COMP@S
COMP@S is an educational innovation project with the aim of developing and validate a tool to evaluate 21st Century Skills of students vertically throughout their education at the VUB.
In recent literature, close attention has been paid to 21st Century Skills, particularly transversal competences such as collaboration, communication, critical thinking, creativity, and leadership, often identified as key competencies for the future. These skills are important for students so they can learn how to function effectively and efficiently in a rapidly evolving society with complex challenges that are difficult to predict. Although there are similarities between the existing program-specific learning outcomes (OLRs) of the programs at the VUB and these 21st Century Skills, there is currently no instrument available to evaluate this process during the entire educational trajectory at the VUB. Currently, the way of evaluating gives students feedback per course per year with insufficient insight into the development of their own competences, particularly 21st Century Skills. Therefore, we want to develop a tool to evaluate these skills throughout students’ education at the VUB. This validated tool will be used to let students discover their strengths and weaknesses (as a means to (learn to) reflect and deal with feedback), to let students refine their options and to use it with partners in the workplace. In addition, it will encourage lecturers to think program-wide about specific and measurable competencies that transcend subject areas. This VUB-COMP@S can thus serve as a talent orientation for self-evaluation and mutual evaluation among students and as a monitoring tool for lecturers.