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Competency-based Curriculum Video Series

How to Crosswalk Competency Models for Curriculum Development: Stacking the Deck for Students


Speakers

Gregory Kremer, Engineering Department Chair, Ohio University

Cody Petitt, Engineering Lab Coordinator, Ohio University

Damon Givens, Reliability Engineer, Cargill

Alex Shambrock, Engineering Student, Ohio University

Sam Morales, Engineering Student, Ohio University

Transcript

How to Crosswalk Competency Models for Curriculum Development

Stacking the Deck for Students

So I started doing a lot of background research and I've done some past work in basically professional skills, trying to come up with a taxonomy of the skills that kind of define what an engineer is. Luckily I stumbled across a -- something called the Engineering Competency Model from the Department of Labor.

And all of a sudden some things started to click. It was like, well, someone's already done this better than I could do it. It's got some authority to it. It's got the participation of the engineering societies, and it had a nice structure to the model.

So I took that model back to our employers and our advisory board and said, hey, does this resonate with you? Does this describe to you some of the key competencies? And almost overall it did.

They have now integrated and developed a Stacking the Deck set of cards that are working with the competency model, that would then be able to help the students formalize something to reflect upon and really help them grow and develop these characteristics.

These cards in this competency program can help students prepare for interviews by really giving them a framework for being intentional about their experiences that they have. They can record them if they don't have them naturally through their work or their school or their life; then they can actually seek out that situation or that scenario and have it occur and then learn from it.

Through this program I've been able to think back about how maybe I can apply these things to my classes and teach coursework. So easiest one is with adaptability and flexibility. It gets me to start thinking outside the box. I don't always approach it the way I think it's going to work. The Stacking The Deck program helps me think that way.

Some of the workplace and professional effectiveness traits that really apply to everyday engineering, like creative thinking and problem solving, which we do in an everyday basis in the classroom -- working out a problem or just trying to figure out a calculation in a computer system -- and I think it's just like a very easy to apply, like that compared to engineering they just kind of go hand in hand.

I think the Stacking the Deck program is something that I can take back to my employer and show the value that it brings with graduates of high university, because it's really giving them a structured framework by which they can develop themselves.

To hear more from your peers on "How to Crosswalk Competency Models with Curriculum", please visit the Competency Model Clearinghouse. Click on Get Started at www.careeronestop.org/CompetencyModel