7 Things about Learning Outcomes
Introduction
1. Why Learning Outcomes?
2. Levels of Learning Outcomes
3. Format of the Learning Outcome Statement
4. The SUBJECT of the Learning Outcome Statement
5. The VERB of the Learning Outcome Statement
6. The OBJECT of the Learning Outcome Statement
7. The Taxonomy Table and Assessment
Additional Resources
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:
- Specific - The learning outcome should be well defined and clear. It states exactly what will be accomplished.
- 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.
- 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.
- Realistic - Learning outcomes should be reasonable given the available resources. Learning outcomes should neither be easy nor impossible to attain, but somewhere in between.
- 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.
1. Why Learning Outcomes?
Learning outcomes help faculty to:
Learning outcomes help students by:
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Learning Outcomes are Needed
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2. Levels of Learning Outcomes
There are three different levels of learning outcomes - Degree program, Course, and Class module. Table 1 below compares the scope, time dimension, and use of these three levels of learning outcomes:
Degree Program |
Course |
Class Module |
|
Scope |
Broad |
Moderate |
Narrow |
Time Needed |
One or more years |
Weeks or months |
Hours or days |
Use |
Design curriculum |
Design units of instruction |
Design lectures, daily activities, experiences, and exercises |
Table 1. Relationship of Degree Program, Course, and Class Module Learning Outcomes.
The Office of Institutional Assessment and Compliance provides a sample learning outcome list by degree program here.
3. Format of the Learning Outcome Statement
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.
All learning outcomes have a common format:
Subject |
Verb |
Object |
S |
V |
O |
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”.
4. The SUBJECT of the Learning Outcome Statement
The SUBJECT of the learning outcome statement is the student or the learner.
- The student will...
- Students will...
- The student should...
- Students should...
5. The VERB of the Learning Outcome Statement
Each verb in a learning outcome statement represents a cognitive process.
Learning outcomes should consider the different types of cognitive processes involved in knowledge retention and transfer. Table 2 below shows action verbs in increasing order of complexity that are directly related to cognitive processes. Please note that verbs such as list, state, and write cannot be used as verbs in learning outcome statements because they do not have anything to do with cognitive processes.
Category |
Action Verbs & Cognitive Processes |
Assessment Formats |
Remember - retrieve relevant knowledge from long-term memory |
Recognizing - comparing knowledge from long-term memory with presented information. |
True-false; Multiple choice; Matching items from two lists |
Recalling - retrieving knowledge from long-term memory when presented with a question. |
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. |
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. |
Asking the student to give a constructed or selected example |
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Classifying - placing something in category. |
Asking a student to pair an instance with a concept, principle, or category |
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Summarizing - synthesizing general points. |
Asking a student to produce a theme or summary when presented with an information |
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Inferring - drawing a logical conclusion from the presented information. |
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. |
Mapping - showing correspondence between respective parts of two entities |
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Explaining - constructing a cause-and-effect model of a system. |
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. |
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. |
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. |
Determining which parts in a given material are most important or relevant |
Organizing - determining how elements fit within a structure. |
Providing an outline, table, matrix, or hierarchical diagram |
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Attributing - determining a point of view, intent, purpose. |
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). |
Detecting inconsistencies or logical flaws in presented information |
Critiquing - detecting inconsistencies between a product and external criteria (external inconsistency). |
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. |
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. |
Developing a solution method, describing solution plans, or selecting solution plans for a given problem. |
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Producing - inventing a product. |
Developing a novel product that satisfies a description
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Table 2.The Cognitive Process Dimension
6. The OBJECT of the Learning Outcome Statement.
The object of the learning outcome statement is derived most often from the course content.
The course content can be linked to four general types of knowledge: Factual, Conceptual, Procedural, and Metacognitive. Table 3 below explains these types of knowledge along with their specific subtypes and provides examples for each one.
Type |
Subtype |
Example |
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 |
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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 |
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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
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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 |
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Self-knowledge |
Knowledge that writing essays is a personal strength, awareness of one's own level of knowledge and skills |
Table 3. The Knowledge Dimension.
7. The Taxonomy Table and Assessment
The two-dimensional Taxonomy Table is a graphic representation of the learning outcome statement.
Educators can use the Taxonomy Table in at least three ways:
- To gain a more complete understanding of their intended learning outcomes.
- To make better decisions about how to teach and assess their students in terms of their intended learning outcomes.
- To determine how well the intended learning outcomes, assessments, and instructional activities fit together in a meaningful and useful way.
Table 4 represents the Taxonomy Table. The intersection of a learning outcome verb (cognitive process) and a knowledge type (broad classification for course content) represents a cell in this table. Specific learning outcome statements corresponding to each cell of the table are shown below.
The Cognitive Process Dimension |
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The Knowledge Dimension |
1. |
2. |
3. |
4. |
5. |
6. |
A. |
1A | 2A | 3A | 4A | 5A | 6A |
B. |
1B | 2B | 3B | 4B | 5B | 6B |
C. |
1C | 2C | 3C | 4C | 5C | 6C |
D. |
1D | 2D | 3D | 4D | 5D | 6D |
Table 4. The Taxonomy Table.
Additional Resources
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Seminar: Student-Centered Learning Outcomes
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