This article discusses the use of the Carpe Diem co-creation method in developing competence-based education in Kosovo higher education. The article also introduces the importance of mentoring when developing curricula through international projects.
Competence-based education in Kosovo
Education in Kosovo is one of the most important development areas in the country, the government’s investment on education being above the average of 4,6 % of the GDP. Competence-based education in the country became mandatory in 2018 following the policies to develop country’s education toward European integration. However, still many teachers lack the understanding and resources to implement it. One of the reasons for this, as also acknowledged by the Kosovar teachers of the project, is the lack of skills of the academia to implement competence-based education in practice. As recognised, international cooperation and training in Kosovo has expanded, but still can be reinforced considering the need for skilled professionals. (OECD, 2024.)
Regarding competence-based education, it refers to outcome-based approach to the design, implementation, assessment, and evaluation of an educational programme. The core of competence-based education focuses on learner’s performance and learning outcomes in achieving specific objectives and curricular goals. Competence-based education requires the student to be active, responsible, and motivated towards learning. (Pijl-Zieber, Barton, Konkin, Awosoga & Caine, 2014.) The teaching methods are student centered, and include, for instance, problem-based learning, flipped classroom, clinical practice, simulations, or dialogue training. (Lavoie, Michaud, Belisle, Boyer, Gosselin, Grondin, Larue, Lavoie & Pepin, 2018.) A criterion-based assessment is used for the students to “show what they know”. (Grawina, 2017.)
Course Development Process using the Carpe Diem method
The Carpe Diem method was used in the development of Continuing Professional Development Courses (CPDs) in an Erasmus+ Capacity Building project, “Student-run Interdisciplinary Allied Health Digital Practice Centre” (SIAHDPC). The SIAHDPC project aimed to support students’ competence development through curricula development of Kosovar higher education institutions through competence-based education. The development of competences in the SIAHDPC project started from the need to modernise higher education in Kosovo. During the project, the Kosovar higher education institutions set up student-run centers to enhance learning and enabling authentic meeting points with clients.
The project included three Kosovar higher education institutions. During the project, the curriculum of each degree programme selected by the Kosovar institutions was developed or updated through competence-based education approach. The role of European institutions in this process was to act as mentors for the Kosovar higher education institutions. Following the objectives of the project, the curricula development work aimed to develop competences of students through new pedagogy. Kosovar institutions selected the following competences to the development work: Interdisciplinary collaboration, ICT & Digital competences, Innovation and entrepreneurship, Evidence-informed practice, and User involvement and person-centeredness. The competences selected followed the needs analysis of partners carried out at the proposal phase.
The project used the Carpe Diem method (Salmon, 2013, 2020) as a theoretical framework for the CPD course development through co-creation. The Carpe Diem is an agile method that can be used for any purpose across education when transforming traditional pedagogy, teaching, and learning. The method is used when re-designing courses or curricula from face-to-face teaching to on-line or hybrid forms. The method can also be used when implementing and testing new on-line pedagogy, including methods and tools. The method follows a six-step process for designing curricula, modules, or courses through co-creation, which are: 1) Write a blueprint, 2) Make a storyboard, 3) Build your prototype online, 4) Check reality, 5) Review and adjust, 6) Planning your next steps. (Salmon, 2013.)
During the project, the CPD course development started with developing a mutual understanding of competence-based curricula, defining competences, and linking the competences into the CPD courses. As the co-creation work was mainly carried out on-line, most of the contents of the Carpe Diem method (Steps 1-6) were modified to Zoom workshops and on-line study circles. Each mentoring workshop was recorded to ensure that participants were able to follow the process and recap the contents on their own time. From the quality assurance perspective, the co-creation, individual and group mentoring approach in the design and implementation of activities enabled continuous and uninterrupted loop of feedback. The process of CPD course development is described in figure 1. Altogether 18 CPD courses were co-created.
During the Carpe Diem process, the developed courses were piloted by the Kosovar institutions, and mentored by Jamk. The aim of the pilots was to test the theory and practice of the courses as well as teachers’ and students’ digital skills during the implementation. Implementation followed the Kosovar institutions’ academic calendars and semester timetables.
The piloted courses were evaluated and assessed by the Kosovar institutions. Course feedback from the students was collected through pre- and post-course questionnaires for each implemented course. Pre-questionnaires focused on, for instance, course content and student expectations to meet learning objectives while the focus of the post-questionnaires were to find out reaching the learning objectives and course usefulness regards to professional development. In addition to the institutions’ own practices, feedback was collected by Jamk from the Kosovar professors, teachers, experts, and students using on-line and face-to-face methods through focus group interviews following transcription. The questionnaires contained Likert-scale questions and open-ended questions. Open-ended answers were classified with content analysis.
