10.6: Write Learning Outcomes
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Learning outcomes or objectives are specific measurable skills and are more specific than instructional goals. For example, if a goal is to be able to speak conversational English, a learning outcome could be to conjugate the verb “to be”. Learning outcomes communicate to learners, instructors, and other interested people, what the learners should be able to do, compared to their current skill level. Success occurs when learners achieve the planned outcomes. Learning outcomes help learners organize their studying, avoid becoming lost, make appropriate decisions such as whether to study a section or not, and maintain their motivation. If you inform your learners of the learning outcomes, they will, on average, attain slightly but significantly higher results. Even though some learners do not read learning outcomes, include them for those who do want and need them.
It is critical for you to define specific learning outcomes since they form the basis of the subsequent instructional development process. Accurate, well-written learning outcomes can save development time and money by helping to keep the process on track. Without specific learning outcomes, it is easy to start branching off on interesting tangents, which could make it impossible to finish a project within the constraints given. Whenever you have doubt about whether some material should be included, you can refer to the stated learning outcomes.
Many projects have failed because of poorly written or non-existent learning outcomes. Check all learning outcomes for flaws. If a learning outcome is not specific and measurable, do not proceed with further design and development. Even when you define the learning outcomes, there is no guarantee that you will successfully teach them. In order to ensure that learning takes place, you still need to follow the subsequent instructional design steps.
Note
Well-written learning outcomes help keep the subsequent instructional development process on track.
There are five steps to writing learning outcomes. For each step, think about why each example is good or poor.
Good: calculate, compute
Poor: understand, know.
Good: Calculate averages and compute variances.
Poor: Calculate statistical information and compute values needed in economics.
Good: Given a calculator, calculate the average of a list of numbers. Given a spreadsheet package, compute variances from a list of numbers.
Poor: Given an available tool, calculate the average of a list of numbers.
Good: Given a calculator, calculate averages from a list of numbers correctly 100 percent of the time. Given a spreadsheet package, compute variances from a list of numbers rounded to the second decimal point.
Poor: Given a calculator, calculate averages from a list of numbers correctly most of the time.
Perhaps the worst example of a learning outcome ever written is:
The learner will understand and appreciate the learning outcomes of the course.
Bloom et al. (1956) classified learning outcomes into six taxonomies:
This has been an invaluable resource that has helped numerous educators design instructional materials to the appropriate skill and thinking levels needed. Relatively recently, Anderson & Krathwohl (2001) revised Bloom’s taxonomy into these hierarchical categories:
Your subsequent instructional strategies, questions, other interactions, and tests should relate to the appropriate skill and thinking levels, which directly correspond to the stated learning outcomes. Remember that each of these six categories can contain verbal information, intellectual skills, and attitudes.
Remembering skills entails recalling information as it was presented.
Sample verbs: State, describe, label, list, name
Example: List the different types of media that online courses can include.
Understanding skills can include restating knowledge learned earlier in one’s own terms, translating ideas and concepts, and recognizing inferences and assumptions. Understanding skills can be tested by repeating questions and problems in a different form.
Sample verbs: Convert, estimate, explain, summarize, locate
Example: Explain why online courses should not necessarily include all types of media.
When applying skills, learners apply knowledge to new situations. Learners must decide how to solve the problem. For application skills, you can use fictional situations, material learners have not seen, or modify old problems.
Sample verbs: Relate, compute, change, apply, use
Example: Using Bloom’s taxonomy, write complete learning outcomes at the appropriate level.
Analysis breaks down existing knowledge into meaningful parts. Analysis can require learners to detect relationships and draw conclusions. You can use experiments or supply data to test analysis skills.
Sample verbs: Break down, differentiate, determine, relate, analyze
Example: Given a properly written learning outcome, identify the learning outcome’s conditions, skill, and criteria.
Evaluation entails using personal values to judge knowledge. Evaluations are hard to grade objectively.
Sample verbs: Appraise, compare, conclude, criticize, assess, evaluate
Example: Evaluate the effectiveness of an online course.
To create is to produce something new, or to modify a thing that already exists. Creating can also take the form of a speech, proposal, project, or theory.
Sample verbs: Summarize, revise, compose, construct, create, synthesize
Example: Create an online course that includes all of the instructional events.