CompetencyBasedCurriculum

Competency-based Curriculum: An Effective
Approach to Digital Curation Education

Jeonghyun Kim

Department of Library and Information Sciences, College of Information, University of North Texas.
Email: [email protected]

The University of North Texas conducted a project involving rigorous curriculum devel-
opment and instructional design to address the goal of building capacity in the Library
and Information Sciences curriculum. To prepare information professionals with the
competencies needed for digital curation and data management practice, the project
developed curriculum using a competency-based approach. The purpose of this paper
is to discuss the design and implementation of the digital curation curriculum at the
University of North Texas. The paper advances theoretical perspectives of competency-
based curriculum as steps taken toward innovative curriculum development efforts.
Additionally, it contributes to the practice of digital curation education. The set of com-
petencies defined in the paper can serve as a common language among stakeholders to
prepare future digital curation professionals. This paper concludes that a competency-
based approach is effective, sustainable, and can be customized to address the skill
gaps in the rapidly evolving information professions.

Keywords: curriculum development, competency, competency-based education, com-
petency-based curriculum, digital curation, data management

Introduction 2015 Association of College & Research
Libraries Environmental Scan as one of the
Novel trends within higher education emerging issues that will define the future
over the last decade have seen the of academic and research libraries (Asso-
emergence of innovative learning initia- ciation of College & Research Libraries,
tives that involve the application of new 2015).
and emerging technology tools, delivery
platforms, and/or new business models and Although the concept and boundar-
pedagogy. One such initiative is compe- ies of CBE are frequently blurred, there
tency-based education (CBE), which has is a general agreement that CBE is char-
become one of the biggest “buzzwords” acterized by the development of clearly
in academia today. This is evidenced by defined competencies, a mapping of the
recent publications on this topic, for ex- curriculum to achieve those competen-
ample, EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative cies, and an assessment process matched
White Paper, “7 Things You Should Know to the competencies. (Jones, Voorhees, &
About Competency-Based Education,” Paulson, 2002). Such competencies are of-
(2014). Likewise, the New Media Consor- ten linked to workforce needs, as defined
tium Horizon Report 2015 listed CBE as by employers and the profession—i.e.,
an alternative to traditional place-based specific knowledge, skills, and abilities
education and as a way to bring greater (KSAs) valued by working practitioners in
personalization to higher education cur- the field. A curriculum consists of a speci-
ricula (Johnson, Becker, Estrada, & Free- fied, organized body of learning activities
man, 2015). CBE was also discussed in the designed to equip students with the KSAs
and integrative experiences that lead to the

J. of Education for Library and Information Science, Vol. 56, No. 4—(Fall) October 2015 283
ISSN: 0748-5786  © 2015 Association for Library and Information Science Education
doi:10.12783/issn.2328-2967/56/4/2

284 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE

acquisition of competencies needed for a on the demonstration of competency has
degree (Jones, 2001). been exemplified in several initiatives, in-
cluding Mozilla’s Open Badges and edX’s
While this approach to preparing pro- Verified Certificates of Achievement. Fur-
fessionals goes back to the 1970s, an em- thermore, the shift from credit hours com-
phasis on program goals and objectives pleted to competency demonstrated has
was widely adopted in the early 21st cen- been executed in a number of institutions
tury (Frank et al., 2010). In the United in the USA, such as Indiana University-
States, the competency-based teacher Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI),
education movement served as the start- Michigan State University, and University
ing point for the next movement. The of Wisconsin. These institutions are cur-
approach also influenced the design and rently offering competency-based profes-
delivery of vocational education in the sional degrees and certificates in nursing,
United Kingdom and particularly in Aus- public health, and business and technical
tralia, where national reforms in the late communications.
1980s and early 1990s required that all
accredited vocational education programs The approach, which focuses on the
be competency-based (Hodges & Harris, competency necessary to be proficient for
2012). Later, the National Postsecondary employment or practice in a profession
Education Cooperative convened a group may also have application in the Library
of experts in CBE and published a report and Information Science (LIS) field. In
that explored CBE models in postsecond- the context of preparing information pro-
ary institutions. According to that report fessionals, the concept of competencies
(National Center for Education Statistics, has been discussed and utilized. Many
2002), implementing competency-based professional associations have put effort
initiatives is important for two major rea- into developing competency statements
sons: that set their expectations for the desired
KSAs professionals should possess. One
One main reason is that specific articula- example from the American Library As-
sociation (ALA) is its Core Competences
tions of competencies inform and guide of Librarianship, which includes areas
such as organization of recorded knowl-
the basis of subsequent assessments at the edge and information; reference and user
services; technological skills and knowl-
course, program, and institutional levels. edge; and administration and management
(ALA, 2009). Additionally, a competen-
Secondly, specific competencies help cy-based approach in LIS education has
been discussed and examined in a range
faculty and students across campus, as of domains. These include identifying
competencies through the analysis of job
well as other stakeholders such as employ- advertisements (e.g., Fisher, 2001; Sut-
ton & Davis, 2011; Winston & Dunkley,
ers and policymakers, to have a common 2002), addressing competencies for spe-
cific positions or in certain areas (e.g.,
understanding about the specific skills and Nwakanma, 2011; Hazeri, Sarrafzadeh,
& Martin, 2007), and exploring to what
knowledge those undergraduates should extent LIS curricula are meeting profes-
sionals competencies (e.g., Kules & Mc-
master as a result of their learning experi- Daniel, 2010; Lester & Van Fleet, 2008;
Scripps-Hoekstra, Carroll, & Fotis, 2014).
ences (p. vii). Although much discussion has taken place

