Re: EOCred: Identify the level of a credential

Thanks Fritz, I think that is a good analysis.

In Europe at least, there is definitely a link between level as your 
first point and credentials. Of course this reflects back to the level 
of competence expected. I wouldn't say "they are just labels for a 
person's capability in that credential", rather I would say that the 
credential level tells you about the person's capability in the 
subject/field/competences in question.

Your second meaning (in Europe again, but I think in the US as well) is 
related to the credit value, at least as far as the extent of coverage 
of a field is involved, usually linked to a notional time required to 
cover the material. (and I see Stuart has just made the point that these 
tend to be different types the credential: e.g. SCQF Certificate = 1 
year of study, Diploma = 2 years: of course it's not so easily 
separated, in two years you may also reach a higher level). Ryan's 
comment in the 'link to a course' thread may also be related to credit 
value, so i think we should cover this separately. We do have a use case 
about transfer value of credentials, which may be the opportunity to 
discuss this, though it is a wider issue than transfer.

Yes, the grade/mark at which a credential is earned by an individual is, 
I think, out of scope.

Phil

On 15/02/18 05:10, Fritz Ray wrote:
> I'll let Robby chime in and explain my understanding of Level better 
> than I can.
>
> Level has at least three senses of the word that are applicable, that 
> I have found.
>
>   * There is a general sense of someone's capability as defined by a
>     level, such as a novice, beginner, intermediate, journeyman,
>     advanced, expert, professional, etc. *Sometimes* these have formal
>     (but not necessarily specific) definitions, but much of the time
>     they are just labels for a person's capability in that credential.
>     They don't take much, if any expertise to identify or understand
>     though, and that makes them useful to non-practitioners. I see
>     this as being used more in competencies and less in credentials,
>     but I am including it for contrast.
>
>   * There's a formal and specific sense of someone's capabilityin
>     breadth and depth in this credential and a subset of more granular
>     courses or other competency granting things. These are most
>     commonly ascribed to credentials. A /_Bachelor's of Science_/ in
>     Software Engineering indicates so many credit hours of mandatory
>     technical, social, math, etc, so many credit hours of elective
>     classes, and additional projects. That is, the credential's level
>     indicates the courses and competencies obtained.
>
>     Note: It is often correct to think of these as different
>     credentials, since an Associate's degree and a Bachelor's degree
>     have different requirements, but they are both in the same domain,
>     so thinking of them as levels is common.
>
>   * And then there's a technical and specific sense of someone's
>     capability, which could be considered "SMART" -- Specific,
>     Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-Oriented. A /_Summa Cum
>     Laude_/ Bachelor's of Science in Software Engineering includes the
>     implication of an algorithm or rubric (in this case of the
>     individual's GPA) and the measurement against some thresholds
>     (3.85 / 4.0 and above). Awards for Olympic achievements like
>     breaking the Olympic record, for instance, include this sense.
>
>     Note: It is often impractical to think of these as different
>     credentials, since each Olympic record breaking credential would
>     require a different description for its specific 'credential'.
>
> I don't pretend to have definitive nomenclature for each of these (and 
> I'm not sure anyone does), but "Naive/General Level, (Tiers, Ranks, 
> Levels), and Performance Level" tend to be accepted.
>
> I'd describe the first definition with _just_ short strings or terms, 
> the middle definition with links to more specific credentials, and the 
> latter with some sort of performance profile, like a rubric, or 
> performance record, like the data indicating someone broke an Olympic 
> record.
>
> Note: The third definition may be outside current capabilities to 
> describe. I already accept this.
>
> On Tue, Feb 13, 2018 at 4:24 AM, Phil Barker <phil.barker@pjjk.co.uk 
> <mailto:phil.barker@pjjk.co.uk>> wrote:
>
>     Thank you for all the discussion so far. I have tried to summarise
>     where we are with describing the level of a credential in a draft
>     on the wiki
>     <https://www.w3.org/community/eocred-schema/wiki/User:Philbarker/Draft:Educational_level_of_a_credential>.
>     I have gone with direct references to terms that described
>     educational levels, without any AlignmentObjecting
>
>     In doing so I have tried not to refer to credentials explicitly,
>     because I think this property might be useful for Courses and
>     learning resources in general, but I am open to input on that if
>     you think that it makes the definition unnecessarily vague.
>
