LEARNING OBJECTIVES VS LEARNING OUTCOMES

Learning Objectives & Outcomes

Course objectives are clear and concise statements that describe what you intend your students to learn by the end of the course. The difference between course objectives and learning outcomes—and the reason these terms are so often conflated with each other—is the former describes an intended state (what you hope your students will learn), whereas the latter expresses a present or observed state (what your students actually learned).

Both course objectives and learning outcomes are distinct from learning goals, which are more broadly conceived. For an excellent overview of the distinctions between goals, objectives and outcomes. In 2012, DePaul’s faculty council and provost approved six university-wide learning goals and related outcomes. Even though you are not required to, you should explicitly state your course objectives and/or student learning outcomes in your syllabus.

By doing so, you can

more easily align objectives with course content and evaluation methods;

clearly communicate your expectations of students;

establish a logical sequence of learning milestones;

allow both you and your students to self-evaluate based on stated expectations;

provide an opportunity for students to make connections across courses and institutional goals.

The most useful learning outcomes are specific and measurable. According to Diamond (1998), they should contain the following three things:

1. A verb that describes an observable action
2. A description of the conditions under which the action take place: “when given x, you will be able to?”
3. The acceptable performance level

Diamond further proposes a very simple way to write good outcomes: take on the role of your student and ask yourself, “What do I have to do to convince you that I’m where you want me to be at the end of this lesson, unit or course?”

What is the difference between course objectives and learning outcomes?

Much confusion exists about the definition of goals, objectives, and learning outcomes. Part of the confusion results from the fact that the terms are often conflated, even in the literature. Our accrediting agencies now require and SF State policy now requires that faculty include learning outcomes on all course outlines and in their syllabi, so it’s important to understand the differences in these terms.

Goal

A goal is a broad definition of student competence. You may remember that we now have six baccalaureate goals. Examples of these goals include:

?Students will be competent in critical questioning and analysis.

?Students will have an appreciation of the necessity and difficulty of making ethnical choices.

?Students will know how to make connections among apparently disparate forms of knowledge.

  Objective

A course objective describes what a faculty member will cover in a course. They are generally less broad that goals and more broad than student learning outcomes.

Examples of objectives include:

?Students will gain an understanding of the historical origins of art history.

?Student will read and analyze seminal works in 20th Century Indian literature.

?Students will study the major Indian regulatory agencies.

Student Learning Outcome –A detailed description of what a student must be able to do at the conclusion of a course. When writing outcomes, it is helpful to use verbs that are measurable or that describe an observable action. Such verbs help faculty (and students) avoid misinterpretation. The best outcomes will include a description of the conditions (“when given x, you will be able to...”) and the acceptable performance level.

Words Open to Fewer Interpretations.

To know

To write

To understand

To recite

To really understand

To identify

To appreciate

To sort

To fully appreciate

Words Open to Many Interpretations

To solve

To grasp the significance of

To construct

To enjoy

To build

To believe

To compare

To have faith in

To contract

Learning Objectives vs.Learning Outcomes

Objectives

objectives are statements that define the expected goal of a curriculum, course, lesson or activity interms of demonstrable skills or knowledge that will be acquired by a student as a result of instruction.

Objectives describe the goals and intentions of the professor who teaches the course.

Objectives, often termed the input in the course, state the purpose and goals of the course.

Objectives focus on content and skills important within the classroom or program. Objectives may describe what the staff and faculty will do.

Objectives can often be numerous, specific, and detailed. Assessing and reporting on each objective for each student may be impossible.

Here is a list of specific, measurable verbs you can use when writing learning objectives for each level of the revised Bloom's Taxonomy:

1. Remember. Memorize, show, pick, spell, list, quote, recall, repeat, catalogue, cite, state, relate, record, name.
2. Understand. ...
3. Apply. ...
4. Analyze. ...
5. Evaluate. ...
6. Create.

Outcomes

Student Learning Outcomes catalog the overarching "products" of the course and are the evidence that the goals or objectives were achieved.

