Learning Outcomes

Table of Contents   Definition of Student Learning Outcomes Why the Learning Outcome Approach? What are the benefits? Student Learning Model Assesment and Accountability Technological Learning Outcome Model Evaluating E-Learning Video - E-Learning Production & Delivery Video - Academic Outcomes Through Service Learning Links

 

Definition of Student Learning Outcomes:

Student learning outcomes are defined in terms of the knowledge, skills, and abilities that students have attained as a result of their involvement in a particular set of educational experiences. They are the specific intentions of a programme or module, written in specific terms. They describe what a student should know, understand, or be able to do at the end of that programme or module.

 

Learning outcomes are operational statements describing specific student behaviors that evidence the acquisition of desired knowledge, skills, abilities, capacities, attitudes or dispositions. Learning outcomes can be usefully thought of as behavioral criteria for determining whether students are achieving the educational objectives of a program, and, ultimately, whether overall program goals are being successfully met. Outcomes are sometimes treated as synonymous with objectives, though objectives are usually more general statements of what students are expected to achieve in an academic program. - Cal Poly Pomona, San Luis Obisbo

 

Why the Learning Outcome Approach to Education?

The learning outcomes approach reflects a conceptual shift towards making learning more meaningful and effective. For a variety of understandable reasons many students approach education as “alienated intellectual labor,” rather than something that is good for them, learning that enhances their lives. Making education more meaningful for these students requires that they acquire a sense of the educational project as enabling them to lead a richer and more empowered life rather than a task done primarily to satisfy the demands of others. By explicitly building educational experiences based on what students should be able to do with their knowledge, the learning outcomes approach helps the educational community understand the point of the activity.

 

What are the Benefits of Learning Outcomes?

Designing your courses using learning outcomes leads to a more student-centred approach: it marks a shift from the content of a module or course (namely, what staff members teach) towards its outcome (in other words, what the student is able to do on successful completion of the course or module).

Learning outcomes can:

 

• Increase student awareness of and involvement in their own learning
• Help to guide students in their learning in that they explain what is expected of them, in turn helping them to succeed in their studies.
• An important first step toward clear communication of expectations to students
• Provide a useful guide to inform potential candidates and employers about the general knowledge and understanding that a graduate will possess. Help staff to focus on exactly what they want students to achieve in terms of both knowledge and skills.
• Set a context for course design and revision and creates an approach to curriculum assessment and change
• Establish a common language and framework for discussions about learning within departments

 

Good, clear learning outcomes will also be useful when compiling information for student Progress Files, which will soon be required of all universities.

 

How to Write a Learning Outcome

Learning outcomes have three distinguishing characteristics.

1. The specified action by the learners must be observable.

2. The specified action by the learners must be measurable.

3. The specified action must be done by the learners.

The ultimate test when writing a learning outcome is whether or not the action taken by the participants can be assessed. If not, the outcome probably does net meet all three of the characteristics.

1. who is to perform;

2. what action they are to take;

3. some result that must come from their action.(Kendall, 1994)

ASSESSMENT, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

Richard Frye

http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~dialogue/issue2.html

Sharpening the focus of higher education onto student learning outcomes goes beyond mere tinkering with traditional structures and methods; it really constitutes a paradigm shift in educational philosophy and practice. An increasingly accepted view among educational scholars is that traditional structures are dysfunctional and overdue for change (Miller, 1998). To remedy this, "students and their learning should become the focus of everything we do. . .from the instruction that we provide, to the intellectual climate that we create, to the policy decisions that we make" (Cross, 1998).

At this point, it is useful to make some distinctions between "student outcomes" and "student learning outcomes." Student outcomes generally refer to aggregate statistics on groups of students, like graduation rates, retention rates, transfer rates, and employment rates for an entering class or a graduating class. These "student outcomes" are actually institutional outcomes; they attempt to measure comparative institutional performance, not changes in students themselves due to their college experience. They have generally been associated with accountability reporting.

