HEsaCom evaluation instrument for EvaSys competencies

As of immediate effect, the Berlin evaluation tool for skills (HEsaCom) is integrated for use in EvaSys as a survey instrument.

The instrument was developed by Dr. Edith Braun, FU Berlin, and was presented at the EvaSys user conference September 2006 in Zurich, Switzerland and is now fully integrated in EvaSys as an automatically recognisable survey instrument.

As part of the "Bologna process", participating countries are introducing similar courses. Consequently, an empirical quality of higher education must be provided. As a quality assurance measure, empirical studies should be included in any successful education model.

Currently, most course evaluations are process orientated i.e. an evaluation of the lecturer and the course. Although useful information, this does not show what skills were learnt by the students.

Therefore, a new survey instrument was developed for the capturing of skills acquired by students, the Berlin evaluation tool for student skills (HEsaCom) (Braun, Gusy, Leidner & Hanover, in press).

It is designed to gain an understanding of student’s knowledge in six areas of specialised expertise: methodologies, presentation, communication, cooperation and personal competence. These competencies can then be re-enforced as a specific focus in future lecturers and course materials.

HEsaCom has been used at the Free University of Berlin in the Department of Educational Science & Psychology since the winter semester 2004/2005. In addition, HesaCom has been tested in nine other universities and 28 subjects (natural sciences, social sciences and humanities).

The HEsaCom survey for EvaSys is available free of charge. For existing customers, it can be downloaded in the protected client area.