Brightspace allows you to use two separate tools that provide similar features:
- Competencies
- Learning Outcomes
Competencies is a legacy tool that helps track information about the knowledge, skills, and abilities students acquire as they participate in classes or other learning experiences. Competencies can be used with the classic Content tool and ePortfolio.
Learning Outcomes provides learning outcome alignment with achievement tracking. At the organization level, you can define scales for measuring achievement. At the Outcome Set level, you can import or create outcomes that can be shared down to courses. At the course level, you can import or create new outcomes, align outcomes to course content in the New Content Experience, and integrate with Brightspace Portfolio, Quizzes, Discussions, Assignments, and Rubrics.
Determining which tool to use
Use Learning Outcomes if the following list describes your Brightspace implementation:
- You are setting up outcome tracking for the first time.
- You have clearly defined learning outcome statements which align to purposes of curriculum mapping and assessment to discreet content topics or assessment activities.
- You are using learning outcomes which are available from the Achievement Standards Network (ASN) or you can enter your outcomes into the Learning Outcomes tool.
- You are interested in providing visibility to learners of their performance related to assessment activities aligned to learning outcomes.
The Learning Outcomes tool is considered to be in use when an intent list is created by importing or creating at least one learning outcome in the course. When this is the case, the Competencies tool is hidden on the Course Administration page, and the Objectives Progress column in Class Progress is no longer visible.
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Note: If you have previously aligned a grade item with a learning objective and want to switch to aligning to a learning outcome, you must first remove the grade item alignment with the learning objective. |
Use Competencies if the following list describes your Brightspace implementation:
- You have clearly defined learning outcome statements at the course and the program level (across multiple courses).
- You need aggregated data and reporting on the learning achievement of those learning outcomes.
You cannot use both the Competencies and Learning Outcomes tools in the same course. It is possible to continue using Competencies in some courses and use Learning Outcomes in others. If you are using one, all instances of the other are now hidden from view. For a new, empty shell course, both the Competencies tool and Learning Outcomes tool appear in the Course Administration page. However, as soon as you decide to use the Learning Outcomes tool or the Competencies tool, then the link to the other tool is hidden. The Competencies tool is considered to be in use when at least one learning objective is aligned to activities in the course. When this is the case, the Learning Outcomes tool is hidden on the Course Administration page.
Feature comparison
The features within the Learning Outcomes tool have some overlap with the Competencies tool. While the ultimate objective is to retire the Competency tool in favor of the Learning Outcomes tool, there remain some functional areas that D2L is working to address in our roadmap. To determine which tool is most appropriate for your organization, it is important to understand both the use case for each, and the features offered within (or coming soon) to each tool.
Each table indicates whether the task is in the tool (indicated by Yes), not in the tool (indicated by No).
Alignment of outcomes to grade items
| Task |
Learning Outcomes tool |
Competencies tool |
|---|
| Assignments - Rubric criterion rows |
Yes |
Yes |
| Overall assignment |
Yes |
No |
| Overall rubric evaluation |
No |
Yes |
| Quiz questions |
Yes |
Yes |
| Random question sections/pools |
Yes |
Yes |
| Overall Quiz |
No |
Yes |
| Discussions - Rubric criterion rows |
Yes |
Yes |
| Overall Discussion topic |
Yes |
No |
| Grade book item - direct alignment |
No |
Yes |
| Grade book item - indirect alignment via rubric |
Yes |
No |
| Portfolio artifact |
Yes |
No |
| Content topics |
Yes |
Yes |
Assessment of outcomes in evaluation topics
| Task |
Learning Outcomes tool |
Competencies tool |
|---|
| Assignments (both directly and indirectly aligned) |
Yes |
Yes |
| Quizzes - Overall Quiz Score |
No |
Yes |
| Quizzes - Individual questions and question pools |
Yes |
Yes |
| Discussions (both directly and indirectly aligned) |
Yes |
Yes |
| Portfolio evidence |
Yes |
No |
| Group assignments and discussions |
Yes |
Yes |
Data and reporting
| Task |
Learning Outcomes tool |
Competencies tool |
|---|
| Course level Brightspace Data Sets |
Yes |
Yes |
| CLOE (Course Learning Outcome Evaluation) Advanced Data Set |
No |
Yes |
|
Course outcomes Achievement Dashboard
|
Refer to Achievement + |
No |
| Course outcomes Alignment Dashboard |
Refer to Achievement + |
No |
| Mastery View Data Export (CSV) |
Refer to Achievement + |
N/A |
| Organization level Brightspace Data Sets |
Refer to Achievement + |
No |
| Organization level Outcomes Achievement Dashboard |
Refer to Achievement + |
No |
Course-level management
| Task |
Learning Outcomes tool |
Competencies tool |
|---|
| Import course outcomes from ASN (course level and organization level) |
Yes |
No |
| Manually enter outcomes (course level and organization level) |
Yes |
Yes |
| Import from CSV |
Yes |
No |
| Import using API |
No |
No |
| Import organization-level Outcomes to course |
Yes |
Yes |
| Definition of Achieved |
Yes |
Yes |
| Student Overall Achievement |
Yes |
Yes |
| Student Outcomes Progress Page with demonstration of achievement |
Yes |
Yes |
| Release conditions based on outcome achievement |
Yes |
Yes |
| Aggregated achievement within the course (in the outcome structure) |
Refer to Achievement+ |
Yes |
Organization-level Outcome Sets
| Task |
Learning Outcomes tool |
Competencies tool |
|---|
| Create/define an Outcome Set |
Yes |
Yes |
| Create/import Outcome Sets |
Yes |
Yes |
| Link courses to Outcome Sets |
No |
Yes |
| Link Course Outcomes to organization-level Outcome Sets |
Yes |
Yes |
| Aggregate Achievement Data across courses to organization-level Outcome Sets |
Refer to Achievement+ |
Yes |
| Organization-level outcome achievements are based on course-level achievements |
Refer to Achievement+ |
Yes |
Other items
| Task |
Learning Outcomes tool |
Competencies tool |
|---|
| Ability to integrate with 3rd party providers |
ASN |
No |
| Support for Release Conditions |
Yes |
Yes |
Migration path
Once the development on Outcome Sets is complete, D2L will develop a migration path for existing competency clients to transition to the Learning Outcomes tool. The Competency tool will not move to end-of-life status until a migration utility is available to assist clients who use the Competency tool to migrate their courses to the Learning Outcomes Tool.
Considerations
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Important: If you are using the Rubrics tool, the Competency tool must be enabled in Organization Tools, even if it is not being used, in order for the Rubrics tool to work properly. Currently there is a hard-coded dependency between these two tools which will eventually be removed. |
You can use both the Competency tool and the Learning Outcomes tool in the same organization at the same time; however, only one tool can be active in a given course offering. The evaluation and performance data remains separate in the Brightspace Data Sets.
Additional information
For more information about the differences between Competencies and Learning Outcomes, refer to About Learning Outcomes.