The core concepts of any Spire program are:
Competencies
Competencies are the highest level categories that encompass one or more professional skills that students can develop. Examples include Creativity, Critical Thinking, Leadership, and Empathy.
Dimensions
Programs have the option of breaking competencies down into more fine-grained subcategories, called dimensions. Example dimensions for a competency like Creativity might be:
- Production of Novel Ideas
- Production of Useful Ideas
- Applying Divergent and Convergent Thinking Processes
- Innovation
If a program does use dimensions, those are the areas in which students will progress. Their progress for the overarching competency is calculated/represented cumulatively.
For the remainder of this article, the term "competency" will be used to represent "competency or dimension".
Levels
In order for students to advance in a competency, it must comprise 2 or more levels. There is no limit to the number of levels a program can have; but the two most common choices are 3 or 5. Different competencies can also have different numbers of levels, or different level names entirely, but we recommend following a consistent scheme across all of them so that students know what to expect.
Example level schemes include:
- Exploring
- Engaging
- Explaining
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- Novice
- Beginner
- Intermediate
- Advanced
- Professional
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Opportunities
In order for students to grow in a competency, they must engage in meaningful experiences, which we call "opportunities". These can be curricular, co-curricular, or extra-curricular (e.g., an assignment in a class, an entire class itself, a student organization, a professional development workshop, study abroad, an internship, etc).
Reflections
After students complete an opportunity, Spire asks them to reflect on it. In doing so, students record what they did and indicate how deeply they engaged with any relevant competencies.
Level-Up Requests
Level-up requests are the mechanism by which students advance from one level to the next. They can get submitted manually by the student or automatically based on rules set up by the program. Manual level-up requests require students to submit a short written summary about why they feel they are ready to advance and attach any relevant artifacts/opportunities that support their request. Program admins and staff then review the request to decide whether or not to approve it. Automatic level-ups happen when a student receives a particular grade on an assignment or in an overall course in Canvas, and are instantly approved--no review process necessary.