A model for the evaluation of competence-based learning implementation in higher education institutions: Criteria and indicators

Abstract

Almost twenty years after the Bologna Declaration was signed, the extent to which universities are embracing competence-based learning is a topic of much interest. This article presents a comprehensive model for the analysis of the implementation of competence-based learning (CBL) in Higher Education. An extensive bibliographic review was carried out on the concept of competence-based learning and on each of its constituent elements, with a view to proposing a model made up of seven dimensions and a set of evaluation criteria and indicators. The areas reviewed were the legal and administrative context, the institutional context, the degree programme planning process (including the individual modules/subjects within it), teaching practices and their assessment, and the review and improvement of the overall process. This explanatory model can be very useful to universities, particularly from Spain and Latin America, for assessing their level of implementation of competence-based learning, and identifying their strengths and areas for development.