Aligning Outcomes with Your Courses

Overview

Once you have developed learning outcomes for your courses, the next step is making sure that your class materials, assignments, feedback, and structure is well aligned with those outcomes. This is an essential element of authentic assessment: ensuring that outcomes are central to course design, not simply listed on syllabi. 

Alignment refers to the interdependence of the three major course elements: 1) what students are expected to learn and the skills that they are expected to develop by the end of the course, 2) the measures and assessments of student learning, and 3) the activities and instructional materials that support learning. When everything is well aligned, then students are clear on what they need to do and learn, and all the materials and measures move them toward those goals. Missing even one of those three elements results in an uneven experience. 

 

Grading Philosophy

As a starting point, it is useful to reflect on your own personal views about grading. The following short video provides some questions for you to consider the “why” of grading: what is the purpose of grades? what should or should not be graded? and, what is your responsibility in grading and what is the student responsibility?

Grading discussions usually center around “how” and “what” (for example, what’s the grading breakdown? how many points should the assignment be worth?) and not “why” (what really matters in the course grade? what is the best balance between process and product?). Sometimes, faculty simply inherit grading practices from their colleagues without careful review or examination. When we reflect on these questions, it helps us work on alignment. 

 

Alignment Principles

When working on alignment, there are a couple of key ideas to keep in mind. The following video outlines these concepts and provides reflection questions for you to consider as you think through your own course alignment. SLAC (Student Learning and Assessment Committee) Co-Coordinators Rachel Kendoll and Andrea Reid presented at a TLC event winter quarter, 2021.