Distance Assessment System for Accreditation of Competencies and Skills Acquired Through In-Company Placements (DASP)

Osvaldo GERVASI <osvaldo@unipg.it>
University of Perugia
Italy

Federico GIORGETTI <rico@unipg.it>
University of Perugia
Italy

Antonio LAGANA <lag@unipg.it>
University of Perugia
Italy

Abstract

Software systems aimed at assessing competencies and skills through the network are becoming increasingly more important. To this end statistical treatments, hypertexts and networking tools need to be combined together to assemble software systems suited for the evaluation of acquired skills and expertise. Our work has focused on a system aimed at validating in-company placements also to the end of evaluating its efficiency with respect to the traditional formal education system. This distance assessment system, named after its acronym DASP, is the objective of a project approved and co-financed by the European Union under the Leonardo Program. The project is being carried out as a partnership of four European countries (Italy, United Kingdom, Spain and Greece). Our group takes care of the informatic and telematic components of the project.

We have already built a prototype of DASP by implementing an interactive web page accessible via Internet. This can be used for building a knowledge base, for assembling a random sample of questions varying according to the answers returned and for assigning scores. In the first instance the following disciplines have been considered: Computing, Economics and Engineering. For each of these disciplines the tests can be carried out at two levels. The first level is General Culture (GC). The second level is Vocational Training (VT). The VT level is further subdivided into two sublevels of different difficulties. This allows a differentiation of the evaluation paths. The evaluation technique is also organized at different levels by using a set of keywords and adopting various question asking and scoring techniques. The system engine is a RDBMS product available trough the Internet on a WWW site to the end of allowing an easy maintenance (for a dinamic adding of new disciplines and/or increasing of the number/type of questions available for each sector) and use of the system.

DASP gives obvious advantages to individuals, small companies and Universities willing to use distance learning and assessment systems to control the effectiveness of in-company placements with respect to traditional training. The system will be initially tested on over 200 individuals who will have completed in-company placement stages in Italy and in United Kingdom.