Technology of Multilevel Interuniversity Indicators as a Factor for Increasing Academic Mobility. Experience Based on Russian Federal Educational Standards

Abstract

Introduction. At the present time, more and more students are changing either their field of study or the university in the process of studying. This raises the problem of how to determine whether a student’s level of knowledge meets the host institution’s criteria. A simple comparison of competencies is not enough. Therefore, the authors propose a new system of comparing existing and required knowledge (competencies) at the new place of study. The purpose of this article is to present the results of research on the development and practical application of specific “competency trees” that allow for the automatic comparison and re-crediting of disciplines. Materials and Methods. The research is based on the methods of system analysis for weakly formalized problems: the method of expert evaluations and the method of the goal tree. For direct development the method of construction of binary decision trees was used. To evaluate the effectiveness of the developed method, methods of observation and comparison were used. Results. This article describes the specific steps for creating checklists based on multilevel competency indicator trees. The tables describe the four levels of competency acquisition. Based on the experiments carried out on the use of such tables for retake disciplines when transferring a student from one specialty to another, the following recommendations are made: if it is necessary to obtain a mark of the “Test” type in the Host University, the comparison is made according to the second level indicators; if it is necessary to obtain a mark of the type “Graded test/Test with a grade” in the Host University, the comparison is made according to the third level indicators; if it is necessary to obtain a mark of the “Exam” type in the Host University, the comparison is made according to the indicators of the deepest level for this indicator of the first level. The technique has been successfully tested for moving of a student within Kazan National Research Technical University named after A. N. Tupolev-KAI between the academic programs Aircraft Engineering and Applied Mathematics and Informatics. Discussion and Conclusion. The proposed multilevel system of interuniversity indicators will significantly simplify the procedure for transferring subjects for students who are moved from one study program to another at any level – whether within one university, or between different universities of the Russian Federation. The use of an automated system for comparing the level of knowledge of a student when moving from one university to another will not only reduce the time of a student and teachers, but also eliminate the human factor, bias and subjectivity in the process of making decisions about transferring, and increase the transparency of this process. All this together will contribute to the development of academic mobility of students, increasing their competitiveness in the labor market and strengthening academic interuniversity relationships both in Russia and abroad.