Competence management - introduction

In ILIAS, the competencies are maintained centrally in the administration. The competencies and their characteristics can be used for self-assessment and for querying external assessments, and users can document and evaluate their competencies within a given framework. This allows portfolios to be compared: Institutionally defined or learner-generated competence sets can be used as a frame of reference when working with portfolios:

  • Under competencies, individual competencies are selected from the organization's catalog of competencies.
  • Learners locate themselves in relation to the offered characteristics of this competence: You classify yourself.
  • They can document their self-assessment with materials (files and certificates).
  • You transfer skills to a portfolio and comment on them there or have them commented on by others.

Why can this function be helpful?

  • The explication of competencies has an orienting effect.
  • Breaking down a competence into different characteristics encourages reflection.
  • An organization that builds up and maintains its catalog of competencies gains an inventory of the competencies of its members in the long term.

The German and European Qualifications Frameworks provide examples of competence catalogs that you can use as a guide.

Steps in competence management

Several preparatory steps are necessary in order to use competence management:

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What are the components of competence management?

You can either offer individual competencies with assigned characteristics or coherent sets of competencies.The sets of competencies then organize the competencies assigned to a job description or a course of study.Competency management distinguishes between:

  • Competencies: The competencies consist of a title or identifier.
  • Characteristics: Competencies can be developed in different ways. The characteristics consist of a title or identifier and an explanatory text.
  • Categories: The competencies can be organized in a kind of folder.
  • Templates: Templates can be created for individual skills as well as for categories. You can then simply insert the templates so that you don't always have to enter everything again and can also enter changes centrally.

You must at least enter competencies and characteristics in order to use competence management. Categories and templates can help you to work more efficiently with the competencies, save work or ensure clarity.

Suggestions for texts

The following suggestions for writing the competencies and characteristics can serve as a starting point for your work on the texts; they are not obligatory or particularly brilliant, but have resulted from working with the tool: How many competencies? Try to get by with as few skills as possible. Put work into deciding what is really relevant. Competencies are particularly effective when they do not come in dozens.

  • Language learning according to the CEFR requires only four skills (listening comprehension, reading, speaking, writing), which are each divided into 6 levels (=skill levels).
  • Competencies for a 3-year training occupation at the IHK only requires 8 competencies.

How many characteristics? Three, four or five characteristics are usually suitable. Don't just write the title of the characteristic, but make an effort to write 20-35 words of description. The descriptions of the characteristics provide people with the impetus for reflection that makes working with competencies so fruitful.

  • Many expressions (6 or more) are very difficult to text because the differences between the expressions are no longer particularly significant.
  • Few versions (only 2 such as "Basic" and "Professional") are quick to write, but offer little choice.
  • An odd number of characteristics leads to many "middle" self-assessments. If you offer an even number of characteristics, people have to decide: Am I in the better half?
  • Specify the target point of the characteristics: Is the highest level the one that most participants should achieve or is the highest level reserved for true experts?
  • Text the expressions that describe behavior or knowledge that does not meet the minimum requirements as strongly as possible in relation to the correct behavior: formulated benevolently and not pejoratively or purely deficit-oriented. Example of an expression of the competence resilience that does not meet the minimum requirements but focuses on the desired behavior: "Dealing with uncertainty, stress and resistance still needs to be practiced a lot. The will to perform must become much more pronounced. The insight that one's own actions have an influence on the motivation of other people can be greatly expanded."


Create competencies, categories and templates

Create competencies

You would like to create a new competence.

  1. Open the Competencies tab in Competency Management in Learning outcomes.
  2. ILIAS shows you the list of competences, which may be empty, or the categories in which the competences are organized.
  3. Click on the Create competence button.
  4. ILIAS shows you a form.
  5. Give the competence a title and a number. ILIAS uses this number to sort the skills and put them in order. You can change the number later at any time.
  6. Under Status, determine which "life stage" the competence is in:
    • In preparation (offline): Entry is not displayed to users.
    • Published: The competence can be used by users if all higher-level entries are also enabled. As soon as the competence is used, it can no longer be deleted or the status "In preparation" can be set.
    • Obsolete: The entry can no longer be reselected by the user as a personal competence. If the competence has already been selected previously, this selection remains valid.
  7. Only activate the Selectable option once you have completed all preparations in skills management. If you have activated this option, users can see the competencies in the Competencies entry and use them for self-assessment. Once data has been created in this way, you can only make the competence invisible, but not delete it.
  8. Click on Save.
  9. ILIAS displays an empty list of competence characteristics.
  10. Click on Add characteristic above the table.
  11. ILIAS shows you a form.
  12. Enter a title for this type of competence. Add a description.
  13. Click on Save.
  14. ILIAS returns to the list of competence characteristics, which now contains the new characteristic.

If you now click at the left end of the Competence Management tab bar, ILIAS returns to the starting point and also displays the new competence.

Create competencies from templates

You want to create competencies and use templates. If competencies in your organization regularly use the same characteristics, then templates can save you a lot of work: You must have already created the templates in order to use them.

  1. Open the Competencies tab in Competency Management in Administration.
  2. Click the Insert template button.
  3. Enter a title and a number.
  4. Under Template, select the template that you want to insert.
  5. Click Save.

Organize skills with categories

You want to combine skills into job descriptions or bundle the skills of a degree program. To do this, you create categories and move your skills into these categories.

Now proceed as follows:

  1. Open the Competencies tab in Competency Management in Learning outcomes.
  2. ILIAS shows you the list of competencies and any existing categories.
  3. Click on the Create category button above the table.
  4. ILIAS offers an input mask in which you have to enter a title and a number for the competence category. The number is used by ILIAS to sort the categories in the list. You can change the number at any time.
  5. Activate the Selectable option if users in competencies should already be able to work with the category. Please note that the category can no longer be deleted, but can only be made invisible once data has been created by users. 
  6. To finish, click on Save.

