Towards a Competence-Based Course Authoring Tool Supporting Learning Management Systems

Abstract

To establish a more comparable, compatible, and coherent system of higher education in Europe, the so-called Bologna Process (BP) has been adopted. As a measure to improve comparability, the BP requires that every study path, module, or course has to define a Learning Goal (LG) which is specified by the conveyed competences. Until now, the expectations towards the BP regarding comparability have not been fulfilled because competences are usually described in form of free text and not in standardized terms. The fact that since adoption of the BP more than 10.000 study programs have been created in Germany outlines a trend which demonstrates the need of improved solutions. Regarding comparability, so-called Competence Frameworks (CFs) with standardized, machine-readable competences are promising tools; therefore, they should be integrated into progressive software infrastructures concerned with creation, management, and execution of study paths, modules and courses. For this purpose, the so-called Qualifications Based Learning Model (QBLM) has been developed. In this paper, we introduce a general system architecture which is designed for realizing Competence-based Learning IT-infrastructures. Furthermore, the conceptual design and prototypical implementation of a Course Authoring Tool (CAT) is described which is based on the QBLM and the information-, content-, knowledge-, and learning management platform Knowledge Management Ecosystem Portal (KM-EP). The integration of the QBLM into Learning Management System (LMS) Moodle which is an underlying subsystem of the KM-EP platform is work in progress.