Unfortunately, student-outcomes statistics are often "output- only" measures (Astin, 1993). That is, they are computed without regard to incoming student differences and without regard to how different students experienced the college environment. As a result, they do not distinguish how much an observed measurement is the product of the institution and its programs on students, and how much is due to other factors, such as socioeconomic status, general intelligence, or which high school was attended, for example, and can therefore be misleading.

"Student learning outcomes," on the other hand, encompass a wide range of student attributes and abilities, both cognitive and affective, which are a measure of how their college experiences have supported their development as individuals. Cognitive outcomes include demonstrable acquisition of specific knowledge and skills, as in a major; what do students know that they didn't know before, and what can they do that they couldn't do before? Affective outcomes are also of considerable interest; how has their college experience impacted students' values, goals, attitudes, self-concepts, world views, and behaviors? How has it developed their many potentials? How has it enhanced their value to themselves, their families, and their communities?

**Web-based Distance Learning: ****Substitute or Alternative to the Traditional Classroom: ****Making the Delivery Method DecisionE-LEARNING PRODUCTION AND DELIVERYACADEMIC OUTCOMES THROUGH SERVICE-LEARNING**

http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/fall83/hunt83.htm">http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/fall83/hunt83.htm"> http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/fall83/hunt83.htm

EVALUATING E-LEARNING

There generally exists the notion among some instructional designers and indeed instructors, that assessment of learning outcomes strategies can be linearly transferred from one mode of instruction to another without risking instrument validity and reliability (Aoki & Pogroszewski, 1998, Ohler, & Warlick, (2001).

• How does eLearning, as it is currently used, enhance achievement of student learning outcomes?
• Does the curriculum provide sufficient opportunities for students to develop skills to understand and use eLearning effectively?
• What changes need to be made to current learning and teaching strategies to support student outcomes in an eLearning environment?
• Is there an existing measure by which current teachers, facilitators, and the school as a whole, have been seen to be innovative in applying eLearning?

Portfolios, however, present some challenges when it comes to assessment beyond the classroom, in such areas as the eLearning environment, for example. Because they require diverse compilations of materials, it is difficult to make any comparison across student populations, or to make well-supported interpretations about the effectiveness of online learning environments. Some critics (Barrett, 2003) say that besides the complexity in making informed interpretations about the students' development over time, it is even more difficult to achieve consistent results among different readers when evaluating portfolios. The mechanical design of a portfolio is generally difficult to make. Furthermore, it can be expensive and time-consuming to train readers and to conduct the assessment itself because of the volume of materials that must be sifted through. The portfolio assessment movement has attempted to address these difficulties by establishing some standard requirements for portfolios, either in terms of tasks and activities or products; however, the further educators push in this direction, the closer they come to replicating the worst features of standardized assessment.

Because portfolios represent a controlled accumulation of one's work over time, they may very well represent the best strategy to assess learning outcomes in an eLearning environment. Unlike objective assessment procedures, they are easier to control for plagiarism or cheating.

Links for Further Learning

Learning Outcomes Video - by BYU student - You will need to download Flashplayer 9 if you don't already have it. It is a rather large video, so I would suggest to pause it until it is completely loaded.

Free - Educational Database to track Learner Outcomes

References:

Allen, Mary; Noel, Richard, C.; Rienzi, Beth, M.; and McMillin, Daniel, J. (2002). Outcomes Assessment Handbook. California State University, Institute for Teaching and Learning, Long Beach, CA.

Kendall Phillips, Louis. The Continuing Education Guide: the CEU and Other Professional Development Criteria. /Hunt Publishing Co., 1994.

Frye, Richard Assessment, Accountability And Student Learning Outcomes. Retrieved May 14, 2008, from Western Washington University Web site: http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~dialogue/issue2.html

Green, David. UCE Birminghad Guide to Learning Outcomes. Retrieved May 5, 2008, from http:..www.ssdd.bcu.ac.uk/outcomes/

Structure of Observed Learning Outcome. (2008, March 10). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 22:36, May 7, 2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Structure_of_Observed_Learning_Outcome&oldid=197360103