From Learning Outcomes to Competencies based Computing Curricula for India

Competencies based (COM) approaches to curriculum design are a promising and recommended direction to evolve towards. It is then necessary to contrast the current practices with the proposed direction. Some questions have been, and are being, addressed; e.g. work has been done to illustrate defining competencies from given learning outcomes (LO). However globally the transition to competencies based approaches to computing education from LO based approaches is challenging given the diversity of LO practices. In this work we contrast the typical LO practice in India with the proposed competencies approach. We use degree program samples for computer science (CS) and computer engineering (CE) in this work. The LO approaches are obtained by using the AICTE model curriculum for computer engineering and the UGC model curriculum for computer science. The competencies approaches are from the literature around the respective ACM-IEEE curriculum recommendations. With respect to the Indian context we use these to (a) develop a clear contrast between LO based approaches and competency based approaches, (b) critically examine the competencies based approach, and (c) identify a path with incremental changes towards competencies based approaches. We develop a set of considerations and recommendations for an institution that seeks to incrementally move towards a competencies based approach while maintaining compatibility with the Indian educational ecosystem. Finally, we hope that this clarifies a number of potential misinterpretations of competencies based approach, and guides attempts to develop curricula based on it.