Outcome of the Process
The staff members involved in co-creation described the Carpe Diem process requiring a lot of commitment. They felt that the process was not easy but helpful for updating the syllabus. The forward-looking perspective was described as enabling a move to the next level in the Carpe Diem process. Flexibility and trouble shooting in mentoring and on-line tutoring was reported as increasing the quality of the syllabuses and supporting completion of the work. The student-centered approach was reported to increase student involvement. Students reported being part of the co-creation process through, for instance, co-organising of a training component, giving feedback on the main topics, and sharing ideas on the course in concern.
“The experience was unique, detailed, timely, concise, and appreciated. Everyone learnt a lot, and it was good for future development.” (Student)
The first phase of the Carpe Diem process included creating a Blueprint for the course/s. Regarding the feedback of the blueprint creation, the professors and teachers developing the courses reported an overall challenge when co-creating the competences and subjects for the courses to be developed. Concerning the creation of the blueprint, the staff interviews further revealed that this phase was experienced as helpful. The blueprint documents enriched with pictures supported visualisation. Some of the teachers also reported using the blueprint in the development of other courses, based on the project experiences.
“I liked the blueprint part of the Carpe Diem – for me, it is the heart and soul of teaching, and without that, plans cannot be successful.” (Teacher)
The competences were first described and adjusted to the courses. Defining and describing appropriate competences for each course was time consuming. The process revealed that designing competence-based courses was not familiar with all Kosovar professor and teachers. They felt that learning them was time consuming, and sometimes confusing. However, they reported that this phase taught them how to develop courses to support students’ competence development and reaching the set learning outcomes.
“One of the benefits was the training regarding the competences: they need to be specific enough as our work does not always align with what we are doing.” (Teacher)
In the second phase of the Carpe Diem process a Storyboard was created. The interviews revealed that the storyboard helped teachers to realise the meaning of the different steps of the method and visualising the course development process. The participants felt that after defining the competences, they were able to design student-centered learning outcomes and course contents. The models and tools, such as the Blooms Taxonomy (e.g. Anderson, Krathwohl, Airasian, Cruikshank, Mayer, Pintrich, Raths & Wittrock, 2001), helped the professors and teachers to state the learning outcomes in a more precise way. Overall, participants felt that the Blooms Taxonomy, competence-based education and the Carpe Diem supported skills development. Most teachers also recalled that they would use the methods and tools also in their future curricula development work.
The third phase of the Carpe Diem process included building a Prototype of the courses. This involved the creation and design of the learning outcomes and course contents. In addition, a real-life timeline content was established. Kosovar teachers felt that making formative assessment scale was challenging and somewhat new. During the project, teachers started to use more versatile ways to assess the students, such as Moodle e-learning platform tools, presentations, and observations. Teachers realised that utlising formative assessment methods better support students’ learning processes.
“Continuous evaluation is important as it helps to understand the student and the teacher.” (Teacher)
The prototype phase was finalised by designing required contents for the Moodle e-learning platform. After this, courses were ready for testing and checking if the set competences could be achieved. Participants expressed that they enjoyed working on the protype, as it clarified the meaning of competences and learning outcomes as well as enhanced participants’ overall understanding of competence-based education.
The fourth phase of the Carde Diem process included the Check reality phase. This entailed testing the prototype by trying it out with colleagues who act as reality checkers. In the project, the course development teams presented the new and updated course prototypes to other teams and mentors to gain feedback on the applicability of the courses. The teams and mentors gave constructive peer feedback for areas that worked well and for areas that needed further development. All development teams experienced that the received feedback and multiple perspectives helped them in further developing the CPD courses. Participants felt that team development is important due to offering the opportunity to share ideas, offer new perspectives and save scare resources.
After checking reality, the CPD courses were piloted. Student feedback was collected orally and through structured questionnaires during the development and piloting process. Also, reflective feedback was collected from the teachers from the piloting process.
The fifth phase of the Carpe Diem process was Reviewing and Adjusting. In this phase, the teachers were asked to review the work, refine timings, indicate possible corrections and additional work needed and who should be responsible for the work. All three Kosovar institutions greatly improved the actions related to students’ perspectives, ideas and feedback throughout the process and aimed to make improvements based on the students’ feedback collected from the development process.
“Students gave a lot of feedback, which was considered in the course development process. We found that the process had a good student focus.” (Teacher)
The sixth and final phase of the Carpe Diem process was Planning the next steps. In this phase, the courses were ready for building an action plan together, following the Carpe Diem process. Teachers were very satisfied with their learning process during the co-creation and planned to use the Carpe Diem method also in the future. They also stated that they will recommend it to their colleagues. Teachers were also happy with their enhanced skills in using digital technology in teaching, such as Moodle and Virtual Reality. The ideology of competence-based education was distributed also to other courses they teach. Furthermore, the teachers stated that they now have more skills and competences to assess their own work and suggest improvement actions within their institutions.
