Integrating EES

If your class discussions intentionally reflect on the interactions of the group, then you are teaching these skills.  When the open exchange of ideas and what facilitates it becomes a subject of discussion, students have an opportunity to learn how to be part of a respectful dialogue, how to see an issue from an alternative perspective, and how to approach differences of culture, gender, and race. The key is to give students a chance to think about, develop, and practice the methods of interaction that draw out the best of what other people can contribute.

Larger projects and group work are good opportunities to develop EES 10 and 11, but you still need to deliberately and explicitly address these areas of skill development.  The lesson learned by a strict deadline comes after the assessment of it, which may be too late to foster the skill.  However, projects involve planning, so make meeting deadlines part of the teaching and assessment: have students learn how to use planning tools or agendas to prioritize items or to use a Gantt chart to plan, coordinate, and track the progress of specific tasks that make up the larger project.  Furthermore, you might ask students to keep a journal or produce a self-assessment report to have them reflect on their contributions to the project and the role they played in the completion of the work.

EES are required for Ontario College Certificate, Ontario College Diploma and Ontario College Advanced Diploma programs.  (College Certificate, Graduate Certificate, and degree programs do not require EES.)

The eleven EES are taught throughout each program to which they apply, with students given opportunities to learn and practice before completing a culminating performance.  You may have inherited a course outline with EES already identified, or you may have a new course to which EES need to be assigned.  In either case, because EES are taught across a program, your course will be responsible for only some of the EES, not all of them.  The general rule is to include a maximum of 5 EES in a particular course.  Fewer EES are recommended, and,  depending on the focus, some courses may not teach or assess any EES at all.   The important thing is that all 11 skills are covered within the program as a whole.

If you are a course outline writer

• Your first step should be to consult with your program coordinator regarding the skills assigned to your course: which EES is the program expecting you to teach or assess?
• Secondly, consider those skills in relation to your curriculum: does it make sense that your course addresses this skill?  Is it a good fit with the learning outcomes for your course?  If so, full steam ahead; if not, your coordinator should be advised.
• If the EES don’t seem to be a good fit, but you are told that the course needs to cover these particular skills, you might need some help figuring out how to adapt the curriculum.  This is a conversation that affects more than just a single course:  request assistance!

If you are a program coordinator

• Look at EES mapping across your program annually: check to be sure you are addressing all the skills by generating the two EES reports available on COMMS.  Make sure that your program offers teaching, assessment, and culminating performances for each skill.
• Look for reasonable balance in the number of times each skill is taught and assessed.
• Ensure that the program includes two culminating performances for each EES.
• Meet with faculty teaching in the program to review where EES have been assigned. If the allocations make sense, the process is relatively straightforward.  If you have gaps and need help determining how to fill them, request curriculum help.

If an EES is taught, it should be evident in the course description, the course learning requirements (CLR), the embedded knowledge and skills (EKS), and potentially in the learning activities.

If an EES is assessed, your Evaluation/Earning Credit section should include practical assignments that provide an opportunity to assess specific skills.

If an EES is identified as a culminating performance, then it is likely that your course has a major project or practical assignment that addresses several EES in conjunction with one another.

(For a more detailed discussion, see Teaching, Assessing, and Culminating Performance.)

It’s recommended that the number of EES associated with any one course be limited to five.  The normal range is 3-5, depending on whether your course focuses on vocational skills or specifically on EES.  Assigning fewer EES means that you can devote more time to each one and allows a reasonable expectation that each skill will be deliberately taught or assessed.  (Note that the exception to this maximum is for culminating performances, which generally assess several EES together.)  Include in your outline only the EES that you deliberately teach and assess.

The EES assigned to your course is part of your curriculum and, ideally, will be a natural “fit” with the other skills and content that your course addresses.

• It makes sense to me:  If the EES seem right to you, your task is to show how they are addressed within the course.  Make sure that your CLR/EKS specifically mention the skills that your students will develop—don’t just assume that checking off the EES on the list makes it obvious that the skill is addressed.

