Skills Tracking System as a Digital Solution for Student-Centred Learning (SkillTrack)

Objectives

1. To develop a pedagogical framework and methodology on teaching, learning and assessment of skills in context of self-directed learning.
2. To develop a unified healthcare skills catalogue, mapping the lists of skills and classification models between partner universities and ESCO classification system.
3. To pilot and approbate the concept of skills tracking system as a tool for self-directed learning and developed pedagogical guide.
4. To develop the recommendations on implementation of skills tracking system as a digital solution for student-centred teaching and self-directed learning for area of higher education.

Today a huge supply of different technological solutions and free-access resources, as well as the mindset of the new generation and Covid-19 pandemic have changed the learning and teaching process in higher education in healthcare. Now students learn things more independently, choosing their own methods and resources, in other words, they are using a self-directed learning approach.

Therefore, teacher’s role has changed as well – shifting from a leading one to a supportive one, providing guidance on individual learning paths. There is a need to ensure that students know what skills and competences they need to acquire in order to be competitive on the job market. They need a system, which defines a roadmap in achieving personal goals – what skills exactly have to be learned, in what way and at what level, so that at the end of the education process they could/would become professionals in their chosen careers.

On the other side, teachers need to know how to bring self-directed learning approach to a student, how to make the best out of it and afterwards how to assess students’ gained skills and knowledge equally.

The paradigm shift in education intends bringing skills to the foreground, so educational institutions need to develop a skills management system that ensures transparent and consistent skills acquisition by providing evidence-based certification of the skills acquired for future professionals.

Since 2018 Riga Stradiņš University, within a project funded by European Social Funds, has developed a Skills Monitoring System. First project evaluation results demonstrate the necessity for an extension and implementation of the system on the national and European level. Thereby, the aim of SkillTrack project is to develop a pedagogical framework and a concept of skills tracking system to help Higher Education Institutions to adopt to new reality, to ensure student-centred learning approach and high-quality education in order to meet all stakeholder’s needs.

Partnering universities

• Arcada University, Finland
• Baskent University, Turkey
• Evangelische Hochschule Ludwigsburg, Germany
• Rīga Stradiņš University, Latvia

Activities

• SkillTrack Transnational Meeting – Helsinki (Finland), 26 April 2022
• SkillTrack Transnational Meeting – 1–2 September 2022, Ankara (Turkey)
• Learning, Teaching and Training activity – 30 August – 2 September 2022, Ankara (Turkey)
• SkillTrack Transnational Meeting – May 2023, Ludwigsburg (Germany)
• SkillTrack Transnational Meeting – September 2023, Rīga (Latvia)

Project website