“This method and the competence work must be shared in all courses across Kosovar higher education institutions.” (Teacher)
Kosovar institutions are committed to utilising the CPD courses created and updated. They are also positively orientated towards their future development work. Despite the very positive experiences of the Carpe Diem, the teachers also experienced some challenges. Teachers described the process as time consuming, as it takes time to reach a common understanding of the terminology and the development process. This requires joint discussion and working together, and enough resources for the teachers participating in the development process.
Recommendations for mentors
In education, mentoring as a strategy is often applied to support beginner teachers, where the focus is on the mentee. However, through mentoring, the mentor also learns as the process helps to reveal points of professional development. In addition, mentoring enhances professionalism between colleagues. Despite different substance areas and individual backgrounds, working towards common goals, sharing discussions and reflections can even be unifying as in mentoring, participants experience something that is common to the whole group. (Arnsbya, Aspforsa & Jacobsson, 2023.)
The following offers recommendations for teachers in mentoring when using the Carpe Diem model in developing competence-based education:
Mentoring requires 1) a common working culture with similar ethics and shared assumptions about teaching and learning. Cultural, pedagogical, and work-related differences can create misunderstandings, especially if the cultural distance is great, the number of partners is high or the content to be worked on is complicated, or lengthy. Thus, it is crucial to allow enough time for participants to get to know each other before starting the joint development work. Another issue to consider early on is 2) human resources. Co-creation processes are inspiring but require commitment and on-going participation. As also recognised by the Kosovar teachers, too often, due to scarce resources, teachers work alone. For the participants, the project offered the opportunity for co-working and learning from each other. During joint workshops, Jamk mentors also wanted to reserve enough time for 3) discussions as it is the only way to understand the mentee. Open discussions and idea sharing also supports timely development when the participants understand each other and can address their opinions, and ideas freely. During the project, Jamk mentors also focused on continuous collection of 4) feedback from on-line mentoring through reflective discussions. Feedback does not only improve practical suitability of the developed content but also helps to improve working methods. Participants were also asked to give feedback on the mentoring process for the mentors to make improvements regarding the on-line workshops. In addition to feedback, continuous 5) support is important, as it also helps to nurture safe working environment and motivates for open discussion (Gross, 2023).
All projects include certain 6) methodology and terminology that is already agreed upon during the proposal writing. Mentors felt that discussing and explaining the methodology with examples and agreeing on the terminology, the created course contents are of quality. Understanding the core methodologies also support in working according to the guidelines of the European Commission and lead to better sustainability and impact. When working towards set deadlines, 7) communication is crucial. This concerns internal communication within the team/s and external communication with different stakeholders and beneficiaries. During mentoring, Jamk ensured that the project process was followed with clear timetables. This also included communication with the Kosovar mentees regarding the steps of development. In communication, the mentor must also ensure that they share the same information with all participants at once.
Based on the Kosovar participants’ feedback, it became evident that they learnt a lot through the process. Enhanced skills development also requires that 8) project tools are inspiring to support skills development. Tools and contents that take too long to learn or are complicated do not support project work when the developed content is large and set on timetable. Nowadays, the Kosovar colleagues are using the on-line tools and digital content learnt during the project in their daily work to support students’ learning.
Discussion
The process to develop and update Kosovar institutions’ CPD courses took place for three years, between winter 2021 – spring 2024, carried out mainly via on-line facilities and supported by Jamk teachers and experts. Due to the Covid-19 restrictions, the work was hindered as partners were not able to meet each other during the first year of the co-creation process. Face-to-face meetings would have greatly assisted in developing a joint working culture from early on, and offered the opportunity to understand the Kosovar work environments and aims to be carried out in practice across the different fields selected to the project. As the project included fields from social and health care, to economics, law, and even computer science, it was challenging to acknowledge the development needs of each degree programme.
The Carpe Diem, as a co-creation method, was well suited for the development work. For many, it was the first time to work with the method, but not the last, as many teachers and professors across the Kosovar institutions have continued to use the method when designing other courses. As the method is clearly structured into phases, it is well suited for curricula and course development work and can support development work even with a large group. As also noted by Pesonen and Prest (2020), the model well integrates different feedback phases, which improves the quality of one’s own work and the contents worked on.
As a result, the Kosovar professors and teachers recalled that in addition to the enhanced pedagogical, international, and digital competences, the project taught them various practical methods that can be implemented into practice quite easily to enhance student communication, co-working and interaction in any type of setting. Overall, the outcomes spark an improved motivation by the Kosovar professors and teachers in pedagogical development and an improved role of students in the curricula and course development process. In addition, the activities also supported the modernisation of Kosovar institutions’ education and deepened the collaboration within the consortium.