Improving Existing Outcomes

Writ­ing learn­ing out­comes is a process and isn’t just about choos­ing the right verb. A learn­ing out­come helps explain the demon­stra­ble actions of stu­dents to pro­vide evi­dence they have learned. In some cas­es, this can include more abstract actions (e.g., reflect on) and in these cas­es, think­ing about how you will sup­port stu­dents in demon­strat­ing that ‘reflec­tion’ will help you write that spe­cif­ic learn­ing out­come.

As a start­ing point, the fol­low­ing verbs or phras­es do not always pro­vide an activ­i­ty that stu­dents can demon­strate when con­sid­er­ing cog­ni­tive, psy­cho motor and affec­tive activ­i­ties:

  • under­stand
  • know
  • cov­er
  • appre­ci­ate
  • learn
  • com­pre­hend

 

  • study
  • be aware of
  • be famil­iar with
  • real­ize
  • gain knowl­edge of
  • become acquaint­ed with

 

If it’s not clear how you would mea­sure the learn­ing out­come, rewrite it so it’s clear­er what you are expect­ing stu­dents to learn, do etc.

Below are some sim­ple exam­ples of exist­ing learn­ing out­comes improved.

 

Vague / Hard to Mea­sure                                                                                         Bet­ter
Under­stand osmo­sis > > > Accu­rate­ly explain the process of osmo­sis
Study trigonom­e­try > > > Apply trigonom­e­try to solve mea­sure­ment prob­lems
Be aware of why the Russ­ian Rev­o­lu­tion hap­pened > > > Crit­i­cal­ly ana­lyze the events that direct­ly led to the Russ­ian Rev­o­lu­tion

 

To show you how to move from an incom­plete to a bet­ter to a good learn­ing out­come, see the exam­ples below

Example 1

Incomplete

Stu­dents will be able to write a lab report

( while a stu­dent knows they have to write a lab report, they have no idea of how they will know if they’ve suc­ceed­ed as there are no cri­te­ri­on )

Better

Stu­dents will be able to write a lab report fol­low­ing the institution’s lab report for­mat.

(added cri­te­ri­on – fol­low­ing the spe­cif­ic for­mat of insti­tu­tion)

Good

At the end of the lab por­tion of this course, stu­dents should be able to write a lab report fol­low­ing the institution’s report for­mat.

(added the con­di­tion under which the behav­iour will be occur­ring – ‘at the end of the lab por­tion of course’)

Example 2

Incomplete

Stu­dents will use tech­nol­o­gy effec­tive­ly.

(this is vague — what tech­nol­o­gy? what will they do with the tech­nol­o­gy and what does ‘effec­tive­ly’ look like? )

Better

Stu­dents will use word pro­cess­ing, spread­sheets and pre­sen­ta­tion graph­ics to pro­fes­sion­al­ly pre­pare their final busi­ness report and project.

(Stu­dents know ‘which tech­nol­o­gy’ they’ll learn in the course)

Good

By the end of this busi­ness course, stu­dents will be able to effec­tive­ly use word pro­cess­ing, spread­sheets and pre­sen­ta­tion graph­ics to pro­fes­sion­al­ly pre­pare their final busi­ness report and project.

(with the added con­di­tion under which the behav­iour is occur­ring – through prepa­ra­tion of final busi­ness report and project — stu­dents know exact­ly what they will learn)

Example 3

Incomplete

Stu­dents will learn about cur­rent issues in crim­i­nol­o­gy.

(this is vague — what are cur­rent issues? what will they do with their knowl­edge of cur­rent issues and how does this knowl­edge relate to every­thing else they learn in the course?)

Better

Stu­dents will iden­ti­fy cur­rent issues in the jus­tice sys­tem relat­ing to women who are incar­cer­at­ed.

(stu­dents know specif­i­cal­ly the issue they are need­ing to demon­strate)

Good

By the end of this course, stu­dents will be able to iden­ti­fy the most press­ing issues cur­rent­ly fac­ing incar­cer­at­ed women in Cana­da, and crit­i­cal­ly eval­u­ate pos­si­ble mea­sures to mit­i­gate the neg­a­tive impacts of these issues.

(this new ver­sion is much more spe­cif­ic — stu­dents know exact­ly what they will learn — and includes both low­er lev­el (iden­ti­fy) and high­er order lev­els (crit­i­cal­ly eval­u­ate) of think­ing in an inte­grat­ed process)

Example 4

Incomplete

Stu­dents will learn about edit­ing.

(this is vague — what kind of edit­ing? How will you mea­sure what stu­dents have learned?)

Better

Stu­dents will be able to iden­ti­fy the key char­ac­ter­is­tics of devel­op­men­tal, eval­u­a­tion, con­tent, line and copy edit­ing.

(stu­dents know which kind of edit­ing they’re learn about but not which kind of writ­ing they will be edit­ing)

Good

By the end of this course, stu­dents will be able to iden­ti­fy the key char­ac­ter­is­tics of devel­op­men­tal, eval­u­a­tion, con­tent, line and copy edit­ing in the con­text of edit­ing adult fic­tion writ­ing.

(stu­dents know exact­ly what kind of edit­ing they will know how to iden­ti­fy as it applies to a spe­cif­ic kind of writ­ing)

Example 5

Incomplete

Stu­dents will know how to con­duct research.

(this is vague — what kind of research? Will stu­dents do research or only read about it?)

Better

Stu­dents will be able to iden­ti­fy the key char­ac­ter­is­tics of qual­i­ta­tive  research.

(stu­dents know they’ll be look­ing at qual­i­ta­tive research but not why or what they’ll be doing with that knowl­edge)

Good

Through the analy­sis of pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary sources, stu­dents will be able to crit­i­cal­ly eval­u­ate the pros and cons of qual­i­ta­tive research in iden­ti­fy­ing the socio-eco­nom­ic deter­mi­nants of health.

(stu­dents know exact­ly what skill they will learn (crit­i­cal eval­u­a­tion), and how they will apply it and under what con­di­tions)
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