Writing Course-Level Student Learning Outcomes

Overview

Do you want to create a new course? Have you received feedback from students that your course is not clear or they are not sure why they need to take it? Have you been teaching a course for a long time and now would like to revisit it to be sure you are up to date? No matter the reason, when preparing a new course or revising an existing course, an important step is determining the course level student learning outcomes (SLOs). Course level SLOs will help you narrow down what you should be teaching in a course and provide a basis for developing course content and assessments. Before writing your course level SLOs, it's important to determine the purpose of the course; and while determining the purpose of a course is not in the scope of this module, more information about that process can be found here. Links to an external site. 

 

Why Outcomes?

A question you may be asking yourself is "Why should I include course level SLOs? As long as I know what I am teaching, why are these important?" That's a great question! And here's a video that will explain why outcomes are important to students, as well as others. (Video is edited from a joint TLC and SLAC event presented in the winter of 2021; Angela Rasmussen is speaking in this video.)

 

What Makes a Good Outcome?

Now that you know why SLOs are so important, let's take a look at the key features that all good outcomes should have in common. Watch this video for some great "nuts & bolts" ideas behind good outcomes. (Video is edited from a joint TLC and SLAC event presented in the winter of 2021; Andrea Reid is speaking in this video.)

 

ABCDs of Writing Outcomes

From the above video, you learned that SLOs are what the students should know and be able to do at the END of the course, but how should they be structured? An easy way to think about writing clear, assessable SLOs is using the ABCD method (Mager, 1997).  Watch the video for an overview of this method. (Video is edited from a joint TLC and SLAC event presented in the winter of 2021; Rachel Kendoll is speaking in this video.)

 

As described in the video, Bloom's Taxonomy can help determine the appropriate level for the outcomes for your course. Click on the image below for more information on Bloom's Taxonomy and the list of verbs mentioned in the video.

Blooms_Taxonomy_pyramid_cake-style-use-with-permission.jpg 

 

Examples

There were several examples of course level SLOs in the video but here a few more to help you determine a good outcome from a not-so-good one.

Original: Understand immigration policy.

How could this outcome be improved? This example uses the verb "understand" - this verb is very hard to assess! How will you know your students understand immigration policy? Is understanding policy the purpose of the course? Is there a better verb that could be used that better describes what the student should know or be able to do?

REVISED: Describe the history of American immigration policy.

This outcome has a better verb, describe does make the outcome a bit easier to assess. The outcome could still be improved by adding conditions and degree, but this revised outcome does do a better job at getting to the point of the course and what the student should know at the end.

 

Original: Describe and create a marketing plan for your organization.

How could this outcome be improved? A big issue with this one is that it uses 2 verbs. Is the purpose of the course really to describe a marketing plan, or is that more a unit lesson? At the end of the course, do you really want the students to both describe and create, or is just create what you are after as an end outcome? 

REVISED: Create a marketing plan for your organization.

By just dropping one of the verbs from the original statement, this makes more sense as an outcome for the end of a course.

 

Original: Become familiar with the elements of editing.

How could this outcome be better? Using the phrase "become familiar" isn't a clear verb and isn't very measurable. This outcome is also very broad and while course outcomes should be somewhat broad, this outcome seems too broad.

REVISED: Identify the elements of editing, including composition, setting, and lighting.

The revised version now gives a clearer idea of what the student should know or be able to do, making the outcome much more measurable and less broad.

 

Original: Explain the benefits of various exercise modalities for an elderly person.

How could this outcome be improved? Explain is a reasonable verb but just explaining benefits of exercise seems to be a low level skill and likely does not represent where you would like a student to be by the end of a course. As written, this outcome might be better as a daily activity or lesson outcome rather than an overarching course outcome.

REVISED: Determine the most appropriate exercise modality for health maintenance in the patient who is elderly.

With the revision, the outcome seems more in line with what would be expected at the end of the course. This is a little higher level outcome, requiring the student to do some analyzing to determine the best course of action.

 

Original: List types of abnormal pulmonary functions.

What about this outcome? How could it be improved? List is a perfectly reasonable verb and is easy to measure; however, is this really what is expected of the student at the end of the course? List is a very low Bloom's Taxonomy level, and with this outcome mentioning abnormal functions, this seems at odds with the low level verb. Again, is this a lesson activity or end of course outcome?

REVISED: Given the calculated results of tests compared with predicted normal values, determine the presence or absence of abnormal pulmonary function and classify it as to type and severity.

With this revision, we are seeing improvement not only in the verb used but in using more of the ABCD parameters. This outcome has a behavior (determine presence or absence), condition (given calculated results), and even degree (classify as to severity). Classify here isn't really a separate verb that needs measured or assessed, but the degree to which the student is determining the abnormal function.

 

Let's get to work!

Now that you've discovered why outcomes are important and the key features to good, assessable outcomes, you are ready to write! Here are some steps to get you started:

  1. Brainstorm all the things you would like your students to KNOW or be able TO DO at the END of your course. Brainstorm as many as possible.
  2. Now go through your brainstormed list and look for common themes - these may be able to be covered by a single outcome. 
  3. Look through the list again be sure that the outcomes are truly what you want the student to know or do at the END of the course. Some things you think are outcomes may actually be individual lessons leading to the outcome.
  4. Re-write the outcomes in the ABCD format using appropriate verbs.

There is no right answer as to how many course level SLOs your course should have; however, 5 to 10 outcomes seems reasonable. Too few might mean the scope of the course is too narrow while too many generally means you are writing unit or module outcomes, not the broad course level outcomes. 

 

Resources

Mager, R.F. (1997) Making Instruction Work: A Step-by-Step Guide to Designing and Developing Instruction That Works. Atlanta, GA: Center for Effective Performance, Inc.

Texas Tech University's "Writing and Assessing Course Level Student Learning Outcomes Handbook Links to an external site.

Shabatura, J. (2013). Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to Write Effective Learning Objectives. Links to an external site.Assessments and Measuring Student Learning, University of Arkansas.

Course Learning Outcomes Links to an external site.. Center for Advanced Teaching and Learning through Research, Northeastern University.