Towards a scale and tool for the appraisal of CEAB attributes - Progress report on a field test

Abstract

CEAB 2014 requires the appraisal of ‘attributes’. Quasi-competencies are not easy to ‘measure’. Results risk having a ‘local’ meaning with little transferability between institutions. From its interest into CDIO, and in parallel to its partaking in the DOCET project, École Polytechnique developed a 7-level scale, fieldtested by nearly 100 appraisals pre-graduation work experiences. The paper summarizes the rationale behind the 7-level scale when compared to the 5-level CDIO scale, the possible mapping onto the EQF, and reports on the appraisals of students after 16 weeks internships. Supervisors appear to use the tool as a relative Likert-type scale, and will have to undergo a learning curve. Attributes appraisal tools need to be engineered rather than to be determined by consensus.