In recent years, the approach has at-
tracted renewed interest among educators
in higher education (Fain, 2013; Parry,
2013). In March 2013, the U.S. Depart-
ment of Education issued guidance for
higher education institutions that offer
competency-based programs. The depart-
ment announced that colleges could begin
providing student federal aid based on stu-
dents’ mastery of “competencies;” that is,
what students know and can do. This focus

Competency-based Curriculum: An Effective Approach to Digital Curation Education 285

on the topic of competency in workforce access, use, and reuse of digital materials
development and education, the concept of throughout their lifecycle, digital curation
competency in LIS has centered on what has emerged as a new area of interest to
is expected of a professional in the work- address such questions.
place rather than on the learning process.
As such, one area of concern that provides Institutional digital library and digitiza-
scope for additional investigation is how tion initiatives in research libraries have
to systematically link competencies to stu- brought to light the exponential growth of
dent learning outcomes or assessment of research data. This in turn has led to the
student learning. development of an institutional view of
stewardship and preservation. Research-
The University of North Texas Depart- ers now generate, integrate, manage, and
ment of Library and Information Sciences share large data sets to ensure that they
recently developed and implemented a are retrievable for future research or re-
digital curation curriculum based on a use. Many U.S. government agencies in-
competency-based approach. This paper creasingly recognize that the scientific,
will address the background behind the biomedical, and engineering research
creation of the curriculum, and then dis- communities are undergoing a profound
cuss its development and implementation transformation in regard to accessing and
according to the following three phases: reuse of large-scale and diverse research
data sets. As such, these agencies have
1. Identifying competencies; written policies that encourage data shar-
ing and mandate data management plans.
2. Linking competencies to courses; and In light of this movement, the importance
of curating research data has been high-
3. Assessing competencies in curriculum. lighted and has brought not only new op-
portunities to libraries but also some with
Although these phases are discussed corresponding challenges. In particular,
here as discrete steps, the three phases the lack of cross-disciplinary expertise has
took place in a continuous cycle as pro- often been regarded as one of the impedi-
gram segments were developed. ments to implementing research data man-
agement and curation. Therefore, the need
Background to educate a workforce with skills and
capacity in digital curation and data man-
With the advent of the digital era, librar- agement has been widely recognized (e.g.,
ies, archives, and museums have increased National Science Board, 2011; Ogburn,
their responsibility and work in creating, 2010; Soehner, Steeves, & Ward, 2010).
collecting, preserving, managing, and pro-
viding access to their digital information In this context, the LIS field started to
resources. Research and practice in digital discuss the need for formal training in dig-
preservation and archiving has shown “it ital curation and data management in the
is impossible to keep things the same for- mid-2000s. The outcome of the discus-
ever” (Cloonan, 2001, p. 235). With this sion was several Institute of Museum and
in mind the focus of the profession has Library Services (IMLS)-funded projects
shifted to questions concerning the value that developed new curriculum and pro-
and long-term sustainability of informa- grams for digital curation, including the
tion. These questions have gained inter- University of North Carolina’s digital cu-
est and support in the LIS field given the ration curriculum project, the University
explosion in the amount and complexity of Illinois’s data curation specialization
of digital data being generated. As such, program, the University of Michigan’s
the strategic emphasis on long-term man- preservation of information specialization,
agement has moved from passive preser- and the University of Arizona’s digital
vation to active curation. To ensure the

