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Learning Outcomes
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Introduction
Learning outcomes describe the
measurable skills, abilities, knowledge, or values that students
should be able to do or demonstrate as a result of a completing
a program of study, a course, or lesson.
Learning outcomes are
student-centered rather than teacher-centered, in that they
describe what the students will do, not what the instructor will
teach. Learning outcomes are not standalone statements. They
must all relate to each other and to the title of the unit and
avoid repetition.
Articulating learning outcomes for
students is part of good teaching. If you tell students what you
expected them to do, and give them practice in doing it, then
there is a good chance that they will be able to do it on a test
or major assignment. That is to say, they will have learned what
you wanted them to know. If you do not tell them what they will
be expected to do, then they are left guessing what you want. If
they guess wrong, they will resent you for being tricky,
obscure, or punishing.
Learning outcomes need to be
SMART:
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Specific – The learning outcome should be well defined
and clear. It states exactly what will be accomplished.
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Measurable – The learning outcome should provide a
benchmark or target so that the institution can determine
when the target has been reached, by how much it has been
exceeded or by how much it has fallen short.
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Agreed Upon – Important stakeholders must be in general
agreement with the institution’s mission, goals and learning
outcomes. Stakeholders may include university, school
administration, faculty, students, alumni, and/or community
members.
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Realistic – Learning outcomes should be reasonable given
the available resources. Learning outcomes should neither be
easy nor impossible to attain, but somewhere in between.
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Time-Framed – A learning
outcome should include a specific date by which it will be
completed. It is important to allow enough time to
successfully implement the steps needed to achieve the
objective, but not so much as to elicit procrastination.
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Examples:
“Each student will be able to use word processing, spreadsheets,
databases, and presentation graphics in preparing their final
research project and report. ” “Upon completion of the module on
educational objectives, students will be able to classify specific
educational objectives into the cognitive (knowing), psychomotor
(doing) and affective (feeling) learning domains. ”
Levels of
Learning Outcomes
There are three different levels
of learning outcomes - Degree program, Course, and Class module.
Their relationship is illustrated in the table below:
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Levels of
Learning Outcomes |
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Degree
Program |
Course |
Class
Module |
| Scope |
Broad |
Moderate |
Narrow |
| Time
needed |
One or more years |
Weeks or months |
Hours or days |
| Purpose
and use |
Design curriculum |
Design units of instruction |
Design lectures, daily
activities, experiences, and exercises |
The Office of Institutional
Assessment and Compliance provides a sample learning outcome
list by degree program
here.
Writing Course
Learning Outcomes
Bloom's Revised Taxonomy provides
the framework for writing course-level learning outcomes. Each
learning outcome is represented by a sentence that consists of
an action verb related to a cognitive process and a clearly
defined content related to a specific knowledge type.
Cognitive Process Dimension
Learning outcomes should consider
the different types of cognitive processes involved in knowledge
retention and transfer. The table below shows these
cognitive processes in increasing order of complexity along with
their corresponding learning outcome verbs:
|
Category |
Cognitive
Processes and Action Verbs |
Assessment Formats |
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Remember - retrieve relevant knowledge from long-term
memory |
Recognizing- comparing knowledge from long-term
memory with presented information.
Sample learning outcome verbs may include: identify,
recognize, select, label, arrange, order, repeat, copy,
duplicate, match, associate. |
True-false;
Multiple choice; Matching items from two lists |
Recalling
-
retrieving knowledge from long-term memory when presented
with a question.
Sample learning outcome verbs may include: recall,
locate, retrieve, list, name, reproduce, state, describe,
cite, recite, define, quote. |
Questions vary depending on the extent of providing hints
and being placed within a larger context |
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Understand - construct meaning from oral, written,
and graphic communication |
Interpreting
- moving from one form of representation to another.
Sample learning outcome verbs may include: represent,
interpret, clarify, paraphrase, reproduce, change, modify,
convert, transform, translate, restate, rewrite, quantify. |
Construct or selecting given information in a different form
(e.g. transforming a verbal representation of a system into
a use-case diagram) |
Exemplifying - finding a
specific example of a concept or principle.
Sample learning outcome verbs may include: give
example, illustrate. |
Asking the student to give a constructed or selected example |
Classifying
- placing something in category.
Sample learning outcome verbs may include: group,
categorize, classify. |
Asking a student to pair an instance with a concept,
principle, or category |
Summarizing - synthesizing
general points.
Sample learning outcome verbs may include: summarize,
generalize, synthesize, assemble, combine, compile, integrate,
consolidate. |
Asking a student to produce a theme or summary when
presented with an information |
Inferring
- drawing a logical conclusion from the presented
information.
Sample learning outcome verbs may include:
extrapolate, interpolate, predict, conclude, infer, deduce. |
Completion tasks - complete a
series; Analogy tasks - complete an analogy; Oddity tasks
- determining which of several items does not belong to a list
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Comparing
- detecting correspondences between two or more entities.
Sample learning outcome verbs may include: compare,
contrast, map, match, correlate. |
Mapping - showing correspondence
between respective parts of two entities |
Explaining - constructing a
cause-and-effect model of a system.
Sample learning outcome verbs may include: sequence,
explain, diagnose, troubleshoot, repair, redesign, predict,
prescribe. |
Reasoning - offering a reason for
a given event; Troubleshooting - diagnosing the problem in a
malfunctioning system; Redesigning - making changes in a system
to accomplish some goal; Predicting - determining what effect a
change in one part of a system will have on another part of a
system
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Apply
– carry out or use a procedure in a given situation |
Executing (carrying out a
procedure with a familiar task) - associated with the use of
skills and algorithms, applies procedural knowledge.
