Brought, Sought, and Taught

Abstract

Skillification is a powerful concept that can drive better outcomes for students, employers, and institutions of higher education (IHEs). Successful use, however, requires IHEs to adopt a systems thinking mindset more than developing a singular taxonomy or exquisite model. Creating a system of skill-driven applications assumes that universities have rich input language that can be translated to skills without extraordinary investment or effort and can do that translation many times over using different algorithms created by different providers as their application needs warrants. Two tests conducted at Northeastern University offer guidance on how to approach this new design: by affirming the feasibility of using syllabi as input for automated skill extraction and identifying data evaluation activity that drives better decisions about third-party partnerships and skill-driven application use.