286 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE

information management certificate pro- scribes each step, shows how the steps are
gram. Each program is unique and has dif- related to the overall educational structure,
ferent foci and strategies to educate and and illustrates the iterative nature of cur-
prepare professionals who are capable of riculum development.
engaging in curation activities in digital
and data-driven environments. As presented in Figure 1, we first re-
viewed the competency standards that
Another example is the University of have been developed from various orga-
North Texas’s graduate academic cer- nizations/institutions as well as existing
tificate in digital curation and data man- digital curation curriculum developed by
agement. The curricular structure of this other LIS schools. Along with our digital
program is based on a competency-based curation job analysis, we synthesized the
approach. The certificate program is a de- skills, competencies, and goals identified
liverable of a project funded by the IMLS in this review into a set of statements that
and conducted from September 2011 to would describe the competencies the stu-
August 20151 to address the goal of build- dents attain upon completion of the pro-
ing capacity in LIS curriculum. The target gram. Those statements were grouped
audience for this program is graduate stu- together by category then performance
dents pursuing careers in digital curation statements that elaborate what is involved
and data management, post-master’s infor- to develop the skills students need to ex-
mation professionals who need retraining hibit a particular sub-competency were
for digital curation responsibilities, and developed. The next step was to use those
discipline-specific graduate students (e.g., competencies to design our digital cura-
graduate students in engineering, science, tion curriculum. The performance state-
and the humanities) who may be respon- ments were aligned to each course’s learn-
sible for managing data for their scientific ing outcomes. For each learning outcome
and scholarly projects. instructional units and instructional meth-
ods to address the learning outcomes were
Competency-based Curriculum for created. The last step was to perform a
Digital Curation program evaluation to assess the effective-
ness of the curriculum in helping students
We designed a theoretical framework achieve the established competencies.
that guides the development and imple-
mentation of the competency-based cur- Identifying Competencies
riculum. This theoretical framework was
drawn from a number of guides and case Competencies are neither curricula nor
studies on competency-based program learning objectives. Competencies do not
planning and curriculum development address the details of how the KSAs are to
(e.g., Calhoun, Rowney, Eng, & Hoffman, be packaged, the best methods for learn-
2005; Center for Health Policy, Columbia ing, or the criteria for attainment. What
University School of Nursing & Associa- they do provide is a framework based on
tion of Teachers of Preventive Medicine, performance outcomes around which a
2004; Chyung, Stepich, & Cox, 2006; curriculum is developed and delivered
Jones, Voorhees, & Paulson, 2002; How- and against which performance can be
ard, Gladding, Kiguli, Andrews, & John, measured. Thus, competency-based cur-
2011). The framework delineates the steps riculum is organized around competencies
involved in developing and implementing required for practice. It is also grounded
a competency-based curriculum. It de- in the empirically validated principle that
students, when given appropriate instruc-
1The project was originally planned to run from September 2011 to tion, can all master the prescribed perfor-
August 2014 but was extended another year. mance outcomes.

Competency-based Curriculum: An Effective Approach to Digital Curation Education 287

Figure 1.  Theoretical framework for competency-based curriculum.

Defining professional competencies is the job duties, performance expectations,
the cornerstone upon which a competency- and qualifications required by the broad
based curriculum is built. Therefore, the range of professionals working in the field
first stage in our curriculum development of digital curation. A total of 173 digital
involved identification of the various com- curation-related job advertisements posted
ponents of professional competencies nec- on various job career sites were collected
essary to be proficient for employment or and analyzed to determine the patterns of
practice in digital curation and data man- specific job characteristics and require-
agement. We reviewed current literature ments. Detailed methodological proce-
on digital curation workforce development dures and results are reported in Kim,
and education with particular focus on ex- Warga, and Moen (2013). It is important
isting skills and standards for related com- to note that we used job advertisements as
petencies, such as the Matrix of Digital an indicator of the current competency de-
Curation Knowledge and Competencies mand and of the evolving skill set needed
developed by University of North Caro- for digital curation because an understand-
lina’s DigCCur Project (Lee, 2009). We ing of how practitioners integrate KSAs,
also reviewed digital curation curriculum values, and other characteristics to suc-
developed by other LIS schools by exam- cessfully perform specific tasks or func-
ining the websites of ALA-accredited li- tions is essential in competency-based
brary and information science schools in curriculum (Jones, 2001).
North America. In addition to descriptions
of the programs available on each school’s As a result, we developed four program
website, course titles and descriptions in competencies as follows:
online course catalogs were collected to
identify goals and objectives of their pro- 1. Content Curation Competency: This
grams and curricular characteristics. competency is required to understand
and carry out a range of activities as
An analysis of digital curation job de- defined in the digital curation lifecycle
scriptions was then conducted to identify model, including the creation, acquisi-

288 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE

tion, management, representation, ac- (Chyung, Stepich, & Cox, 2006). For in-
cess, organization, transformation, and stance, if the students are to be competent
preservation of digital content. in content curation, then they will have
to be competent to ingest data and digital
2. Curation Technologies Competency: objects to an archive, and they will need
This competency is required to identi- the ability to extract and create metadata
fy, use, and develop tools and applica- records for data in a digital repository sys-
tions to support digital curation activi- tem. Table 1 illustrates the sub-competen-
ties. The context of this competency is cies and performance statements that can
information technology infrastructure, fulfill the Content Curation Competency.2
including the tools and applications The full list of competencies is included in
deployed to support digital curation. Appendix I.

