giving feedback to students while demonstrating acquired knowledge and skills. In the last decades, rubrics have been all part of the most used learning evaluation tools in higher education. Its use is further well-related to competency-based assessment purposes. Nevertheless, criticism around design and application has been also implemented in certain reports. In order to understand rubrics’ evolution, practice, benefits, and trends, a systematic literature review on rubrics’ design and use has been conducted. Two databases were selected: Scopus and ProQuest Education. Two phases were determined: The first allowed to identify articles related to rubrics’ design and application for almost three decades. 584 articles were found. From these, most cited articles served to give a scope of rubric evolution and trends. The second phase permitted to identify design and use of performance-based evaluation rubrics from 2009 and 2019. Five terms and Boolean combinations were used. A total of 259 articles was found. After analyzing abstracts and content, 11 open access articles on performance-oriented rubric design and application were chosen. As a result, some facts and reflections on rubric design complexity are discussed towards responding to educational challenges related to competency-based assessment contemporary demands: integration of human learning domains going beyond cognition, authenticity, and interdisciplinarity as features that characterize learning design situations, follow students’ progression, educator’s preparation on assessment literacy for responding to CBA demands, and the involvement of experts of the work field in determining essential evaluation indicators as the main topics looking forward to the next decade. Keywords: competency-based assessment, competency-based education, higher education, learning taxonomy, rubric design.

Software Development Methodologies, HEIs, and the Digital Economy

“…To ensure fair and constructive evaluation, each project is evaluated by four evaluators, including the supervisor, two faculty members and the senior project coordinator. Project evaluation is an important component of the teaching and learning process in that, ideally, it structures the teaching and learning process by highlighting the goals and objectives the learners and the educators are expected to attain [48][49][50][51][52]. Well-designed evaluation rubrics are an important tool that facilitates students in organizing their work and improving their efficiency.…”

Limitations of Teaching and Learning Redox: A Systematic Review

“…They were categorized into four categories (investigate subjects; level of education; methods and strategies; and difficulties arising from the investigation). In this study, the categories were based on some of those already established in the literature and used in the paper developed by groups that perform systematic review (Gallardo, 2020;Morris III, 2020;Lee et al, 2009;Teo et al, 2014;Vojíří & Rusek, 2019).…”

Transparency of cognitive complexity in performance assessments: A validity study

“…Responses can be evaluated on multiple qualities or criteria, and scoring is typically done by evaluators (Bejar, 1991; Frederiksen & Collins, 1989; Lane, 2010; Messick, 1996; Stiggins, 1991). The glue that holds the entire system together is made consistent across evaluators (with training of course) and is the most crucial feature of scoring in the rubric, which presents “one of the most difficult aspects of the learning process: giving judgments about performance” (Gallardo, 2020, p. 63). Rubrics have two parts (Brookhart, 2018; Jonnson & Panadero, 2017): (a) the scoring criteria, which are typically based on an agreed‐upon (by subject matter experts, or SMEs) set of behaviors required to perform the task satisfactorily (i.e., demonstration of competence), and (b) performance level descriptions, or what the criteria look like at varying levels of competence (e.g., low to high; non‐competent to competent; approaching competence to competence, there is a wide variety of categorization or scaling of competence).…”

“…The scoring criteria must be simple and clear enough to communicate to students what is expected of them in their response (Brookhart, 2018; ETS, 2008; Gallardo, 2020). Planning and prepping to respond is likely affected as the student needs to know if they will simply need to define or describe a concept or create a product that exemplifies that concept.…”