Using Graphs for Exposing the Underlying Competence Design of Academic Degrees

Abstract

Academic degrees are usually presented with textual tables and lists, following a semester structure. This information is expected to help learners to create their own itineraries within a given degree, which may not be the case in a distance university, where learners may not take complete semesters. Furthermore, both tables and lists are useful to explain the contents of a specific degree, but they are limited for visualizing the relationships between the different subjects and the competences acquired and developed through them. In this paper we propose a new way to visualize an academic degree, equating subjects and competences as two complementary dimensions. We have applied this visualization to two degrees already offered by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and to another during its design phase, involving learners and degree managers, respectively.