Most people agree that digital competence matters. Far fewer can say what a learner can actually do, at which level, and how they know. DIGI-METER, an Erasmus+ Forward-Looking project in which Crow Group is one of eleven partners, works on exactly that question. This article explains the three tools at the heart of the work, indicators, rubrics and assessment items, and why they matter.
The gap the project works on
DigComp 2.2, published by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre in 2022, describes the digital competences that citizens need, with more than 250 examples of knowledge, skills and attitudes. In schools and vocational education and training (VET), its practical use is still fragmented. A framework describes competence; it does not by itself tell a teacher how to see it in a class.
DIGI-METER's partners will translate DigComp 2.2 into measurable indicators and practical assessment tools, develop AI-supported self-assessment tools that give learners clear, personalised feedback, provide a teacher dashboard and open resources, and test and validate the tools in different European contexts. The Center for Social Innovation (CSI) in Cyprus coordinates the project.
Crow Group contributes to the project's DigComp 2.2 indicators, rubrics and assessment items.
Indicators: what to look for
An indicator turns a broad competence into something you can observe. "Managing data, information and digital content" is a competence; an indicator says what a learner does when they have it, for example how they organise and retrieve files, or how they decide where information is stored.
Good indicators are concrete, observable and small enough to check. They are written as actions, not attitudes, and they belong to one competence at a time. Without them, two teachers can look at the same learner and reach different conclusions, because they are looking for different things.
Rubrics: what each level looks like
A rubric describes what a learner can do at each level of a competence. It answers the question "what does better look like?". Where an indicator names the behaviour, the rubric describes its quality at each step: with help or without, in familiar or new situations, simple or complex tasks.
Rubrics matter for two groups. Learners can see where they are and what the next step is, which makes feedback useful rather than a score. Teachers can make judgements that are consistent across classes and schools, and can explain them.
Assessment items: what makes a level visible
Assessment items are the questions and tasks that make a level visible. A multiple-choice question can check knowledge. A short scenario, in which the learner has to choose what to do with a suspicious message or a file they cannot open, shows what they do. A self-assessment statement asks learners to judge their own level against the rubric.
Items only work when they are tied to indicators and levels. An item that does not map to an indicator measures something, but nobody knows what. An item that maps to one makes the result explainable: this answer shows that level of that competence.
Why it matters
Indicators, rubrics and items together turn a framework into feedback. In DIGI-METER that feedback has several users, which the project names:
- learners, who get self-assessment results and feedback on their digital competence;
- educators, who get class-level dashboards that support lesson planning;
- institutions, such as schools and VET centres, which can follow digital competence levels over time;
- policymakers, who get aggregated data and policy briefs.
Because the self-assessment is AI-supported, the project follows an ethics-by-design approach, with attention to transparency, GDPR compliance, fairness, explainability and user control. The self-assessment platform is being designed for WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility.
The project website lists its planned outputs, including an indicator matrix and rubric set, a multilingual dashboard, a trainer toolkit and a validation and impact report. Unless stated otherwise, outputs are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0).
The same thinking in our own work
We start every learning design with the same question: what must a person be able to do, and how will we see it? Choosing the format comes after that. How we do this, and how our work maps to EU competence frameworks, is explained in how we design learning. For the newest version of the framework, read our article on DigComp 3.0 in Erasmus+ adult education.
The project facts, partners and links are on the DIGI-METER project page.
Sources
- DIGI-METER official project website: aims, target groups, ethics-by-design approach, WCAG 2.1 AA design target, planned outputs and licence.
- DIGI-METER partners and outputs.
- DigComp 2.2: The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (JRC, 2022).
Funding and disclaimer
Co-funded by the European Union
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