• It doesn’t really seem to fit with my course:  Most programs have a few EES that seem less obvious:  for example, the math skills needed by a service-based program or the interpersonal skills required for a highly technical program.  However, it’s not much of a stretch to recognize that, in fact, a service worker does need to understand budget and resource allocation and to have the associated math skills to do so.  A technical work will be part of a team and will interact with clients, co-workers, and supervisors in a range of situations.  None of us can do without EES if we are to function effectively in the workplace.

If the EES associated with your course doesn’t seem to fit with your curriculum, check with your coordinator to ensure that the EES is intended to be in your course; if so, get some help to develop strategies to address them.  You’ll need to include CLR/EKS that specifically mention the skills, and, if you are assessing or including a culminating performance, plan for how you will intentionally measure your students’ achievement.

Often, an EES will be explicitly mentioned in the course description, making it easy for readers to see that it is an essential part of the course. In addition, the Course Learning Requirements (CLR) and Embedded Knowledge and Skills (EKS) should include specific mention of the skills targeted as EES.

The verbs you choose show how a skill is demonstrated and measured, so be sure that your language reflects the intent.  When you write an outline for a course delivered by a number of faculty, it’s easy to fall in to the trap of using language that is too broad, with verbs that cannot be objectively measured. If you ask your students to understand, identify, or recognize a principle, how will their learning be evident?

Avoid the problem of vague language by using active verbs. Any of the following makes it easier to see how the skill can be demonstrated: calculate, measure, determine, operate, compose, develop, design, modify, present, differentiate, analyze, explain, incorporate, resolve, and verify.  Match the verb to the level of skills acquisition appropriate for your course, and create statements that suggest what a student can do in a practical sense.

In your assignments, including a description of processes or content that will help to demonstrate the skill.  In your evaluation, include feedback and assessment that targets the skill, not just the work produced. In your course outline, align the EES to assessment activities that have a practical component.  In your course section information, provide details and indicate how the skill is included.

A culminating performance is a demonstration of skill at the level of a graduate when the skill will not be further taught or assessed within the program.  It occurs in as close to a “real-life” context as possible and is generally assessed in conjunction with other skills.

For example, a culminating performance for one course has students working in groups to create a magazine with specific content, “pitching” the product to a target audience, and soliciting advertising based on their choice of feature stories.  Students submit a plan, conduct team meetings, report at intervals on their progress, and reflect at the end on how well they managed the entire process, both individually and as part of the team. This project is a CP for EES 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11.

Labs, practicums, and demonstrations are ideal contexts for CP.  In most cases, CP is identified in the last levels of a program and are given significant course weight (20% or more).  Traditional tests and exams are generally not considered to be culminating performances.

When you are completing your course outline, COMMS will prompt you to align each item in your Evaluation/Earning Credit section with its associated EES and CLR.  Generally, EES should be identified for assignments and practical projects rather than for tests and exams.  In addition, if you align an EES with a particular assessment activity, be sure that you are actually evaluating the EES as part of the work. For example, having a deadline for an assignment doesn’t assess EES 10 (manage time and resources to complete projects):  include and assess specific work that demonstrates how the student has planned for and achieved this outcome.

The information you enter in your course outline is part of the broader program information that is compiled on COMMS.  It is included in a number of different reports that can be generated by the program.  It’s important that the information in your outline is accurate, as it affects the overall program documentation, which tells the story of what your students learn and how they are assessed.  Balance, frequency, and authenticity are all considered when your program is reviewed.

• The EES Program Summary shows the total number of times that each EES is taught, assessed, or identified as a culminating performance at each level of the program.
• The EES by Program, Level, and Course identifies which EES are listed as T, A, and CP in each course.

These two reports together are often referred to as a program map.  You can see both reports by using the COMMS features under Generate Reports.