Welcome to the Computing Professional Skills Assessment (CPSA)

The purpose of this website is to share the resources and empirical evidence that have come out of the development and implementation of the CPSA. As CPSA use expands, this website will hopefully serve as an interactive resource for other researchers implementing the CPSA.

The CPSA has been designed for use with students in fields such as computing, information technology, computer engineering, and computer science. It is a performance based assessment task in which small groups of students participate in an online asynchronous discussion activity. At conclusion of the discussion, faculty raters use the CPSA rubric to evaluate the transcripts from each of the group’s discussion and assign scores at the group, not individual, level because the goal is to assess achievement at the program level.

The professional skills being assessed through the discussion are learning outcomes also known as transferable, 21st century, soft, or non-technical skills, that relate to communication, teamwork, problem-solving, critical thinking, and the ability to consider ethical and social implications. These are skills deemed crucial by employers and serve as foundational elements to the development of a knowledge-based economy.

The major components of the CPSA are the:
1. CPSA Scenarios
2. CPSA Rubric

These and other helpful CPSA components are available for download and use on this website.