3. Curation Models and Modeling Com- Linking Competency to Curriculum
petency: This competency is required
for high-level, abstract thinking and The next step was to articulate how stu-
critical analysis of complex systems, dents would attain and acquire the compe-
workflows, and conceptual models re- tency. Particularly, we wanted to address
lated to digital curation. This is also re- the following questions: (1) What content
quired for planning, coordinating, im- is needed to support the development of
plementing, and assessing programs, the competency in the curriculum? (2)
projects, and services related to digital What instructional strategies and methods
curation. are most effective in developing the com-
petency? These questions are addressed
4. Curation Services Competency: This below in two sections: Course Develop-
competency is required to identify, un- ment and Instructional Design.
derstand, and build services to respond
to a community’s and/or institution’s Course Development
digital curation needs.
The following four 3-credit hour cours-
It should be noted that we decided on an es were developed:
open, collaborative, and iterative process
to develop these competency groups. This • INFO 5841 Digital Curation Funda-
process required multiple cycles of shar- mentals
ing drafts of competencies, incorporating
feedback, and holding group discussions This course introduces fundamental vo-
before we reached a consensus. For in- cabulary, concepts, practices, procedures,
stance, as part of this process, we shared and processes for the entire curation life-
our initial draft of competencies with cycle, from creation through appraisal,
working professionals who were staff of ingest, and storage, to access and reuse.
the digital project unit of the UNT librar- Topics include history and background;
ies and requested their revisions and ad- concepts and principles; community stan-
ditions. dards and practices; challenges and issues;
and some basic techniques for curating
We then sequentially separated all re-
quired sub-competencies for each com- 2It should be noted that the set of competencies presented in this
petency group and connected each sub- paper is not the same as the first version of competencies reported
competency to performance statements. in Kim, Warga, and Moen (2013). The first version was revised to
Performance statements need to be clearly ensure component distinctiveness and exclude some general pro-
identified as the core of competency-based fessional competencies, such as communication and professional
curriculum development to ensure that development.
learners will be able to demonstrate their
learned capabilities after they have ac-
quired a necessary combination of KSAs

Competency-based Curriculum: An Effective Approach to Digital Curation Education 289

Table 1.  Competency Group, Sub-competencies, and Performance Statements.

Competency Group Sub-competency Performance Statements Learning Domain
Levels

1. Content Curation 1.1. Create data in 1.1.1. Identify the standards for Foundation
data content and structure
Competency standard data Foundation
1.1.2. Determine significant Application
formats and file properties of data and
digital objects Execution
types
1.2.1. Develop and apply Foundation
1.2. Appraise and appraisal and selection Application
select for long-term policy
archiving Foundation
1.2.2. Understand and evaluate Application
1.3. Ingest data and the local/community
digital objects to an practice and legal Foundation
archive requirements Application
Execution
1.4. Implement 1.3.1. Prepare data for ingest
preservation (e.g., file normalization, Foundation
methods checksums)
Application
1.5. Support access and 1.3.2. Extract and create Execution
use metadata records for data
in a digital repository Application
system
Application
1.4.1. Describe the best practice Execution
for long-term storage

1.4.2. Select appropriate formats
and methods/strategies for
long-term storage

1.5.1. Apply access controls and
authentication procedures

1.5.2. Incorporate user
requirements into
preservation systems and
services

and managing digital data. The course • INFO 5842 Digital Curation Tools and
is designed with the following learning Applications
modules: Module 1—Concepts and back-
ground; Module 2—Conceptual models; This course covers the technical infra-
Module 3—Creating/formatting data; structure, including systems and services
Module 4—Documenting/describing data; necessary for digital curation. In particu-
Module 5—Storing/archiving data; Mod- lar, it focuses on techniques, tools, and ap-
ule 6—Sharing/accessing/reusing data; plications for curating digital data. Topics
and Module 7—Data management plans. covered include creating and executing
Each learning module includes a topic an action plan for archiving digital data,
overview, supporting resources, and as- deciding what to store, consolidating mul-
signments to guide the student’s compre- tiple file versions, and creating metadata.
hension of the topic presented. The course also explores institutional/

