An Overview
Learning outcomes are explicit statements of what students should know or be able to do by the end of a course or program. As such, they are the connecting points between those courses and programs and the broader societal expectations of higher education (e.g., that our courses and programs teach workforce skills or prepare graduates for another -- perhaps more advanced -- academic program).
This resource document is designed to support faculty and administrators in the work of identifying appropriate course and program learning outcomes, mapping outcomes to the curriculum, assessing student mastery of learning outcomes, and taking meaningful steps toward improving student learning.
We will refer to the elements of learning outcomes assessment mentioned above as "the learning outcomes conversation," and we will begin by noting what this conversation entails, and what it does not.
The learning outcomes conversation is:
- An opportunity to explore in a rigorous and collaborative way the interconnections between our subjects, the relationship between pedagogy and knowledge, and the role of assessment, reflection, and instructional innovation in enhancing teaching and learning;
- An intrinsic part of teaching and an essential component of the continuous improvement process.
The learning outcomes conversation is not:
- An administrative contrivance, a "check-the-box" type of project, or a threat to traditional academic values.
To get a better sense of the professional depth and scope of this work, we invite you to explore the work of the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA).
An Important Resource: The National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA)
Here are some examples of the reports and papers that NILOA provides to support college efforts to deepen the learning outcomes conversation:
Learning Outcome Essentials
Part I: Identifying and Stating Learning Outcomes
Learning outcomes should be:
- Student centered, meaning that they state what students will know or be able to do;
- Stated in observable and actionable language, so mastery can be demonstrated;
- Specific, to reduce vagueness and ambiguity;
- Include the appropriate range of cognitive levels for your course, so that students progress from foundational skills (e.g., memorizing or summarizing) to higher-order skills (e.g., analyzing and evaluating);
- Aligned to course assignments and activities.
Publisher materials may include learning outcomes for the topics considered, but these may not square with your pedagogy or the structure of your course, or they may be too granular. Consider the relevance, generality, and consistency of these outcomes with other aspects of your course before adopting them.
Similarly, accrediting agencies may dictate what learning outcomes your programs and courses must meet, but these may not capture everything we want our students to know and be able to do, especially where higher-order skills are concerned. We can certainly add to the list of outcomes required by accreditors.
At the course level, learning outcomes should capture our instructional goals related to skills and content mastery. And, as part of a program of study, a subset of these outcomes should align with program learning outcomes, so it is clear what our course contributes to the broader set of learning goals for a program.
This does not mean that program learning outcomes should be the same as course learning outcomes, but that course-level goals contribute to student progress toward the program learning outcomes. For example, a philosophy course may have as one of its course outcomes "Students will be able to explain the Socratic Method and apply it in a particular case." As the Socratic Method entails analysis and evaluation of meaning, this course-level outcome contributes to the AA Program Learning Outcome called "Critical Thinking: Demonstrate the ability to interpret meaning and draw conclusions using evidence as support."
These alignments matter, as they represent the logical connections between courses and programs -- logic that should inform discussions about course-level content and pedagogy, as well as program-level expectations for student learning. If these alignments are off, then teaching will be less effective and student learning may be compromised.
Mapping Learning Outcomes to Courses and Assessments
We've mentioned one form of mapping above, namely, stating the connection between course learning outcomes and program learning outcomes. This type of mapping reveals how course goals feed up into program-level outcomes that reflect what students should know and be able to do at the end of a program of study.
This type of mapping should be explicit and detailed, which can be accomplished by comparing the rubrics for both types of outcomes and identifying the conceptual links between them.
It is important to note that mapping courses to program learning outcomes in this way does not dictate how the outcomes will be assessed; the mapping reveals conceptual relationships between courses and program learning outcomes, i.e., where key skills and ideas are introduced or reinforced; the decision about how to assess those outcomes is separate, though it is informed by the conceptual relationships revealed in the mapping. In other words, showing how courses introduce or support program-level outcomes does not require that those outcomes are assessed in each of connecting courses.
Here is an example of how one might display the link between a course learning outcome and a program learning outcome:
If we know what assignments are being used to assess this course learning outcome, we might specify it in the mapping:
Of course, we may not have the detailed information about course learning outcomes to complete a table like the one above, in which case the mapping might be more general:
However we choose to display this information (mapping), the key is to make sure that the conceptual links between courses and programs is revealed -- at whatever level of generality is consistent with our current knowledge. With a new program learning outcome, it is natural to have gaps between the outcome and course-level goals and assessments; the mapping process allows us to investigate further and fill those gaps in over time.
Selecting appropriate assessments, based on conceptual level of the learning outcome:
There are different levels of thinking and skill reflected in learning outcomes. For example, memorizing key terms requires less cognitive capacity than analyzing a theory or idea; creating new knowledge outstrips summarizing someone else's work. A widely used framework for articulating the different levels of thinking is Bloom's Taxonomy (updated):
Our assessments should be consistent with the level of knowledge specified in our learning outcome. Here's a table that will help you match your assessment to your outcome:
Utilizing assessment data to inform what we do:
Our assessments provide information about student learning, and, in particular, about students' level of mastery of learning outcomes (keep in mind that not all course assessments have to be connected to a course-level outcome; there are other skills we promote in class that are not reflected in the overarching goals of a course). Whether we are looking at assessment results for an assignment that supports a learning outcome or not, we should be interpreting that information with an eye to refining and improving instruction.
To get the most out of the learning outcomes conversation, it is important that our assessment data is specific and actionable. Just knowing what passing rates are on a licensure exam, for example, typically doesn't tell us where student knowledge is strong and where they have more to learn. Making sure we use assessments that give us the information we need to imagine and implement meaningful instructional changes is crucial.
For more information about learning outcomes assessment, please reach out to IRSC's Learning Assessment Workgroup or the Institute for Academic Excellence: (772) 462-7532.
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