Setting Course Goals and Objectives/Learning Outcomes

Where does my course fit within university, college, and degree program goals?   The new student emphasis asks us to think about our course goals in terms of what students will be equipped to know, think, and do after taking the course.  Different schools or fields may use different terms for the goals, objectives, or outcomes, the term we have generally used, for the student learning expected in a course.  ABET, the engineering accrediting group, for instance, defines outcomes as “what a student knows or can do by the time of graduation” and objectives as “what a student can accomplish during the first few years after graduation.”  In the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, syllabi list competencies, or professional skills, as well as learning outcomes, which are generally knowledge, values, and attitudes. 

Whatever the term used, the first step in formulating learning outcomes is to consider the course’s purpose within a general education or degree program curriculum or to meet professional standards.  Are there programmatic learning outcomes this course is responsible for fulfilling?  What are the disciplinary or professional expectations of competence? 

What are the most important things you want a student to gain from this course?  Some possible frameworks for deciding on course learning outcomes come from Bloom’s Taxonomy, a developmental system of hierarchically-ordered abilities,  Fink’s Taxonomy of significant learning, a system of integrated knowledge, application, caring, and self-direction; and Marzano’s New Taxonomy, organized around three domains of knowledge and six levels of processing.  Each of these offers precise language for considering exactly what it is we want students to be able to take away from our courses and translates a learning goal into the active language of outcomes.  Fink’s framework is available at: http://www.theideacenter.org/sites/default/files/Idea_Paper_42.pdf (5-p. version) and http://deefinkandassociates.com/GuidetoCourseDesignAug05.pdf  (35-p. version)

Learning outcomes need to be stated as behaviors and written with action verbs: At the end of this course, students will be able to do X.  Typically they are written as a subject (student) plus a verb phrase (cognitive skill or what student will be able to do) and an object of the phrase (type of knowledge that is the focus of the verb phrase).
 

Students will be able to	+	cognitive skill	+	type of knowledge sought
		e.g., know, comprehend, apply, analyze, synthesize, evaluate, create		e.g. declarative--facts, ,  methods, principles, concepts; procedural--process, skills; conditional--when, why, and under what conditions

Examples of learning outcomes:  Students will be able to:

• - critically analyze + the reception and adaptation of (an author, theorist’s) works over time.
• - examine social institutions and processes + in the context of historical periods and cultures.
• - make observations, collect, analyze, and interpret data + to test a hypothesis.
• - use (a concept, data) + to predict physical and chemical properties.
• - use (key theories) + to explain current events at the local, state, or national level.
• - evaluate the economic, political, and social context of a public action + in terms of its historical and contemporary settings.
• - design (a project, new product) + that uses renewable forms of energy or materials.
• work collaboratively with others + by participating in problem-solving and decision-making situations.