290 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE

disciplinary repositories and underlying emerging topics in the area of digital cura-
platforms. Like INFO 5841, the course tion. Topics include preservation of three-
is designed with seven learning mod- dimensional, computer-aided design, or
ules as follows: Module 1—Introduction other complex objects; trustworthy digital
of UNIX/Linux; Module 2—Significant repository audit and certification; forensic
properties of digital objects; Module 3— computing; and copyright and other intel-
Technical metadata; Module 4—Format lectual property issues related to digital
and file information; Module 5—Mi- curation. In particular, we invited prac-
croservices; Module 6—Repository plat- titioners who have experience working
forms; and Module 7—Digital curation on a digital curation–related capacity to
team. Each learning module includes a present in class. The second is a research
topic overview, supporting resources, and community project exploring a specific
hands-on exercises to give students practi- research community’s curation practices
cal experience and real-world simulations. and needs.

• INFO 5843 Preservation Planning and The assumption behind the sequence of
Implementation for Digital Curation these four courses is that the competencies
are not taught as a whole in a single course,
This course provides students an oppor- but performance statements are presented
tunity to develop a plan for preservation throughout the curriculum. Further, such
throughout the curation lifecycle of digi- performance statements are reflected in the
tal materials. Students will apply digital three learning domain levels, foundation,
curation concepts and models learned in application, and execution, which were ad-
INFO 5841 to conceptualize preservation opted by Bloom’s taxonomy of learning
planning processes and use various tools domains (Bloom, Engelhart, Furst, Hill, &
and applications learned in INFO 5842 to Krathwohl, 1956). At the foundation level,
implement the plan on digital data. The students explore fundamental knowledge
course is project based; students work and basic skills. At the application level,
on a semester-long project in which stu- students work through and apply a con-
dents develop a plan for curating digital ceptual knowledge base and skills to prac-
materials, design a draft workflow for cu- tical tasks. At the execution level, students
ration, develop a test plan, revise it, and assess a given situation to determine what
implement it by curating the materials in a problems, issues, and opportunities exist
digital repository system. Along with the and integrate learning from different areas
project, the course includes weekly dis- into a plan for solving a problem. Table
cussions and presentations with an empha- 1 mapped performance statements against
sis on student involvement. learning domain levels.

• INFO 5844 Advanced Topics in Digital For instance, to be competent to extract
Curation and create metadata records for data in a
digital repository system, students learned
This course is designed as a capstone different metadata types and functions,
experience, which means its purpose is the efficacy of a descriptive standard for
to both tie together the materials covered a particular community, and the impor-
in previous courses in the digital curation tance of technical, structural, and rights
program at UNT and to integrate/expand metadata in INFO 5841. Students also had
students’ knowledge of concepts and the opportunity to create descriptive meta-
techniques of digital curation. The course data for selected resources in a repository
consists of two components. The first is a system; this supports the foundation level.
seminar designed to explore advanced and Then they delved into the details of techni-
cal metadata in INFO 5842, which intro-
duced common types of technical metada-

Competency-based Curriculum: An Effective Approach to Digital Curation Education 291

ta embedded in digital objects, explained used as an instructional method. A local
how different elements of technical meta- example of a concept, topic, and/or issue
data are used in digital curation, and used being covered in class was often provided
the ExifTool to extract metadata; this also to the students for discussion and analy-
supports the foundation level. In INFO sis. For instance, in INFO 5841, students
5843, students needed to make a decision were assigned a hands-on exercise in
about entering required and optional meta- which they developed a file structure and
data at both the collection and object level. proposed a file-naming convention. For
Metadata records were provided in the the exercise, students were provided a
form of XML files/comma-separated or scenario based on a real research project
tab-delimited spreadsheets. This supports carried out at UNT. This included the pur-
the application/execution level. pose and context of the project as well as
generated data files. They had to respond
Another example can be found in the to the needs of the project by providing in-
prepare data for ingest competency. In struction regarding how they would man-
INFO 5841, students were introduced to age data in the project. Another example is
file fixity, why it is important, when to INFO 5842’s digital curation team project.
generate it, and some common algorithms For this project, a hypothetical situation in
for calculating checksums; this supports which an academic library is planning re-
the foundation level. Then in INFO 5842, search data services for its community was
students were introduced to tools used given to the students. Students were in-
to create checksums. They were then re- structed to work in a group to allocate the
quired to create a checksum for an actual various roles for the project and develop a
data set using command-line utilities on plan detailing data curation and manage-
UNIX. This supports the foundation/appli- ment services by consulting curation ser-
cation level. In INFO 5843, during which vices groups in other academic libraries.
students developed and implemented a
digital curation plan, students addressed Experiential learning, which focuses on
how their proposed submission agree- “learning by doing,” was another popular
ment, a contract between the curation re- strategy. INFO 5842, which focuses on
pository and the depositor, can entail data tools and applications to support digital
validation by incorporating when and how curation, required the students to work
a checksum file needs to be created and at the command line of Linux servers of
validated. This also supports the applica- specific applications, such as DSpace,
tion level. Fedora, and Archivematica. These were
loaded on local servers for students to use.
Instructional Design Assuming that students need to understand
Linux/UNIX commands and operations in
Lasnier (cited in Demers, Woodburn, a more holistic way, a mini-course called
& Savard, 2006) argues that instructional “Introduction to UNIX/Linux” was devel-
strategies and methods that lead to compe- oped and implemented as a prerequisite
tency development are action based, are as for completing exercises in INFO 5842.
closely related to the real task as possible, The digital curation plan project in INFO
and take place in as authentic a setting as 5843 is another example. Students needed
possible. The following examples describe to put their understanding of various stages
the instructional strategies and methods of the curation process, including apprais-
used for our courses. al, acquisition, ingest, and dissemination,
into practice. In particular, students were
Indirect instruction was adopted in asked to use actual data sets, such as data
many of the courses. In particular, case produced by the Mapping Text project
scenario, which depicts real-life situations (http://mappingtexts.org) funded by Na-
in which problems need to be solved, was

