Authenticity is a key component of competency-based education, beginning with a thorough job market analysis. This process helps identify the core elements of the program—ranging from essential abilities to soft skills and knowledge.

Of the three, soft skills are the most difficult to evaluate and for students to practice authentically in a classroom setting. Soft skills refer to the ability to act and present oneself professionally in various situations, and they include communication, problem-solving, teamwork, organization, and adaptability. Typically, soft skills evaluation is reserved for internships. However, this makes internship assessments high-stakes, as they often determine a student’s professional readiness and are crucial to graduation.

To better prepare students for internships and professional life, soft skills must be practiced and assessed within (and throughout) the program.

Faculty members, aware of the gap in soft skills training, are often hesitant to address it—understandably so, as soft skills assessment requires a personalized, almost ethnographic approach for each student, which is time-consuming. Designing the activities themselves also demands significant time. Recreating an authentic work environment for evaluating soft skills involves simulating a multidisciplinary team of coworkers and supervisors. This setting becomes the backdrop for role-playing activities, where students can then effectively practice their soft skills by taking on the role of a team member.

Competency Weaver’s Role-Playing Assessment feature offers a comprehensive way to evaluate a student’s soft skills. 

The educator configures the assessment by defining:

• The role-playing context
• The number and role of characters
• The personality traits of those characters
• The role the student will assume

The educator can then test the role-playing assessment feature and make necessary modifications to ensure it effectively allows students to demonstrate their learning objectives in practice.

Through interaction with a chatbot, the student is immersed in a realistic work environment where they can showcase communication skills, collaboration, problem-solving, and organization.