Sample learning outcome verbs may include: carry out,
calculate, compute, operate, process, execute, follow, perform,
use, utilize, practice. |
Applying a well-known procedure to a familiar problem |
Implementing
(using a procedure with an unfamiliar task) - associated
with the use of techniques and methods, applies conceptual
knowledge.
Sample learning outcome verbs may include: adapt,
implement, demonstrate, determine, conduct. |
Determining the procedure necessary for solving an
unfamiliar problem |
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Analyze
– break material into its constituent parts and determine
how the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure
or purpose |
Differentiating
- distinguishing relevant from irrelevant parts or
important from unimportant parts of presented material.
Sample learning outcome verbs may include: select,
discriminate, distinguish, differentiate, focus on, point out. |
Determining which parts in a given material are most
important or relevant. |
Organizing
- determining how elements fit within a structure.
Sample learning outcome verbs may include: analyze,
break down, organize, outline, sketch, draw, diagram, chart,
tabulate, parse, separate, subdivide. |
Providing an outline, table,
matrix, or hierarchical diagram |
Attributing- determining a
point of view, intent, purpose.
Sample learning outcome verbs may include: attribute,
ascribe, depict, describe, infer, deduce. |
Constructing
or selecting a description of the author's point of view or
intentions when presented with some written or oral material |
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Evaluate
– make judgments based on criteria and standards |
Checking
- detecting inconsistencies or fallacies within a process or
product (internal inconsistency).
Sample learning outcome verbs may include: detect,
monitor, coordinate, test. |
Detecting inconsistencies or logical flaws in presented
information |
Critiquing - detecting
inconsistencies between a product and external criteria
(external inconsistency).
Sample learning outcome verbs may include: grade,
score, judge, reason, appraise, assess, defend, estimate, argue,
rank, rate, support, review, critique, justify, recommend,
prove, disprove, refute, qualify, criticize, verify, evaluate,
discuss. |
Evaluating a proposed solution or hypothesis; judging which
of several methods provides a better solution to a problem |
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Create
– put elements together to form a structure or
reorganize elements into a new structure |
Generating - coming up with
alternative hypotheses based on criteria.
Sample learning outcome verbs may include: generate,
hypothesize, theorize, research, experiment, explore. |
Producing alternatives or
hypotheses - generating alternative methods for achieving a
particular result; Consequences tasks - listing all possible
consequences of a certain event; Uses tasks - listing all
possible uses for an object |
Planning - devising a
procedure for accomplishing some task.
Sample learning outcome verbs may include: design,
devise, solve, propose, formulate, plan, prepare, systematize,
improve, innovate, refine. |
Developing a solution method,
describing solution plans, or selecting solution plans for
a given problem. |
Producing - inventing a product.
Sample learning outcome verbs may include: write,
construct, produce, compose, invent, create, program, build. |
Developing a novel product that
satisfies a description |
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Knowledge Dimension
There are four general types of
knowledge: Factual, Conceptual, Procedural, and Metacognitive.
The table below explains these knowledge types along with their
specific subtypes by providing definition and examples for each
one.
| Type |
Subtype |
Examples |
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Factual Knowledge - discrete, isolated content elements |
Knowledge of
terminology |
Technical
vocabulary |
| Knowledge of
specific details and elements |
Ten biggest
cities in the world |
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Conceptual Knowledge - interrelationships among the
basic elements within a larger structure |
Knowledge of
classifications and categories |
Forms of
business ownership |
| Knowledge of
principles and generalizations |
Newton's laws
of motion |
| Knowledge of
theories, models, and structures |
The quantum
theory, the structure of Congress |
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Procedural Knowledge - knowledge of how to do something
and criteria for using skills, algorithms, techniques, and
methods |
Knowledge of
subject-specific skills and algorithms |
Skills used in
painting with watercolors, algorithm for finding the
greatest common divisor of two numbers |
| Knowledge of
subject-specific techniques and methods |
Scientific
method, using recursion as a problem-solving technique in
computer science |
| Knowledge of
criteria for determining when to use appropriate procedures |
Criteria used
to determine when to apply a procedure involving Newton's
second law of motion |
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Metacognitive Knowledge - knowledge about cognition in
general and awareness of one's own cognition |
Strategic
knowledge |
Knowledge of outlining in
order to capture the structure of the presented information,
knowledge of the use of heuristics |
| Knowledge
about cognitive tasks |
Knowledge of
the types of tests administered by instructors, knowledge of
the cognitive demands of different tasks |
| Self-knowledge |
Knowledge that
writing essays is a personal strength, awareness of one's
own level of knowledge and skills |
Additional
Resources
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Objectively Speaking. This article by Richard Felder and
Rebecca Brent demonstrates how learning outcomes or
instructional objectives can help both faculty and students
“negotiate” the learning process.
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The
Taxonomy Academy. This web page from The Anderson
Research Group provides PowerPoint presentations with an
overview of the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational
Objectives. |
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Writing Instructional Objectives. This article by Kathy
Waller provides practical directions for writing
instructional objectives or learning outcomes.
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Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. This
resource from UNC Charlotte illustrates Bloom's Taxonomy
of Educational Objectives for knowledge-based,
skill-based, and affective goals.
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Student Learning Outcomes. An Internet Hotlist on
Learning Outcomes from Mendocino College Library.
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Student Learning Outcomes. A mega-site on learning
outcomes from Cabrillo College.
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Adapted from A Taxonomy for
Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's
Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Lorin W. Anderson, David
R. Krathwohl et al. 2001 Addison Wesley Longman.
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