292 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE

tional Endowment for the Humanities and evidence of the outcomes of their learning
materials produced during the course of and its processes, how they have devel-
the IMLS Connecting to Collections Ini- oped, and where further learning is needed
tiative (http://www.imls.gov/collections), (McMullan et al., 2003).
as digital objects to be curated for the plan.
With the worth of portfolio assessment
Lastly, interactive instruction that often in mind, we decided to adopt these as a
involved grouping and discussions was method to assess students’ competency.
used extensively in our courses. In INFO This tool was embedded as a final project
5844, which included a research com- in INFO 5844, the last course students take
munity project, students were instructed for the program. Students were required to
to interview one or more researchers in a provide specific illustrations in the form of
specific research community (e.g., astron- artifacts from their coursework to indicate
omy, biology, computational linguistics, the acquisition and mastery of the program
history) to identify major funding sources, competencies. The portfolio includes the
data management/sharing requirements, following components:
common data file formats and data struc-
tures, and so forth. This interactive dis- 1. Evidence of competencies: At least two
cussion with a researcher in a particular artifacts were required from students to
field helped students learn the practices demonstrate mastery for each compe-
and challenges to curation of data faced in tency. The two artifacts were carefully
these fields. selected in order to cover any specific
competency statements associated with
Assessing Competency each competency group. One artifact
could be used to demonstrate more than
To deliver a competency-based curricu- one competency. The artifacts could be
lum, it is imperative that students know, in the form of written documents, links
can apply, and can execute knowledge, and/or screenshots of any technologi-
skills, and abilities desired by the industry. cally supported creations, audio or vid-
To bridge the gap between industry and eo recordings, and so on.
academia, a structured process of connect-
ing KSAs to assessment is critical. When 2. Supportive writing for competencies:
assessing competency two important ques- Along with the artifacts, the student
tions to be addressed are (1) Have students had to provide a short reflective state-
acquired the program competencies by the ment that described their competency
end of the program? (2) If so, was the ac- and how the selected artifacts demon-
quisition of the competencies a result of strated achievement of each compe-
the program? tency. The student could also address
what has been successful/unsuccessful
A variety of assessment methods are and what has acted as a trigger to re-
needed for assessing the program-level examine practice.
competencies. Portfolios appear to have
the potential to integrate these methods 3. Self-evaluation: At the end of each re-
and are effective assessments of both flective statement of competency, stu-
formative and summative performance. dents were asked to rate themselves on
Portfolios are often used as an instrument their achievement of each competency
that allows students to see each part of the using the following rating system:
process in its wider context, encouraging 1 = failed to achieve competency, 2 =
self-assessment. Further, it has been as- marginal achievement of competency,
serted that portfolios can serve as a good 3 = adequate achievement of compe-
assessment method for competency by tency, 4 = above-average achievement
making students responsible for providing of competency, and 5 = exemplary
achievement of competency.

