Understanding EES

Here’s a quick view of EES at the Colleges, as described in 2013 (but note that the Ministry website it refers to has changed):

Specific curriculum targeted to Essential Employability Skills helps students to learn and practice the skills throughout the duration of a program. Opportunities to demonstrate these skills in as close to a real-world scenario as possible are part of the learning experience.

Thinking big picture

EES are established across a program, not simply in separate courses. As you develop your curriculum, you need to be aware of the goals for the program as a whole. Generally, this means that faculty will meet to determine where EES fit best in a program context: some courses will be better suited than others to teach and assess a particular skill. To ensure that all 11 skills are taught and assessed adequately within the program, EES are then “mapped” on COMMS.

You can see the current EES program map by logging onto COMMS, selecting Generate Reports, specifying your program, and choosing Essential Employability Skills by Program, Level, and Course. You can also see an overview by generating the Essential Employability Program Summary, a chart showing the number of times each EES is addressed at a particular level.

Each EES is identified with a code that indicates whether the course will teach (T), assess (A), or provide a culminating performance (CP) of the skill.

Teach, Assess, & Culminating Performance

Teach

EES learning outcomes are taught in a course when the skill appears in one or more of the course learning requirements and learning activities are planned that allow the learners to develop the identified skill(s). A significant amount of time must be devoted to the development of the skills and knowledge embedded in the outcome for it to be considered taught.

At its most fundamental level, teaching can be defined as helping learners “make sense” of information or acquire new skills such that they can make either practical or theoretical use of the information.

In the context of EES outcomes, the means of communication is not limited. It is, however, crucial that the topic is related to the EES outcome that is deemed to be taught in the course. Simply put, if a topic is not addressed during a course’s contact time (in-class or online), then it cannot be considered taught for the purposes of mapping outcomes.

If you can answer yes to each of these questions, then the outcome could be considered taught:

  • Do you provide instruction/learning opportunities in this outcome in your course?
  • Is this outcome identified in one or more course learning requirement?
  • Do you devote a significant amount of time to facilitating student development of the skills and knowledge embedded in the outcome?

Assess

To assess an EES outcome, you must have evaluation methods and tools that allow you to evaluate student performance of the outcome or some of its elements. In your evaluation of student performance, you must verify that this particular outcome (or a significant component of it) has been achieved.

In the broadest terms, “to assess” something is to make a judgment concerning two distinct yet very closely related intentions. In the first judgment, there is a question of verification, and, in the second judgment, there is a question of evaluation. These two judgments are synonymous with asking the following questions:

  • Is the right thing being done?
  • How well is it being done?

In the classroom context, a wide array of evaluation tools can be developed and used to ask these questions of students’ abilities.

If you can answer yes to each of these questions, then the outcome could be considered assessed:

  • Are assignments, tests, or projects designed to evaluate or assess student performance of this outcome or some of its elements?
  • In your evaluation of student performance, do you verify that this particular outcome (or a significant component of it) has been achieved?
  • Is this outcome reflected in the evaluation section of your course outline?

Culminating Performance

Culminating performances are tasks or activities designed to assess a learner’s ability to demonstrate one or more learning outcomes in its totality. The demonstration of this learning should be

  • reliable (i.e., performed more than once),
  • in as authentic (real-world) a situation as possible,
  • at a level expected of graduates, and
  • integrated, wherever possible, with other Vocational or Essential Employability Skills.

While they do not necessarily occur at the end of a program of study, culminating performances do evaluate whether a learner is able to integrate and apply their learning to demonstrate the performance described in the learning outcome(s) at the exit level.

Program culminating performances should require learners to demonstrate learning similar to what would be expected of new graduates in as close to a “real world” context as possible.

If a culminating performance is assigned to a course, the professor teaching the course will be asked to evaluate whether or not the students successfully demonstrate the outcome(s) the culminating performance addresses.

If you can answer yes to each of these questions, then a culminating performance for the outcome could be identified:

  • Is there an opportunity to evaluate the outcome in its totality?
  • Does the evaluation result in a final product or performance that allows you to determine whether the learner has integrated the knowledge and skills identified in the elements of performance?
  • Can you determine from this performance if the learner has demonstrated the outcome?

Your course outline should provide clear evidence that a skill is taught, assessed, or included as a culminating performance.