>     The main issue I see is whether educationalLevel is the right
>     name. If it is not, I suspect that Robbie has started writing his
>     reply before reading this far :) I am very open to wording from
>     people involved in occupational credentialling and workplace
>     learning for wording that is more inviting to their community.
>
>     As ever, all comments welcome.  Phil
>
>
>     [draft educationaLevel]
>     https://www.w3.org/community/eocred-schema/wiki/User:Philbarker/Draft:Educational_level_of_a_credential
>     <https://www.w3.org/community/eocred-schema/wiki/User:Philbarker/Draft:Educational_level_of_a_credential>
>
>
>
>     On 07/02/18 12:27, Phil Barker wrote:
>>
>>     The next use case I would like to discuss is around identifying
>>     the level of an educational / occupational credential currently
>>     stated as: it should be possible to search or review results of a
>>     search by specific credential level, e.g. post-graduate, High
>>     school, entry, intermediate, advanced.
>>
>>     To do this we need to be able to relate an educational /
>>     occupational credential to a description or representation of an
>>     educational level. I see two options for this:
>>
>>     A. we do the same as is currently done for learning resources and
>>     courses and use the educationalAlignement
>>     <http://schema.org/educationalAlignment>property to point to an
>>     AlignmentObject <http://schema.org/AlignmentObject> which in turn
>>     points to and/or describes an educational level.
>>
>>     B. we add a new property educationalLevel which could point to
>>     either an AlignmentObject or directly to a DefinedTerm for the
>>     educational level.
>>
>>     I'm interested in anyone's thoughts on which they would prefer.
>>
>>
>>     =A bit of background to the AlignmentObject.=
>>
>>     - the educationalAlignment / AligmentObject pairing is useful
>>     when you don't want to pre-define and thus limit types of
>>     alignments involved by having a few properties for specific
>>     alignments (that's at the root of why LRMI introduced it, here we
>>     have a specific alignment type we know we want.)
>>
>>     - the AlignmentObject is useful when the thing to which you are
>>     aligning is not properly defined a a firstclass schema.org
>>     <http://schema.org> object; it allows you to refer to it by
>>     description
>>
>>     - the AlignmentObject is useful when you want to say things about
>>     the alignment itself (e.g. describe who asserts the alignment is
>>     true and how they came to this judgement) though this ability is
>>     under developed and to my knowledge not used
>>
>>     - research <https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3054160>[*] into
>>     LRMI schema.org <http://schema.org> markup in the wild suggests
>>     that the AlignmentObject (and relatively more complex / abstract
>>     approaches in general) are used less frequently than simpler
>>     property - value [literal] relationships.
>>
>>     - the Open Badges spec uses an alignment property to point from a
>>     badge class to an AlignmentObject representing objectives or
>>     educational standards (which is slightly different to this use
>>     case, though we several use cases for aligning to competencies)
>>
>>
>>     Please let me know your thoughts.
>>
>>     Phil
>>
>>
>>     * open access copy of that paper at
>>     https://blogs.pjjk.net/phil/confpaper/analysing-improving-embedded-markup-learning-resources-web/
>>     <https://blogs.pjjk.net/phil/confpaper/analysing-improving-embedded-markup-learning-resources-web/>
>>
>>
>>     -- 
>>
>>     Phil Barker <http://people.pjjk.net/phil>.
>>     http://people.pjjk.net/phil
>>     PJJK Limited <https://www.pjjk.co.uk>: technology to enhance
>>     learning; information systems for education.
>>     CETIS LLP: a cooperative consultancy for innovation in education
>>     technology.
>>
>>     PJJK Limited is registered in Scotland as a private limited
>>     company, number SC569282.
>>     CETIS is a co-operative limited liability partnership, registered
>>     in England number OC399090
>>
>
>     -- 
>
>     Phil Barker <http://people.pjjk.net/phil>. http://people.pjjk.net/phil
>     PJJK Limited <https://www.pjjk.co.uk>: technology to enhance
>     learning; information systems for education.
>     CETIS LLP: a cooperative consultancy for innovation in education
>     technology.
>
>     PJJK Limited is registered in Scotland as a private limited
>     company, number SC569282.
>     CETIS is a co-operative limited liability partnership, registered
>     in England number OC399090
>
>

-- 

Phil Barker <http://people.pjjk.net/phil>. http://people.pjjk.net/phil
PJJK Limited <https://www.pjjk.co.uk>: technology to enhance learning; 
information systems for education.
CETIS LLP: a cooperative consultancy for innovation in education technology.

PJJK Limited is registered in Scotland as a private limited company, 
number SC569282.
CETIS is a co-operative limited liability partnership, registered in 
England number OC399090

Received on Thursday, 15 February 2018 14:23:44 UTC