Designing a Competence-Based Learning Course with Digital Tools in Higher Education

Abstract

The educational community is increasingly recognising the benefits of applying competence-based learning (CBL) in formal and informal training. Both learner-oriented and goals-oriented, competence-based learning encourages flexibility, adaptation and customisation of the learning process to specific learning context and individual preferences. At the same time, various digital environments and ICT tools emerge, successfully supporting the design, implementation and evaluation of CBL educational activities. However, competence-based learning approaches in Higher education (HE) are still underdeveloped, demonstrating the need to share and accumulate more academic experiences.

This article aims to outline how the use of digital tools can promote and facilitate the design and implementation of competence-based courses in the context of higher education. It emphasizes the potential of the learning management systems to track the progress and to be used in the assessment of achievement of different levels of competence development, applied in the 21^st Century Skills course design in a digital environment. In particular, we present such a course, developed as part of the Erasmus project Catch21, which will be multiplied in number of universities and HE institutions across EU. The paper focuses on the practical steps for design and implementation of learning activities with digital tools. Finally, the practical recommendations and lessons’ learned for adopting technological tools for the design and implementation of CBL course activities in higher education are identified and explained.