Competency-based Curriculum: An Effective Approach to Digital Curation Education 293

A review of ten students’ portfolios gram. Students acknowledged that the rich
indicated that students assessed their knowledge of concepts and tools from all
achievement of competency fairly highly courses provided the basis for designing
across all competencies. The Content Cu- a digital curation program or service for
ration Competency was achieved through- the institution. Many students mentioned
out all courses. Many students mentioned that in INFO 5841, the review of vari-
that the first two courses, INFO 5841 and ous scholarly disciplines’ practices and
INFO 5842, provided ample opportuni- their ideologies concerning the creation,
ties for curation, such as file normalization use, and sharing of data served as a good
and migration, and metadata extraction foundation to understand the needs of the
and creation. The hands-on use of tools user community. They also added that the
and techniques gave practical insights into research community project in INFO 5844
curation content. Those two courses also provided the opportunity to look at different
provided a lot of worthwhile exposure aspects of the designated communities and
to both theoretical and technical frame- what services might be expected or needed.
works. Students were able to implement
such frameworks in the next course, INFO It is worthwhile to mention that the
5843, by depositing and ingesting actual achievement of the Curation Technology
data sets into a digital repository system. Competency was rated lower than other
One student commented: “The curation competencies. The main reason for this
project we conducted in course 3 [INFO is that most students have no experience
5843] involved putting concepts and the- with Linux/UNIX and had difficulty in-
ory into ‘motion’ as well as choosing and corporating their understanding of Linux
using tasks, tools, and technologies. It was into actual curation works. Some students
the beginning of practical curation work.” felt that it was challenging to grasp the
technical aspects and operational phases
Many students enjoyed this transition of a digital repository platform, such as
from theoretical models to actual cura- DSpace and Fedora. One student reported:
tion practice, as indicated in one student’s “While we did have a number of opportuni-
statement: “Courses followed a very natu- ties to work with digital repositories, such
ral and steady progression through the as DSpace and Fedora, I did not feel like
concepts and technologies of digital cura- we received enough depth of experience to
tion culminating in the advanced course understand those platforms sufficiently.”
[INFO 5844], in which we had the op-
portunity to observe how actual curation Looking Forward: Challenges
work can be commenced by interacting Remaining
with professionals who share their expe-
rience in projects and initiatives.” During The field of LIS is experiencing dras-
this course of transition, students were tic and fundamental changes as a result
able to use, refine, and expand the knowl- of changing technologies and expanding
edge and skills acquired from previous job roles. Today’s library and information
courses. This helped students conceptu- professionals need to be multi-skilled and
alize what components and services are knowledgeable in various areas to adapt
needed and how they fit into the process to the changing demands of the work en-
when they were exposed to the full digital vironment and to effectively contribute to
lifecycle by designing and implementing a their profession. In 2013, the Association
workflow. This transition certainly helped of College & Research Libraries’ Research
students solidify the Curation Models and Planning and Review Committee foresaw
Modeling Competency. that library employers would fill positions
from broader talent pools of individuals
The Curation Services Competency holding a variety of credentials that meet
was also acquired throughout the pro-

294 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE

the job specifications, with more concern tency groups in the actual work environ-
for meeting the requirements of the posi- ment, having a broad understanding of all
tions than with holding a master’s degree the functions and skills needed is still re-
in LIS (Association of College & Research quired to be a high-level contributor to the
Libraries, 2013). It is worth noting that the curation responsibilities of an institution.
master’s-level qualification is not the norm Additionally, competencies presented in
for professional entry to the LIS profession this paper can fit into requirements of the
in many countries; undergraduate training “I-shaped model,” which encompasses a
and diploma/apprenticeship models are broad understanding of techniques across
common elsewhere and competency under- curation, a deep specialization in curation,
pins many of these programs. and a general level of knowledge at least
one application domain (Stanton, Palmer,
It is important for LIS educators to be Blake, & Allard, 2012).
aware that changes in employer demand
and the emerging skill sets of other pro- Nevertheless, some challenges remain.
fessions demand that new knowledge sets One of the biggest challenges the com-
be incorporated into an already stringent petency-based curriculum posed is the
and comprehensive academic curriculum. development of a robust assessment to
To support such demand, the incorpora- measure competency. Although portfolios
tion of competency-based curriculum is have been proven as an effective tool for
emerging as a necessity. Although educa- collecting and managing multiple types of
tors are faced with the task of structuring assessment evidence from multiple con-
their curricula to ascertain the knowledge, texts and sources within the curriculum,
skills, and abilities each student possesses, the evaluation should be complemented
a model for identifying the competencies by a curriculum-embedded assessment
and implementing them into curriculum model in which students are assessed dur-
has not been found in LIS. In a sense, we ing the various learning pathways—i.e.,
anticipate that steps taken toward curricu- early, middle, and end points. For this,
lum development can be used as a process competency statements, which align with
model to design a competency-based cur- performance standards and assessment
riculum for other subject areas in LIS. plans, should undergo periodic reviews by
Furthermore, competencies identified and faculty and external stakeholders. Another
implemented in our digital curation cur- challenge is that competencies are dynam-
riculum can serve as an excellent basis for ic and evolving. The needed knowledge,
designing an educational and professional skills, and abilities that make up competen-
framework for digital curation. Compe- cies change continuously as jobs and the
tencies can be used as a common language workforce evolve and new work practices
among stakeholders to prepare future digi- are discovered. Furthermore, the field of
tal curation professionals, and they can be digital curation is continuously changing
used to support recruitment, performance in intriguing ways. Bunn’s (2014) point is
management, and career planning (Cor- well taken: Teaching emerging practices
rall, 2013). They also can offer a means in digital curation is like trying to hit a
to identify, plan, and evaluate training to moving target. Although there has been
meet the requirements of professionals significant effort to identify and compile
engaged in digital curation. Particularly, various practices and the spectrum of skill
our program competencies encompass sets that comprise digital curation, ongo-
the wide range of knowledge, skills, and ing assessment is necessary to ensure that
abilities required for success in the digi- competencies reflected in the curriculum
tal curation workforce. Although one are up to date and relevant to job market
person would not be expected to perform needs. This is, in fact, true for most other
all functions covered in the four compe- areas in the LIS field!

