Welcome to this video on learning outcomes.
In this video, we will define learning outcomes, look at some good versus bad ones, and identify
some of their parts.
First, a bit of a disclaimer: there is no consensus in higher education about the use
and definitions of the terms "learning outcomes" and "learning objectives."
The Gwenna Moss Centre uses the term learning outcomes to describe what students should
know, be able to do, or demonstrate at the end of a course.
That is the term used in this video.
When writing a learning outcome, start with the question "what should students be able
to know or do when they finish the course and continue to know and do when the class
is over?"
When writing learning outcomes, remember that you have to observe, assess, and measure what
you are asking your students to learn.
The outcomes have to be relevant to the students.
You should phrase them as "the student should be able to..." or "the student should be expected
to..." because the students have to do their part.
When writing an outcome, be clear about what the students will need to learn and how you
expect them to demonstrate this.
Effective learning outcomes are what's called SMART.
They should be specific.
They should be measureable, so you want to consider how it is you will assess that learning.
The student should be able to accomplish the task given the expected prior knowledge and
experience and what they learn in this class.
The outcomes should be relevant to the course and the students.
The students should be able to accomplish this learning and demonstrate it in the way
laid out in the outcome and the time-frame available.
Ineffective learning outcomes are intangible and poorly defined.
They are usually overly broad and quite difficult to assess.
They frequently do not clearly define what it means to actually master the material that
has been covered.
They are frequently too long and contain jargon that students might not understand.
Let's look at these learning outcomes.
Are they good or bad?
In the first one, how specific is this?
How will you measure that?
And in the second one, what does "exposed" mean here?
Could it just be that they will see a list of the software or will they actually get
a chance to use it?
Outcomes really have three parts: the audience, the behavior, and the criteria.
First when writing your outcome, think of the audience.
Who is this outcome aimed at?
They should be student-centered rather than instructor-centered.
Let's look at this outcome.
What's wrong with this?
Well, this is instructor-centered.
It is about what the instructor is going to do as opposed to what the students will be
doing.
The behavior part of an outcome is what do you expect them to be able to do as a result
of the learning?
When writing the outcome, you should use action verbs to describe what observable behavior
students will need to do that you will be assessing.
So let's look at this outcome.
What is wrong here?
How will we assess this?
What does "appreciation" mean?
And finally, the criteria for a learning outcome.
This states what the standard is for mastery.
Does a student need to get 50% right?
75%? 90%?
Also, think about what constitutes a minimum acceptable performance.
So is 50% enough, or does it have to be 100%?
How will you assess this?
For example, will students need to do it without error, 9 out of 10 times, or within 60 seconds?
Let's look at this learning outcome: "given two hula hoops, the student will be able to
successfully demonstrate using them."
In this outcome, what does "successfully" mean?
This is a list of the materials referred to in this video.
Thank you for taking the time to watch this.