The following conceptual model is based on discussions of the working group to date and serves as the basis for development of a technical specification.  The model is further detailed in the white paper being authored by the working group.

Definitions

• Program - broad educational scheme, typically lasting months to years, for instance MD, BSc, residency, or professional certificate.
• Course - a discrete component of a program; not all programs will have courses (e.g. European PhDs).
• Educational Activity - a formal learning activity, often a discrete component of a program or course or a continuing professional development/continuing education activity. An educational activity may be an event but also includes self-study and project work.
• Syllabus - the content of a program describing the subjects, topics and disciplines covered and to what depth.
• Curriculum - the scheduling and allocation of time within a program to cover the syllabus.  The curriculum will typically have several organizational layers corresponding to different levels of abstraction or specificity, for instance phases, years, semesters, weeks, classes, etc.  It may also include date and time, location, instructors, and learning materials.
• Learning Outcome - the intended aggregate learner endpoint for a program, typically independent of the means by which the outcome is achieved.  Used to identify, define and communicate the skills and qualities graduates should have.
• Learning Objective - the intended aggregate learner endpoint for an activity, typically directly linked to the means by which it is to be achieved.  Learning objectives may be derived from competencies or learning outcomes.
• Competency - a statement describing a specific ability, or set of abilities, requiring specific knowledge, skill and/or attitude.  Competencies are used to set performance standards that must be met.
• Competence - possession of sufficient and necessary knowledge, skill and attitude by an individual to allow her to safely and effectively perform a specific job
• Competency Object - an umbrella term used by the CWG to describe ANY abstract statement of learning or performance expectations, and information related to the statement.  Statements include, but are not limited to, learning outcomes, competencies per se, learning objectives, professional roles, etc.  The Competency Object may include additional data to expand on or support the statement.  The object is abstract in the sense that it does not inherently contain information about applications of the statement to individuals or events or other objects.
• Competency Framework - an organized and structured representation of a set of interrelated and purposeful competency objects.
• Professional Activity - a task performed as part of a professional's work (in our instance, patient care) or continuing development.  Can be used as evidence of attainment of one or more competencies.
• Assessment - an activity designed to measure knowledge, skills, attitudes, competence or performance. Assessment may be part of an educational activity. It can also be part of a regulatory or professionalism effort, such as specialty certification.
  

Conceptualization

For the purpose of approaching development of a Competency Environment, the CWG has identified three separate, but related, concepts (Figure 1):

1. The Competency Object - also referred to as a competency definition, a competency object is a single statement and information to detail, clarify or support the statement.  It exists in isolation as an abstract object.
2. Inter-Competency Relationships - links between competency objects that allow the formation of a competency framework.  The framework itself may contains additional data, such as an introduction, justification, categories, etc.
3. Extra-Competency Relationships - links between a competency object (that is part of a competency framework) and objects external to the framework, such as curricular elements, learning objects, portfolio entries, performance events, competencies from other frameworks, etc.

Concerning objects to which competencies may be linked, there exist some formal specifications (e.g. learning objects) but for many there are no widely-accepted specifications (e.g. portfolio, curriculum).  Rather than propose a specification for each of these objects, we propose specifying a way to which any object can refer to one or more competencies from one or more frameworks.

There are a number of coincident standards and specifications and representational themes with these frameworks:

• Scheduling
• Curriculum audit - CurrMIT
• Reusable definitions of competency (RDCs)
• Activity models including IMS Learning design, SCORM and MedBiquitous' Virtual Patient
• MedBiquitous Healthcare Learning Object Metadata (Healthcare LOM)
• MedBiquitous Professional Profile, which describes a healthcare practitioner and her credentials
• MedBiquitous Activity Report, which can be used to express the continuing professional development distributed to learners by attending accredited learning activities.
  
  

Abstract Models

One of the most common models for representing conceptual frameworks is the acyclic graph consisting of interlinked nodes where both nodes and links have properties.  Examples of their use include thesauri, ontologies, organizational structures, concept maps and Linnaean-style classifications.
Nodal frameworks have two essential aspects:

• What's in the node - this is the representation of the base unit that makes up a framework. A node may have many properties including:
  • Content, such as title, text, or other kinds of discrete objects such as other XML constructs. Content is not mandatory for a node as some nodes may exist purely to denote structure, such as in the early branches of a tree.
  • Metadata, such as title, description, author, date, etc.  This is information about the node, distinguished from the content of the node itself.  As before metadata is not mandatory.
• How are the nodes connected - this is the representation of the links between nodes. Each link can have a number of properties including:
  • Topological coordinates, typically expressed as two node IDs: the 'to' and 'from' nodes for a link.  Note that in acyclic graphs a link from node A to node B is a separate entry from the link from B to A.  This is a mandatory, even definitive, property of a link.
  • Metadata - information about the relationship itself, e.g., type (child, parent), functionality, presentation properties, etc.

With respect to competency information, we can envision Competency Objects as the nodes and relationships between the Competency Objects as the connections.

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