Welcome to the Skills Check!

As part of a UT-VU-funded collaboration, we have developed a tool called the Skills Check in order to assist teachers in inventorying, evaluating and improving the provision of (academic) skills within their course(s). You are currently using the pilot of this tool. At any stage, feel free to refer to the FAQs for help.

User information
Name:
Degree programme:
Academic skill you would like to explore:
Level of analysis:
Course name, if applicable:
Skills Check completed:
Pilot
Step - Name Time spent (h) Notes
1 - Inventory
2 - Identify
3 - Prioritise
4 - Action Plan
5 - Reflect and evaluate

Identifying your aims

In order to ensure a focused approach, please take time to consider the following prompts and write a short response before beginning with Step 1: Inventory.

As you see it, briefly describe the main problems or challenges with the skills provision in your course(s).
What is your goal for participating in the Skills Check pilot? E.g. what would you like to achieve or change for your course?

Step 1: Inventory

Step 2: Identify

Step 3: Prioritise

Step 4: Action plan

Step 5: Reflect and Evaluate

How to use this tool

FAQs

Finding help Where to start
The Skills Check is meant to be used independently. Extensive tips and instructions can be found throughout the document, including by selecting the cell in which you need to type. Participants in the pilot can also contact their supervisor with questions. The Skills Check consists of five steps, which are meant to be worked through in order: beginning with this first page, "Step 0". However, it may be that you will want to return to previous steps and adjust information or choices while you are working. This is absolutely fine!
In the final version, the aim is to also collect a variety of tips, advice and research to support changes you might want to make to the skills provision based on the Skills Check. In the pilot, we have not gotten this far. It might also be that you select a skill to evaluate that we have not yet included in this database.
Choosing the skill Choosing the level of Analysis
Select the skill you want to analyse. Be aware that the Skills Check was developed with the more traditional "tangible" academic skills in mind: writing, presenting, and research skills. Select the level at which you want to analyse your skills provision: course, curriculum, or both.
The Skills Check can be performed by anyone involved in teaching academic skills. You can use it in order to evaluate a single course, the provision for a skill across several courses, or the entirety of the academic skills provision within a degree programme.
However, if you would like to use it for evaluating the more "cognitive" or "social" skills such as teamwork, critical thinking, visual-spatial reasoning, or decision-making, we see no reason that it would not be suitable. If you are examining Skills at a curricular level, we advise first asking teachers to complete the course-level questions and then working with a small group to answer the curriculum-level questions.
Please note that the more courses you include in the analysis, the higher the level of time and effort needed to fully and accurately analyse that provision.