Boriss Mišņevs, Dr.Sc.Ing., Transport and Telecommunication Institute (Latvia)

01.09.2015 – 31.08.2017

The iSECRET project has been arisen as a combination and integration of a number of the Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP) projects’ achievements related to INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES, to OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER) and to RECOGNITION AND VALIDATION OF LEARNING OUTCOMES. In fact, a high level of synergies is expected due to the combination in one project of these three types of LLP activities.

More specifically, the project aims to foster interchange and cooperation between education and training systems within the European Union. The iSECRET project will reinforce and accelerate the process of innovation in Higher Education by enhancing the universities' capabilities by granting better access to the educational know-how as Open Educational Resource, setting an effective experimental framework for defining and measuring Education (Learning) Outcomes (LOs) for selected —by the project partners— Master Programs in Software Engineering & Software Technology (SE&ST) at European and Baltic level.

A Partnership consisting of 6 organizations from 6 countries implements the iSECRET project:
• TSI - Transport and Telecommunication Institute (Latvia) (LEAD PARTNER)
• WSG – University of Economy in Bydgoszcz (Poland)
• KTU – Kaunas Technological University (Lithuania)
• UM – University of Murcia (Spain)
• TEIEP – Technological Educational Institute of Epirus (Greece)
• UP – Plovdiv University (Bulgaria).

All project Partners run their own Master Programs in SE&ST and they have great experience in the implementation of European Community projects. Moreover, they have many international partnerships and most of them have strong ERASMUS mobility flow.

The European e-Competence Framework (e-CF) provides a reference of 40 competences as required and applied at the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) workplace, using a common language for competences, skills and proficiency levels that can be understood across Europe.
The main project idea is to map e-CF to Education Outcome (Learning Outcome - LO) for Software Engineering/Software Technology Master Programs; in other words to:
– Describe LOs in terms of e-competeneces for job positions;
– Develop and implement a methodic for the LOs remote evaluation.
The methodic and tests for remote LO evaluation will be implemented for selected —by the project partners— examples of SE/ST Master Programs’ courses by creating of a prototype for Open Education Resource (OER) – Portal for Master Programs LO evaluation.

1. Research on the European experience concerning the implementation of SE&ST Master Programs with a view to suggest common measurable Educational Output (competence) requirements (as a Template for Joint Master Program in SE&ST).
2. Development and presentation of the Methodology for the evaluation of competence in SE&ST.
3. Description of measurable competence characteristics of the Master of Science for SE&ST Program graduates.
4. Development of testing material for the Master Program Educational Outcome evaluation.
5. Creation of the Software Engineering Competence Evaluation Internet Portal (SECEIP).
6. Development of an on-line training course on “How to use SECEIP” for academic staff and master program graduates.

The SECEIP - Software Engineering Competence Evaluation Internet Portal (http://isecret.tsi.lv)

Developed in the framework of the project "iSECRET - Implementation of Software Engineering Competence Remote Evaluation for Master Program Graduates" financed by the ERASMUS+ Programme of the European Commission, the Software Engineering Competence Evaluation Internet Portal (SECEIP) constitutes a modern, multifunctional web portal addressed to the European educational community.

Following an authentication procedure, SECEIP allows its users (students, professors, assessors etc.) to access several functionalities designed and developed in order to permit the evaluation and certification of the competences obtained in the framework of the Software Engineering & Software Technology Master Program, aiming to the improvement of the existing curricula so as to meet the current needs and requirements of the labour market.

Towards this, SECEIP is the front end of several components, the most important of which is the Master Programs Competences’ evaluation system. This module is responsible for the realization of the remote evaluation process of academic and professional competences related to the selected study subjects that compose the suggested Syllabus Template for Joint Master Program on Software Engineering. The whole system is emerging by the decomposition and utilization of the European e-Competence Framework and an advanced suggested Rubrics system.

The main component of SECEIP is the Competence Evaluation Application, a web application that implements the evaluation of the software engineering study procedure and ensures the exchange of information and data among students and professors.

iSECRET specifically will benefit educators and students by providing them with a research-based online tool (Open Educational Resource) that will support virtual mobility and the open exchange of information on learning outcomes in terms of eJobs competence, referring to a graduate’s knowledge, skills and competence upon completion of the Master of Science in Software Engineering Program.
The general aim of the project is to boost innovation and digital skills in European universities in order to deliver the high quality education and digital skills which the 90% of the jobs will require by 2020.
To provide a common service for learning outcomes information exchange support, referring to a graduate’s knowledge, skills and competence upon completion of the Master of Science in Software Engineering Programs.