Learning Outcomes are statements that describe or list measurable and essential mastered content-knowledge—reflecting skills, competencies, and knowledge that students have achieved and can demonstrate upon successfully completing a course.

Outcomes express higher-level thinking skills that integrate course content and activities and can be observed as a behavior, skill, or discrete useable knowledge upon completing the course.

Outcomes are exactly what assessments are intended to show -- specifically what the student will be able to do upon completing the course.

An assesable outcome can be displayed or observed and evaluated against criteria.

Outcomes are clear and measurable criteria for guiding the teaching, learning, and assessment process in the course.

Samples Learning Objectives

Learning objectives

1.     Students will understand fundamental principles, generalizations, or theories

2.     Students will learn factual knowledge (terminology, classifications, methods, trends)

3.     Students will think about applications of course material (to improve thinking, problem solving, and decisions)

4.     Students will have an appreciation of related applications to real-life of the theories they learn

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes are statements that describe or list measurable and essential mastered content-knowledge—reflecting skills, competencies, and knowledge that students have achieved and can demonstrate upon successfully completing a course.

1.     Students will demonstrate knowledge about fundamental principles, generalizations, or theories and concepts in solid state physics

2.     Students will be able to use and explain the meaning for factual knowledge (terminology, classifications, methods, trends)

3.     Students will be able to apply the basic principles to scientific problem solving.

4.     Students will be able to apply course material  to improve thinking, problem solving, and decision making.

5.     Students will be able to give examples of real-life applications of the theories they learn.

Difference between Learning Outcome and Learning Objective

Key Difference: Learning Outcome refers to the expectations kept from the student at the end of the course. At the end of a course, many teachers take a test to determine what the student has learned from the course syllabus. Learning objective is described as what the student can expect from the teacher at the end of the course. It is actually the opposite of the outcome. In learning objective, the subject matter that will be covered during the duration of course can be called as learning objective.

• Learning outcomes are broad statements of what is achieved and assessed at the end of a course of study. The concept of learning outcomes and outcome-based education is high on today's education agenda. The idea has features in common with the move to instructional objectives which became fashionable in the 1960s, but which never had the impact on education practice that it merited. Five important differences between learning outcomes and instructional objectives can be recognized:

(1) Learning outcomes, if set out appropriately, are intuitive and user friendly. They can be used easily in curriculum planning, in teaching and learning and in assessment.

(2) Learning outcomes are broad statements and are usually designed round a framework of 8-12 higher order outcomes.

(3) The outcomes recognize the authentic interaction and integration in clinical practice of knowledge, skills and attitudes and the artificiality of separating these.

(4) Learning outcomes represent what is achieved and assessed at the end of a course of study and not only the aspirations or what is intended to be achieved.

(5) A design-down approach encourages ownership of the outcomes by teachers and students.

• Goals, aims, objectives and outcomes are terms that are often used in educational settings. These are used to determine what is to be taught by the teacher and what is expected of students at the end of the program. One of the major reasons to use such terms is to determine if the course is successful or if there are any changes that are required to the course to teach it in any other way or any other methods that can be used to help make the course more effective. Learning outcome and learning objective are two terms that are often confusing for many people as they believe they refer to the same things in learning. However, they are not. These are used to refer to different things in learning.
• Learning Outcome refers to the expectations kept from the student at the end of the course. At the end of a course, many teachers take a test to determine what the student has learned from the course syllabus. The outcome determines how effective the course was in teaching the student and how determined the student was to learn. It also helps uncover any glitches in the learning program that can help the teacher understand how effective their teaching method is. Learning outcomes are determined using tests and projects. Tests help understand how much the student understood, while projects help determine how well can the student apply the learning in real-life scenarios. Learning outcomes is basically the outcome of the syllabus. The outcome does not indicate the methodologies used by the professor to teach the subject matter or what activities are undertaken by the students to learn and understand the subject matter. It will only indicate at the end of the course, how much the student understood from the subject matter. The professor can also state the outcome expected at the beginning of the class.
• Learning objective is described as what the student can expect from the teacher at the end of the course. It is actually the opposite of the outcome. In learning objective, the subject matter that will be covered during the duration of course can be called as learning objective. It determines what the course will have provided to the student. It can be described as what is the ‘added value’ of the teaching. Learning objective determine what the student will be able to understand after the course is completed and what the teacher will have covered in the duration of the course. Learning objectives are specific, attainable, realistic and measureable. To many the terms are often used interchangeably, however the above paragraphs state the small difference that exists between the two. While, learning outcome is what the student can expect from the course, objective is what the teacher will have taught the student by the end of the course. Both of the terms are used together to gauge the effectiveness of a course and how the course was effective for the student. It helps determine what the student learned and what the teacher taught.

