Towards a Framework for Mapping Authentic Assessment to Competency in University Computing Education in the UK

Across various countries and jurisdictions, we have seen reports of a "graduate skills gap'', with higher-than-desired graduate unemployment and underemployment, as well as reports from employers that there is a mismatch between the competencies desired by employers and those evidenced by graduates. Graduate employment prospects are related to many complex intersecting factors, including human capital, individual attributes, individual career-building behaviours, labour market factors, and social capital. Alongside the reports of a graduate skills gap, there are reports internationally of a "digital skills gap'', with increasing demand for digital skills and a proclaimed shortage of diverse digital skills evidenced by the workforce. These circumstances appear to promote positive employment outcomes for computing graduates. However, there are reports in many jurisdictions, including the UK, of skills-gap-related issues for computing graduates. In response to these concerns, curricula guidance in the computing discipline, alongside engineering disciplines, are increasingly promoting competency-based education (CBE) to develop graduates’ work readiness better and hence, reduce the skills gap.

CBE focuses on learner outcomes and supports learners in demonstrating the knowledge, attitudes, values, skills, and behaviours required for their chosen discipline. Part of adopting CBE requires appropriately supporting assessment, focusing on assessing what learners can do. "Authentic assessment'' was originally defined as "engaging in worthy problems or questions of importance, in which students must use knowledge to fashion performances effectively and creatively. The tasks are either replicas of or analogous to the kinds of problems faced by adult citizens and consumers or professionals in the field''. Over the last 30 years, authenticity has been defined many times, and common practice commonly involves mimicking work tasks. However, the link between CBE and authentic assessment in the computing discipline could benefit from further exploration.

This paper explores the relationship between CBE and authentic assessment. Based on the research question: "How can authentic assessment be employed to promote competency in computing degree programmes?'', the paper begins by providing theoretical underpinnings in the form of working definitions for competency and authentic assessment and the link between the two. This paper follows a proof-of-concept research approach conducted by evolutionary prototyping to develop a framework for exploring the relationship between authentic assessment and competency. The paper documents the validation of the framework by applying it to examples of practices from UK universities involved in the study. These illustrative examples show the framework in action. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the framework promotes learner competency development by authentic assessment. This approach has implications for enhancing how computing graduates address digital skills gaps and has the potential to be customised and adopted in broader science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.