One-quarter of graduating students score below adequate on measures of literacy, numeracy One of the first major attempts to measure employment-related skills in university and college students on a large scale shows that students are experiencing some gains in literacy, numeracy and critical-thinking scores over the course of their undergraduate studies. Yet, one in four […]
Tag: Learning Outcomes
Learning Outcomes
Rise of competency-based education could help bridge ‘skills gap’ With increased pressure on the postsecondary education system to prepare students for a changing workforce, competency-based education (CBE) is emerging as a promising model for preparing graduates to meet employer demands. A new report published by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, Competency-based Education: Driving the […]
University of Guelph Evaluates Online Outcomes Assessment Tool The University of Guelph was one of the first institutions to define the skills students would learn in their programs. This evolved into a list of five institutional learning outcomes that were approved in 2012. As a next step, researchers worked in collaboration with Desire2Learn (D2L), a […]
Visit our sustainability page to read more of HEQCO’s research on this topic. Sustaining the quality of higher education goes beyond simply balancing the books As Ontario universities and colleges struggle to deal with rising expenses and stagnant revenues, academic quality risks being compromised, argues a new report by the Higher Education Quality Council of […]
Why did those who created this agency include the word quality in its name, even though it resulted in one of the clumsiest acronyms — HEQCO — on the face of the earth? I think it’s because they were smart and prescient. They understood that there are a million questions one could ask and research […]
Educators around the world are being called on to pull up their socks and save the economy: to “bridge,” “plug” or “prevent” the skills gap by equipping students with the technical and transferable skills needed to meet tomorrow’s economic needs. But which technical and transferable skills, exactly? Well, we know that employers are looking to […]
If you were to read all that is out there about quality assurance in higher education, you might be left with the impression that quality assurance is a complicated, nuanced, arduous, complex concept and process that defies rigorous measurement, and that will take a decade or more to get it right. I am fond of […]
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Jackie Pichette — What’s in a badge?
A robot can handle investments, my brother’s phone can recognize his face, and I can earn a digital badge for participating in a webinar … Welcome to the digital economy. As routine, repetitive tasks are taken over by technology, employees in this third industrial revolution are expected to orchestrate product development, innovate and learn on […]
Welcome to the latest episode of It’sNotAcademic the podcast. It’s an often heard complaint. University and college graduates lack the skills that employers seek. They don’t have what it takes to thrive in today’s rapidly changing workplace. To look at this issue, the Business Council of Canada brought together representatives from some of Canada’s largest […]