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THE DEVELOPMENT OF MAPQFTOOL
A Software Tool for National Qualifications Frameworks
Philippos Pouyioutas
*
, Harald Gjermundrod and Ioanna Dionysiou
Department of Computer Science, University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus
Keywords: European Qualifications Framework, National Qualifications Frameworks and Software Tools.
Abstract: This paper presents the preliminary stages of the design of MapQFTool, a software tool that will provide
support to the understanding and comparability of the National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs) of the
various European countries. The paper starts by providing background information on the Bologna Process
and the Qualifications Frameworks. It then addresses the limitations of trying to map the various NQFs
against the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), and through the EQF against each other. It then
proceeds with explaining the advantages of automating this process with a software tool and provides
examples of information that can be generated through the proposed tool. A relational database design that
will underpin the development of the tool is described, accompanied with screenshots of the system
prototype and its architecture.
1 INTRODUCTION
The Bologna process (European Commission
Education and Learning, 2008) aims at developing a
European Educational Framework of standards,
definitions and concepts so as to provide the basis
for European countries to transform their
educational system according to this framework.
This will result in comparability/compatibility of the
various European educational systems which will
then yield collaborations amongst educational
institutions, exchanges of students and teachers
within Europe and transparency and transferability
of qualifications, all being very important when
looked from the point of view of students, Erasmus
co-ordinators, prospective employers, Quality
Assurance Agencies (QAAs), European Network of
Information Centres (ENIC), and National
Academic Recognition Information Centres
(NARIC).
One of the first and most important concepts
developed by the Bologna process is the European
Credit Transfer System (ECTS 2009) that provides
the framework for measuring the student workload
in courses/modules/programmes and thus calculating
the credits of these courses/modules/programmes.
Another important concept recently introduced is
the concept of the Learning Outcomes (LOs)
(Kennedy et al., 2006), which allows
courses/programmes to be expressed in terms of
what a learner/student is expected to be able to do by
the end of the course/programme. Employers will
thus be able to identify what students are able (or at
least should be able) of doing after completing their
programmes/courses. Furthermore, by studying
descriptions of studies expressed in terms of LOs
and thus comparing with what they expect graduates
to be able to do, employers could provide input for
the re-engineering of programmes taking into
consideration industry requirements. When it comes
to Erasmus co-ordinators, LOs assist in the
comparison of programmes and courses since they
provide a common framework/platform for
expressing the programmes/courses aims and
objectives looked at from the student point of view.
Last but not least, ENIC/NARIC networks are also
provided with a common framework/platform for
evaluating levels and degree qualifications.
The European Qualifications Framework (EQF
2010, EQF Newsletter1 2010) provides the basis for
mapping the National Qualifications Framework
(NQF) of each European country against this
framework, thus transitively, mapping each
country’s educational system against another
country’s system. EQF and NQFs describe in terms
of Learning Outcomes (knowledge, skills,
competences) the various levels of education starting
273
Pouyioutas P., Gjermundrod H. and Dionysiou I..
THE DEVELOPMENT OF MAPQFTOOL - A Software Tool for National Qualifications Frameworks.
DOI: 10.5220/0003306602730279
In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU-2011), pages 273-279
ISBN: 978-989-8425-50-8
Copyright
c
2011 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)