Learnability Index - a Composite Measure for Non-Cognitive Skills Relevant in Academics

In the realm of "Learner-centric" education, the focus shifts from the knowledge "provider" to "receiver". Accordingly, in the recent past a multitude of approaches have been explored to address the challenges associated in facilitating this shift. In this direction, pedagogical interventions are many, with one of the key focus being on the learner. Assessing the non-cognitive skills apart from the cognitive abilities, is imperative in realizing educational and career aspirations of the learner. Student's academic performance measured by Grade Point Average (GPA) is a good reflection of the cognitive skills, but a similar universal measure for non-cognitive skills is vet to emerge. In this paper, Authors propose a concept "Learnability Index" (LI), as a composite measure of non-cognitive skills that are relevant in academics; a term analogous to GPA. Authors designed a Likert scale-based measurement considering traits from multiple domains including personality, emotional, behavioral, attitudinal and social skills. Authors recorded the association of non-cognitive skills using LI and related the same to academic performance (GPA). It is observed that there is a positive relationship between LI and academic performance of the student. Also having better values of LI were found to he advantageous in securing campus placements.