Change sorting

You want to change the order of the skills or categories.

  1. Open the Competencies tab in Competency Management in Administration.
  2. In the Sequence table column, enter numerical values that bring the listed objects into the desired sequence. You do not need to enter tens: the 02 will be placed before the 10 or the 29 will be sorted before the 30.
  3. Click on the Save sequence button at the right-hand end of the table.
  4. ILIAS puts the list entries in the desired order and again displays a numbering system in steps of ten.


Activate competence management

You want to activate skills management for the entire installation, but you cannot activate skills management only for selected parts and not for others: You need access to the administration for this step. If necessary, contact the person responsible via the Contact administration link and ask for help in setting up the skills.

  1. Open learning successes. 
  2. ILIAS shows you a selection menu.
  3. Select the entry Competence management.
  4. ILIAS opens the competence management.
  5. Open the Settings tab.
  6. ILIAS shows you the settings.
  7. Select the Activate skills management option.
  8. Click on Save.
  9. ILIAS now adds the entry Competencies to all users. As long as the competence management is not fully set up, users cannot do anything there.

The next step in setting up competence management is to create competencies and characteristics. 

Competence requirements: Profiles

Competence requirements to be fulfilled: Profiles

Profiles of required competencies can be defined for working with 360° surveys and ONLY AND EXCLUSIVELY for working with 360° surveys; these profiles define which competencies and which characteristics an organization considers necessary. The individual competence characteristics of a user can then be contrasted with the institutional competence requirements.The profiles therefore describe an institutional competence requirement.They are only used for working with the 360° survey.To work with profiles you must

  1. Create a profile
  2. Assign skills characteristics to the profile
  3. Assign users to the profile

Create profiles

You want to assign users a specific profile of competence requirements. To do this, you must first create a profile, follow the steps below. You must then assign users to the profile: You have already created competencies and characteristics.

  1. Open the Competence Management entry in the Administration selection menu.
  2. Open the Profiles tab.
  3. ILIAS will show you a list of profiles that may still be empty.
  4. Click on the Add profile button.
  5. ILIAS shows you a form.
  6. Please enter the title that the profile should have. You can also enter a description if you wish.
  7. Click Save.

You must next

  • assign characteristics to the profile. Profiles not only consist of competencies, but also require certain characteristics or levels for each competency. 
  • Assign users to the profile. Profiles must be assigned to users in a separate step so that they can be used as requirement profiles for these users. 

Assigning characteristics to the profile

You want to assign users a specific profile of competence requirements. In this step, you first define exactly which skills requirements should be part of this profile: You assign competence characteristics to the profile: You have already created competencies and characteristics and you have also already created a profile.

  1. Open the Competence Management entry in the Administration selection menu.
  2. Open the Profiles tab.
  3. ILIAS shows you a list of profiles.
  4. Click on the Edit link at the end of the line of the profile to which you want to assign users.
  5. ILIAS shows you the tab Assigned users.
  6. However, first open the Assigned skills tab.
  7. ILIAS opens the tab.
  8. Click on the Assign characteristic button.
  9. ILIAS shows you a list of all competencies and categories of competencies.
  10. Select a competence by clicking on the title. To open the categories and display the skills they contain, click on the small arrow in front of the category title. ILIAS will then open the category for you.
  11. ILIAS shows you the characteristics of the selected competence.
  12. Select the characteristic that is required for the profile. This characteristic will be the target characteristic in the profile.
  13. ILIAS shows you the list of competencies and categories of competencies again.
  14. Select further characteristics to be included in the profile until all competence requirements are fully included in the profile.

Assign users to the profile

You want to assign users a specific profile of competence requirements. In this step, you assign users to the profile: You have already created competencies and proficiencies.you have also already created a profile.you have already assigned proficiencies to the profile.

  1. Open the Competence Management entry in the Administration selection menu.
  2. Open the Profiles tab.
  3. ILIAS shows you a list of profiles.
  4. Click on the Edit link at the end of the line of the profile to which you want to assign users.
  5. ILIAS shows you the tab Assigned users.
  6. Enter the name of the person to be assigned to this profile in the User text field. You can enter the first three letters of the name and ILIAS will make suggestions for you to choose from.
  7. Click on the name in the selection menu and then on Assign user.
  8. ILIAS displays the user as an entry in the Assigned users table. 

Combining skills with learning content

Learning content can be assigned to certain competence characteristics. The processing of this learning content should lead to the achievement of this competence.

  1. Open the Competence Management entry in the Administration selection menu.
  2. ILIAS shows you the Competencies tab.
  3. First select the competence to whose characteristics you want to assign learning content. To do this, click on the titles of individual skills or click on the titles of the skills categories until you have reached the skill itself.
  4. ILIAS shows you a list of the characteristics of the selected competence.
  5. Click on the Edit link at the end of the row of the characteristic to which you want to assign learning content.
  6. ILIAS opens the characteristic.
  7. Click on the Resources tab.
  8. ILIAS shows you a new page.
  9. Click on the Add resource button.
  10. ILIAS shows you the tree of the repository.
  11. Select the learning content that you want to assign to the characteristic: Click on the title of an object to add this object as a resource. Use the small gray arrows to navigate in the tree. Click on the small gray arrows to open the corresponding subtree.
  12. ILIAS lists the learning content in the Resources list.

If you want to delete individual resources, you can do so using the checkboxes in front and the "Remove" button.