WiWiKom II (2015-2019)

Valid Assessment of Students’ Development of Professional Business and Economic Competencies over the Course of their Studies - A Quasi-experimental Longitudinal Study.

Motivation and Goals

The Projekt WiWiKom II (2015 – 2019) expands the cross-sectional design of WiWiKom I by a quasi-experimental longitudinal study with 4 measuring dates (over four years) over the course of studies, in order to achieve a in-depth validation and to expand the insights about students‘ competency increase by individual change measurement. The central goals are:

  1. Assessment of the development of students’ professional business and economics competencies in relation to learning opportunities attended during and prior to university studies (as an influencing variable).
  2. Differentiation between professional business and economics competencies (assessed using the WiWiKom test) from general cognitive abilities (such as intelligence, assessed using the BEFKI test).
  3. Gather evidence on the ability of the test to predict study success (completion of a Bachelor degree course) or successful transition into a Master degree course or into professional practice.
  4. Assessment of how sensitive to changes the WiWiKom test is by comparing the progression of competency of students from the target group and the control group (business and economics and social sciences).

Project Schedule

  1. Survey plan (for all 4 measuring dates).
  2. Preparation and conduct of the surveys (all 4 measuring dates).
  3. Entry, preparation and analysis of data.
  4. Results feedback for students and higher education institutions.
  5. Longitudinal analyses.
  6. Comparisons with international project partners.
  7. Transfer Workshop (see Newsboard: December 2018)

Instruments

WiWiKom test

The short version of the WiWiKom test contains 25 items and covers key areas of basic economics knowledge, macro- and microeconomics.

Berlin test (BEFKI)

In order to distinguish between domain-specific competencies and general cognitive ability, the short form of the Berlin test of fluid and crystallized intelligence (BEFKI; s. Schipolowski et al. in prep.) has been included.

Sample

T1 winter term 2016/17: N=5021 at 32 higher education institutions, n=3630 students of business and economics at 27 higher education institutions, n=1391 students of social sciences at 20 higher education institutions
T2 winter term 2017/18: N=2223 at 27 higher education institutions, n=828 have participated in both measurement points, n=1867 students of business and economics at 22 higher education institutions, n=356 students of social sciences at 11 higher education institutions
T3
winter term 2018/19: N=1224 at 14 higher education institutions, N=92 from 12 higher education institutions via online platform
T4 in preparation

 

 

For more information please check our publication list or contact our research assistants.