FRAMEWORK

Skills are crucial to ensure employability, innovation, competitiveness, growth and a more resilient recovery in the context of the current COVID-19 crisis in Europe (1). Therefore, EU policies in the field of Higher Education aim at addressing both the need to overcome skills mismatches and to promote excellence in skills development, while also fostering inclusion, innovation and effective and efficient Higher Education systems (2).

Indeed, institutions must ensure that their content is up to date, that they provide relevant study programmes in fields where skills shortages exist and that they develop methods of learning and teaching that allow students to acquire the breadth and depth of skills they need.
On the other hand, the European Higher Education Area emphasizes the importance of a formative assessment of competences to facilitate students’ learning process and the educator’s course strategy, since well-designed HE programmes and curricula, centred on students’ learning needs, are crucial for effective skills development.

However, education and training systems are currently facing unprecedented challenges because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and, for many, digital teaching and learning was the only viable emergency response in times of confinement measures and lockdown (3). Still, even before this increasingly demanding context, educators already faced crowded classrooms, making competence assessment and follow-up an overwhelming task in many subjects (4).

Building on this evidence, SAPIENS aims at reinforcing the ability of education and training institutions to provide high-quality and inclusive digital education by providing Professors with an innovative, digital competence-based assessment tool that supports online and blended learning training pathways, which is of increased importance in light of the effects of the COVID-19 crisis in education.

Based on the principles of Network Science that highlight the interconnectedness of competences, the SAPIENS adaptable and innovative online tool supports the early detection of learning gaps and the identification of the competences that are harder to acquire (either individually by students or collectively by the class), thus allowing Professors to guide the course according to students’ needs and enabling the definition of customised (and customisable) training and learning itineraries.

[1] European Skills Agenda for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness, and resilience, 2020.
[2] Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, The European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on a renewed EU agenda for Higher Education, COM(2017) 247 final.
[3] Council conclusions on countering the COVID-19 crisis in education and training, 2020/C 212 I/03.
[4] Commission Staff Working Document accompanying the Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027.