WRITING GOALS, EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES, & LEARNING OUTCOMES...

·        Goals are where you want to go.

·        Objectives are how you get there.

·        Outcomes are proof that you have arrived.

1.  states a target for a course or program
2.  states the general outcome of a course or program
3.  describes a more general learning outcome
4. may have several learning objectives

 

How to write goals:

Examples:

1. The goal of the program (course) is to help students acquire relevant art history knowledge, apply it and encourage them to keep working in the field.
2. The goal of the multimedia course (program) is to present alternatives to expensive software for application in the field of study.

Educational Objectives

Definition:

An educational objective states what the student will learn and be able to accomplish by the end of instruction. It describes a specific behavior which will lead to the desired goal. It is specific and measurable.  It has three major components:

1.  What the student will be able to do.

2.  Conditions needed for the student to accomplish the task.

1. Norm for evaluating the student performance.

How to write learning objective

• In order to ensure clear and measurable Learning Objectives, one must focus on:

1.     Performance:  Describe what is to be learned in with outcome of performance in mind.

2.     Norm: Describe clearly what outcome is expected and what level of accuracy is expected in order for the learning to be judged adequate.  

3.     Settings: Describe the specific circumstances under which the learner is supposed to perform and what tools are to be used

Learning Outcomes

Definition:

Learning outcomes are statements of what a student will be able to do as a result of a learning activity. They are specific, measurable, clear, and assessable statements that define what a student is able to do at the end of a course or completion of a program.  These outcomes may involve:

1.     Knowledge (cognitive).

2.     Skills (behavioral).

3.     Attitudes (affective behavior)

 All three above statements must show evidence that learning has occurred.

Student learning outcomes or SLOs are statements that specify what students will know, be able to do or be able to demonstrate when they have completed or participated in a program/activity/course/project. Outcomes are usually expressed as knowledge, skills, attitudes or values.

The characteristics of good SLOs.

SLOs specify an action by the student that must be observable, measurable and able to be demonstrated!

Assessing SLOs...

1.Will help departments understand how to better facilitate student learning.

2. Will provide departments with feedback (e.g. Are your services providing what they are supposed to beyond customer satisfaction? What skills are students learning ?

Are these the skills we want them to learn? Are these the skills we are teaching them?)

3. Will enable students to articulate what they are learning and have learned from attending the college inside and outside of the classroom.

4.Will help students be able to explain what they can do and what they know.

5. Will enable students to better understand where they can go to learn particular knowledge, skills, attitudes or values. Ultimately, will provide students with a map of where various learning opportunities are available

How to write learning outcomes:

When writing learning outcomes:

1.     Focus on what the student can do.

2.     Address the observable outcomes, not what was taught.

3.     Use active verbs since they are easier to measure (see attached list).

4.     Have clear defined expectations concerning the criteria related to the outcome.

a.     Including specific examples of i.e. images, software, tools etc…

b.     Think of the student after they have used or read an artifact, what they should be able to do as a result of using the tools presented for each specific activity.

 Example:

1.     Each goal may have several Objectives associated with it.

2.     Each objective will have one learning outcome associated with it.

 Goal 1: The Educational Technology course (program) will enable the students to make reliable and accurate assessments of the type of assistive technology needed for a variety of disabilities.

Objective 1: The student will be able to use an appropriate technology to address the needs of autistic children in the classroom.

Objective 2: The student will be able to adapt any assistive technology to address the problems of behavioral problems.

