We are an open project to create a free, community-driven collection of test questions for measuring learner proficiency in every subject area across the entirety of human knowledge. The questions are all organized around a community-defined set of concepts, in order to enable a model of learning measurement that is continuous and context-agnostic.
Continuous means that measurements are taken before, during and after the learning experience. Continuous learning measurement favors small frequent measurement over large episodic measurement.
Context-agnostic means that the measurements produced must be relevant in any learning context--in or out of a classroom, instructor-led or self-directed. Context-agnostic metrics enable a lingua franca of learning measurement: a common language for measuring expertise in any subject, regardless of the type of learner or educational institution.
Our core team has been working for the last three years to develop a new model of measuring and organizing the learning process built around community consensus and de-centralization. This model is called Concept-Focused Learning Organization (CFLO).
Implementing CFLO begins by defining a specific knowledge area, referred to as a Knowledge Chromosome (ex: Computer Programming). The Chromosome is then split into any number of Subjects (ex: Object-Oriented Programming, Sorting Algorithms, Java Syntax, etc.). Each Subject is broken up into 10 to 20 Concepts and a naming convention is established to describe the Levels of Proficiency which a learner can demonstrate in the Subject. The Concepts and Proficiency Levels make up the framework of the measurement technique for a particular Subject. Each community member builds upon this framework by contributing questions and exercises which measure specific Concepts. For each question, the community debates what Level of Proficiency is demonstrated by a correct response. Taken in total, the Concepts, Proficiency Levels and questions are called a Question Pool.
A sufficiently large Question Pool can be used generate snapshots of learner Proficiency (knowledge level) on any Concept in the Subject. This is done by asking the learner one question from each Proficiency Level and using a form of weighted averaging. Taking successive snapshots lets educators track increases in the learner's Proficiency of each Concept throughout the learning experience. Because these Concepts were clearly defined by the community in the first part of the process, any measurements can be anonymized and shared between educators and organizations.
Taken altogether these techniques comprise a lingua franca of learning measurement: a common language for measuring expertise in any subject, regardless of the type of learner or educational institution. And upon achieving mastery of a particular Subject, each learner gains the ability to improve the questions and structure of the Question Pool itself. Thus the CFLO model represents a closed-loop cycle producing a constantly growing and evolving standard of measurement built and maintained fully by an open community of subject experts.
Our core team has been developing the Concept-Focused Learning Organization (CFLO) model over the last three years and is now working to open the process. Our goal is to increase the quality and volume of learning data being shared between different educators and organizations by putting CFLO in the hands of educators, entrepreneurs, businesses and governments.
We are preparing for a public launch in 2013. This site will serve as a community hub with a wiki-based workspace for each working group.
Initially we will focus on mapping a single Knowledlge Chromosome. As the community grows and learns we will add other Chromosomes to our focus, with the eventual goal being to open the platform to all knowledge areas.
Call for Computer Programming Experts:
The initial phase of the project will focus exclusively on developing the Computer Programming Chromosome.
We are currently seeking experts in any and all subject areas that fall under the umbrella of "Computer Programming". These experts will collaboratively map out the Subjects and Concepts that make up Computer Programming and will help seed the open community of the Knowledge Genome project. All work and content will be served under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike License. If interested, please email info@kgenome.org.
Call for Supporting Organizations:
We are currently seeking organizations interested in providing support to the Knowledge Genome Project, specifically organizations in and around the area of Computer Programming education. Support will take the form of any combination of the following:
- Providing Computer Programming experts to join our community of contributors
- Contributing existing pools of questions and exercises to the project to be shared under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license
- Using the questions generated by the project as part of a pre-existing educational workflow and sharing the resulting stories with our community
- Helping promote the goals of the project to the public
- Helping set the goals and future direction of the project
Interested organizations should email info@kgenome.org.
