Success Self Assessment for ECTS Online Courses

One of the most frequently asked questions by people considering our ECTS teacher preparation courses is: "How likely am I to be successful at this?" We have found that being able to understand written information and directions and write in a clear and concise manner are the most reliable indicators of success (especially for online distance learning students). Further, we have developed a simple assessment that has proven to be effective in predicting success in our Level 1 and/or Level 2 ECTS courses. We highly encourage everyone interested in those courses to read the brief article below then follow the directions (exactly as posted) below the article. Scroll down to see whole page.

FIRST, READ THIS ARTICLE -

Competency

A competency is a clearly written statement of what someone should be able to do as the result of specific instruction. When students demonstrate a "competency," they are demonstrating their ability to do something specific that can be observed and measured. They are showing the outcome of what they have learned from the instruction related to that competency. Things like specific job skills and specific living skills can be defined as competencies. An example of one specific competency might be: "Students will spell the word thingamajig correctly."

In most educational programs, a student moves through curricular requirements one course at a time by taking a series of courses and being evaluated on how well she/he has done meeting the requirements of each of those courses. The problem is that many course requirements are not defined very specifically and students may have difficulty understanding what the instructor wants them to actually do.

In the ECTS courses from CSUSB, students are told exactly what they are expected to be able to do as the result of successfully completing each course. They are given specific information up front about specific competencies they are expected to master in each ECTS course and they are expected to demonstrute those competencies through a variety of specifically focused course assignments. It's not enough to be partly competent in something, our goal is to help every student acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to demonstrate mastery of each and every competency in every ECTS course completed.

THEN FOLLOW THESE DIRECTIONS -

After reading the above article carefully, copy the four questions below into a word processing document and add your answer to each question. The four questions are:

1. What is a competency?
   
   
2. What do students do in most educational programs?
   
   
3. What are ECTS students at CSUSB told?
   
   
4. What word in the article is spelled incorrectly?
   (Indicate what the correct spelling of that word should be.)
   
   

When you have finished doing that compare your answers to the answers provided in EXAMPLE 1 and EXAMPLE 2 below.

If your answers are more or less like those in EXAMPLE 1, you have excellent potential for success in our online ECTS courses.

If your answers are closer to what is in EXAMPLE 2, it is suggested that you take additional courses that focus on development of college level writing skills before attempting any of the ECTS courses.

Here are the examples:

EXAMPLE 1

Four questions and answers:

Question 1 - What is a competency? The answer is that a ... "competency is a clearly written statement of what someone should be able to do as the result of specific instruction."

Question 2 - What do students do in most educational programs? The answer is that in most educational programs ... "a student moves through curricular requirements one course at a time by taking a series of courses and being evaluated on how well she/he has done meeting the requirements of each of those courses. The problem is that many course requirements are not defined very specifically and students may have difficulty understanding what the instructor wants them to actually do."

Question 3 - What are ECTS students at CSUSB told? The answer is that ... "In the ECTS courses from CSUSB, students are told exactly what they are expected to be able to do as the result of successfully completing each course. They are given specific information up front about specific competencies they are expected to master in each ECTS course and they are expected to demonstrute those competencies through a variety of specifically focused course assignments.

Question 4 - What word in the article is spelled incorrectly? The answer is that the incorrectly spelled word is "demonstrute" (which should be spelled "demonstrate").

EXAMPLE 2

I'm not shure butt I think it are about thus:

Question 1 - What is a competency? Answer - Competencys is things that students need to learn by taking courses and listering to teachers.

Question 2 - What do students do in most educational programs? Answer - Most students don't do much. They read books, listen to lectures, take tests and stuff like that.

Question 3 - What are ECTS students at CSUSB told? Answer - They are told to sign up for the ECTS courses so they can learn how to do this stuff and become better teachers.

Question 4 - What word in the article is spelled incorrectly? Answer - thingamajig is misspelled as there ain't no such word!

Thanks for your interest in our online courses. There are links to comments of people who have completed them on the follwing web page:

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August 2012