Competency-based Curriculum: An Effective Approach to Digital Curation Education 295

Acknowledgments ital curation and data science. Paper presented at
the Aligning Digital Preservation Across Nations
This project is supported by a generous Workshop, Amsterdam, Netherlands. Retrieved
grant from the U.S. Federal Institute of from http://digitalcurationexchange.org/system/
Museum and Library Services, Librarians files/corrall-competency-framework_0.pdf
for the 21st Century Program, RE-05-11-
0073-11. The author would like to thank Demers, G., Woodburn, A. J., & Savard, C. (2006).
the project members for their contributing The development of an undergraduate compe-
work; without them, this paper would not tency-based coach education program. The Sport
have been possible. Psychologist, 20(2), 162–173. Retrieved from
http://journals.humankinetics.com
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Appendix I.  Competency Group, Sub-competencies,
and Performance Statements for Digital Curation Curriculum

Competency Group Sub-competency Performance Statements

1. Content 1.1. Create data in standard 1.1.1. Identify the standards for data content and
Curation data formats and file structure
Competency types
1.1.2. Determine significant properties of data and
digital objects

1.2. Appraise and select for 1.2.1. Develop and apply appraisal and selection
long-term archiving policy

1.2.2. Understand and evaluate the local/
community practice and legal requirements

1.3. Ingest data and digital 1.3.1. Prepare data for ingest (e.g., file
objects to an archive normalization, checksums)

1.3.2. Extract and create metadata records for data
in a digital repository system

1.4. Implement preservation 1.4.1. Describe the best practice for long-term

methods storage

1.4.2. Select appropriate formats and methods/

strategies for long-term storage

1.5. Support access and use 1.5.1. Apply access controls and authentication
procedures

1.5.2. Incorporate user requirements into
preservation systems and services

(continued)

Competency-based Curriculum: An Effective Approach to Digital Curation Education 297

Appendix I (continued).  Competency Group, Sub-competencies,
and Performance Statements for Digital Curation Curriculum

Competency Group Sub-competency Performance Statements

2. Curation 2.1. Work in a variety 2.1.1. Utilize networking and various operating system
Technologies
Competency of computing services

environment

2.2. Implement 2.2.1. Employ command line tools and programs

and maintain 2.2.2. Install and configure a digital repository platform

digital curation

repository system

2.3. Utilize software, 2.3.1. Select and apply tools and applications for
applications for depositing and ingesting digital objects into a
digital curation digital repository

2.3.2. Select and apply tools and services for the
technical foundation of a trusted digital repository

3. Curation Models 3.1. Use the 3.1.1. Analyze and present a conceptual framework

and Modeling conceptual model for use in planning, development, and

Competency for curation implementation of curation activities

3.1.2. Apply the framework to build a repository system
and service

3.2. Administer 3.2.1. Apply a broad range of principles, practices

curation lifecycle and procedures in overseeing digital curation

actions management and resources

3.2.2. Design and implement workflows and procedures
to manage the digital curation program

4. Curation 4.1. Assess the 4.1.1. Understand data created by the users and its
Services curation need of workflow
Competency users
4.1.2. Differentiate various scholarly disciplines
4.2. Understand practices and their ideology concerning the
policies and creation, use, and sharing of data
requirements for
institutions 4.1.3. Identify and build services to respond to
individual user’s data management need
4.3. Provide user
service 4.2.1. Appraise and develop relevant institutional
policies and plans

4.1.2. Apply tools and services that address a digital
repository’s organizational and financial needs

4.3.1. Provide administration and user support for the
repository service

4.3.2. Offer a variety of supporting reference and
instruction services to users

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