Abstract:

The evaluation of the competences acquired by the students in the context of a university education system is needed to enable professors to develop teaching-learning processes tailored to students’ needs. Therefore, the main goal of this paper is to analyze in depth the profile of the acquired competences of the bachelor students in several subjects related to the Business Administration area taught in the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Barcelona.

This paper explains an experience in assessing bachelor student’s competences by applying a digital platform called Evolute developed by Tampere University of Technology in Finland (Achcaoucaou et al., 2012, Kantola, 2009; Kantola et al. 2005; Vanharanta, 2005). This is an ICT-based digital platform designed for the self-assessment of personal and social competences, and it uses different models of competences for a range of specific work role profiles. Each competence model is based on a specific ontology according to the target domain (Paajanen et al., 2009). In particular, we apply an evaluation tool called Cycloid, which was specifically designed for self-evaluating the project managers’ generic and specific competences.

The authors of this research have previous experience in implementing Cycloid in different subjects in the area of Business Administration. Specifically, in previous editions of INTED 2012, INTED 2013 and EDULEARN 2013 conferences, the results of its implementation in the subjects of Business Administration*, Operations Management** and Strategic Management*** respectively were presented*. In this new edition, we now present the results obtained from the data compared by course and by gender.

The results show that different competences levels by gender exist, for example in competences like self-confidence, innovativeness, conceptual thinking, language proficiency, optimism, understanding others, communications, relationship building or stress tolerance. Additionally, students of different courses consider to be different in competences such us maintaining order, innovativeness, responsibility, conceptual thinking, language proficiency, achievement orientation, understanding others, developing others, communications, conflict management, relationship building, etc.

Tools as the Cycloid benefits the three parties involved: students, university managers and organizations, and should be applied along the Bachelor as a transversal project and adapt the programs to achieve graduate students with higher levels of social and personal competences, as demanded by the labour market.

References:
* Miravitlles-Matamoros, P.; Núñez-Carballosa, A.; Guitart-Tarrés, L. Achcaoucaou-Iallouchen, F. Bernardo, M.; Hormiga, E. (2012): Implementation of an ICT-based tool for assessing students competences in business administration subjects. International Technology, Education and Development Conference INTED 2012, Valencia.
** Bernardo, M.; Guitart-Tarrés, L.; Miravitlles, P. Núñez-Carballosa, A.; Achcaoucaou, F.; Cruz-Cázares, C. (2012): Competences evaluation in Operations Management course. 7th annual International Technology, Education and Development Conference INTED 2013, Valencia.
*** Guitart-Tarrés, L.; Núñez-Carballosa, A.; Miravitlles, P.; Achcaoucaou, F.; Bernardo, M.; Cruz-Cázares, C. (2013): Competences evaluation in Strategic Management Course. International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies EDULEARN2013, Barcelona.