 Learning Outcome 1:  At the end of the course (program) the student will be able to create lesson plans using Inspiration to teach autistic students how to draw a picture independently.

• Learning Outcome 2: At the end of the program the student will be able to create an activity teaching autistic children how to behave in the classroom.

The different types of objectives/learning outcomes

With the general acceptance of learning outcomes as a key component of the systems approach to course and curriculum design, it has become fashionable to think in terms of broad types. Here, another American, Benjamin Bloom, has been extremely influential in clarifying and organizing educational thought regarding the classification of objectives, his original work being carried out during the 1950's. Bloom and his co-workers contended that objectives (which we now term "learning outcomes") are attainable in three distinct areas, or domains, to which they assigned suitably impressive jargon names: the cognitive domain, affective domain and psychomotor domain. At the risk of over-simplification, these can be thought of as being respectively concerned with knowledge-related objectives, attitude-related objectives and motor skills-related objectives. Let us now examine them in more detail.

The Cognitive Domain. This contains outcomes which are related to the acquisition and application of knowledge and understanding, and probably includes the great majority of educational and training learning outcomes. An example of such might be:

"The student should be able to calculate all the dimensions of a triangle given the lengths of two sides and the size of the angle between them".Bloom and his co-workers also divided the cognitive domain into six distinct levels, each level building on those below and representing a progressively higher level of cognitive activity.

The Affective Domain. This contains objectives that are concerned with attitudes and feelings which are brought about as a result of some educational or training process.

An example of such an objective might be:

"The trainee lecturer should exercise empathy when counselling student.The affective domain was also divided into a number of distinct, hierarchical levels, this work was carried out by Bloom and his co-worker Krathwohl.

The Psychomotor Domain. This contains learning outcomes that deal with the development of manipulative or physical skills - things like measuring, setting up and using equipment, using tools, drawing graphs, and so on. An example of such might be:

"The student should be able to assemble and use the distillation apparatus provided".

• A number of hierarchical classifications of the psychomotor domain were subsequently produced, probably the best known being the one by Kibler

Although the work of Bloom and his successors has had a tremendous influence on educational thinking, the above tripartite classification of objectives/learning outcomes has since been modified in a number of important respects. First, it has been recognised that most of the levels of the cognitive domain overlap to a considerable extent, and that the only real gap is that between Level 2 (Comprehension) and Level 3 (Application). For this reason, it is now customary to talk simply of lower cognitive levels (encompassing Levels 1 and 2 of Bloom's hierarchy) and higher-cognitive levels (encompassing Levels 3-6 of Bloom's hierarchy). Second, it has been recognised that Bloom and his co-workers completely ignored one of the most important of all groups of outcomes - those covering the various 'life skills' such as decision-making, problem-solving, creative thinking, communication and interpersonal skills. Some of these fall naturally into the class of 'higher-cognitive', while others can be thought of a constituting a completely new 'domain' - the interpersonal domain. Third, it has been recognised that many learning outcomes defy rigid classification of the type advocated by Bloom and his successors, since they have overlapping aspects that fall into more than one category.

For the above reasons, a much simpler, less rigid scheme for classifying learning outcomes has achieved widespread acceptance in recent years, and is commended to all teachers and lecturers. This incorporates all you really need to know about such classification, and should prove of immense value in helping you to choose appropriate instructional methods, plan your teaching, design supportive materials, and plan your student assessment. It recognises the following five broad types of learning outcomes:

Lower cognitive - comprising the first two levels (knowledge and comprehension) of Bloom's cognitive domain, and containing all learning outcomes related to the acquisition of knowledge and basic understanding.

Higher cognitive - comprising the top four levels (application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation) of Bloom's cognitive domain, and including all learning outcomes related to interpretation of information, decision making, problem solving and planning.

Affective - comprising all five levels of the affective domain, ie including all learning outcomes related to feelings, attitudes and values.

Psychomotor - comprising all four levels of the psychomotor domain, ie including all learning outcomes related to motor skills, manual dexterity, hand-eye coordination, practical abilities, and so on.

Interpersonal - covering all the various 'life skills' that were not catered for by Bloom's original tripartite classification, including all learning outcomes related to communication (written and oral), listening, working as part of a team, interacting with other people, and so on.

• THE IMPORTANCE OF ACTION VERB

Action verbs result in overt behavior that can be observed and measured. Sample action verbs are:

analyze, apply, argue, arrange, assemble, assess, calculate, categorize, choose, classify, compare, compile,compute, create, criticize, critique, defend, define, demonstrate, describe, design, develop, differentiate, discuss, distinguish, estimate, examine, explain, formulate, identify, illustrate, indicate, interpret, label, list, locate, manage, memorize, order, operate, organize, plan, practice, predict, prepare, propose, question, rate, recognize, repeat, report, reproduce, review, revise, schedule, select, solve, state, translate, use, utilize, write Certain verbs are unclear and call for covert, internal behavior which cannot be observed or measured.

These types of verbs should be avoided:

• appreciate, become aware of, become familiar with, know, learn, understand,

Examples

–TOO general and VERY HARD to measure...

1. ...will appreciate the benefits of exercise.

2. ...will be able to access resources at the school.

.3. ...will develop problem -solving skills and conflict resolution.

4. ...will be able to have more confidence in their abilities.

Examples

Still general and HARD to measure...

1. ...will value exercise as a stress reduction tool.

2. ...will be able to develop and apply effective problem solving skills that would enable one to adequately navigate through the proper resources within the school..

3. ...will demonstrate ability to resolve personal conflicts and assist others in resolving conflicts.

4. ...will demonstrate critical thinking skills, such as problem solving as it relates to social issues.

Examples

Specific and relatively EASY to measure...

1. ...will be able to explain how exerc

ise affects stress.

2. ...will be able to identify the most appropriate resource that is pertinent to their schoolconcern.

3. ...will be able to assist classmates in resolving conflicts by helping them negotiate agreements.

• 4. ...will demonstrate the ability to analyze and respond to arguments about racial discrimination.

Examples of good student learning outcomes:

Government.

When given a major decision made by a governmental leader, you will be able to identify the major factors that the leader had to consider and discuss why the action was taken and what apparent trade - offs were made.

Economics.

Demonstrate graphically and explain how a change in expectations will affect the loanable funds market.

Management.

Identify (based on readings, case studies, or personal experiences) those activities that are most likely to distinguish effective, well - managed technology development programs from ineffective programs.

Statistics.

When given two events, you will be able to determine whether they are independent or whether there is a relationship between them (that is, one event affects the probability of the other). On the basis of this determination, you will be able to select and use the appropriate rules of conditional probability to determine the probability that a certain event will occur.

Religion.

When given a definition of the term religion, students will be able to identify which of the following characteristics is emphasized: feeling, ritual activity, belief, monotheism, the solitary individual, social valuation, illusion, ultimate reality, and value.

Music.

On hearing musical selections, you will be able to identify those that are examples of chamber music and be able to identify the form, texture, and makeup of the ensemble.

Art.

When shown a print, students will be able to identify whether it is a woodcut, an etching, or a lithograph, and students will be able to list the characteristics on which this identification was based.

Psychology.

When given a case study, you will be able to identify whether it describes a case of schizophrenia, and if it does, which of the following schizophrenic reactions are involved: hybephrenic, catatonic, or par

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REFERENCES

• Learning outcomes resources from DePaul’s Office for Teaching, Learning and Assessment
• Includes a guide, checklist and list of helpful action verbs for describing learning
• TLA supports the Assessment Certificate Program—a unique collaboration between DePaul and Loyola universities— providing professional development opportunities for faculty and staff in the field of assessment
• A model of learning objectives – Excellent visualization incorporating action verbs from Bloom’s Taxonomy by Iowa State University’s Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching
• Sample learning objectives from multiple disciplines at Carnegie Mellon University
• Articulate your learning objectives, also from Carnegie Mellon, explains the importance of aligning learning objectives with instructional strategies and assessment techniqu