Learning Outcomes

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Explain the meaning of learning outcomes
  
• State the reasons why learning outcomes are valuable in designing e-lessons
  
• Critique the learning outcomes provided in the course on ICT applications
  
• Recommend improvements on the learning outcomes from one of the courses on ICT policy and regulation
  

eLecture: Why are Learning Outcomes Valuable in Designing eLearning Lessons?

Learning outcomes help instructors tell students what is expected of them often focusing on two questions:

What do you want learners to know by the time they finish a module, a course or a diploma program?

What do you want learners to be able to do with what they know by the time they finish a module, a course or or a diploma program?

NetTel@Africa had adapted this definition of learning outcomes based on Jenkins and Unwin: learning outcomes are statements of what is expected that a learner will be able to DO as a result of a learning task or activity. The emphasis is on what the learners will be able to DO. Battersby and the Learning Outcomes Network suggest that "learning outcomes are best viewed in the context of an approach to thinking about teaching and learning rather than a formula or a change in course outline terminology".

Thus, learning outcomes share with competency approaches the emphasis on the application of knowledge; however, learning outcomes express the integrated abilities of a learner whereas competency approaches look at discrete skills;
learning outcomes and course objectives both state the goals of courses; however, learning outcomes express the essential learning to be achieved by a learner whereas course objectives state the purpose of the course in terms of what the instructor aims to do; learning outcomes should drive the learning tasks, activities and assessments.

Clarity in writing learning outcomes helps instructors to:

• select the appropriate eLearning tasks and activities; and
  
• select appropriate assessment strategies.
  

Clear learning outcomes help learners to:

• expect what to gain from a particular course, module or learning task or activity;
  
• get excited or motivated about learning; and
  
• assess their own progress

Learning outcomes make it easier for learners to "know what they know" and to "know what they are able to do with what they know" giving them a language to communicate what they know to others.

In the case of NetTel@Africa, learning outcomes can help the various partner institutions develop a common language that learners, students, faculty, staff and participatung experts to share. This common language can facilitate communication and build bridges among various tutors, facilitators, coordinators, and advising services for students and learners that may not be geographically co-located.

Fine-tuning Learning Outcomes

Guidance on writing learning outcomes emphasize the use of doing verbs. For example, the University of Washington has added outcome illustrating verbs to Bloom's taxonomy of educational objectives. Jenkins and Unwin suggest a a list of verbs to specify different outcomes. These two lists have been combined into the list below.

Examples of Learning Outcomes

• TR501
• TR502
• TR503
• TR505
• TR506

Categories in the Cognitive Domain: (with Outcome-Illustrating Verbs)

Knowledge of terminology; specific facts; ways and means of dealing with specifics (conventions, trends and sequences, classifications and categories, criteria, methodology); universals and abstractions in a field (principles and generalizations, theories and structures): Knowledge is (here) defined as the remembering (recalling) of appropriate, previously learned information.

Outcome illustrating verbs

arrange; define; describe; duplicate; enumerate; identify; label; list; match; memorize; name; order; read; recall; recognize; record; repeat; reproduce; select; state; view

Comprehension: Grasping (understanding) the meaning of informational materials.

Outcome illustrating verbs

classify; cite; convert; describe; discuss; estimate; explain; express; generalize; give examples; identify; indicate; locate; make sense out of; paraphrase; recognize; report; restate (in own words); review; select; summarize; trace; translate; understand.

Application: The use of previously learned information in new and concrete situations to solve problems that have single or best answers.

Outcome illustrating verbs

act; administer; apply; articulate; assess; chart; choose; collect; compute; construct; contribute; control; demonstrate; determine; develop; discover; dramatise; employ; establish; extend; illustrate; implement; include; inform; instruct; interpret; operate; operationalize; participate; practice; predict; prepare; preserve; produce; projects; provide; relate; report; schedule; show; sketch; solve; teach; transfer; use; utilize; write.

Analysis: The breaking down of informational materials into their component parts, examining (and trying to understand the organizational structure of) such information to develop divergent conclusions by identifying motives or causes, making inferences, and/or finding evidence to support generalizations.

Outcome illustrating verbs

analyse; appraise; break down; calculate; categorise; compare; contrast; correlate; criticise; diagram; differentiate; discriminate; distinguish; examine; experiment; focus; illustrate; infer; limit; outline; point out; prioritize; question; recognize; separate; subdivide; test.

Synthesis: Creatively or divergently applying prior knowledge and skills to produce a new or original whole.

Outcome illustrating verbs

adapt; anticipate; arrange; assemble; categorize; collaborate; collect; combine; communicate; compare; compile; compose; construct; contrast; create; design; devise; express; facilitate; formulate; generate; incorporate; individualize; initiate; integrate; intervene; manage; model; modify; negotiate; organise; plan; prepare; progress; propose; rearrange; reconstruct; reinforce; reorganize; revise; structure; substitute; validate; write.

Evaluation: Judging the value of material based on personal values/opinions, resulting in an end product, with a given purpose, without real right or wrong answers.

Outcome illustrating verbs

appraise; argue; assess; attach; choose; compare & contrast; conclude; criticize; critique; decide; defend; estimate; evaluate; interpret; judge; justify; predict; rate; reframe; score; select; support.

Learning Tasks

Read

1. Major Categories in the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives with outcome illustrating verbs
   <http://faculty.washington.edu/krumme/guides/bloom.html>
   
2. Writing learning outcomes
   <http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/education/curricula/giscc/units/format/outcomes.html>
   
3. Nine Principles of good practice
   http://www.aahe.org/assessment/principl.htm
   
4. Student learning outcomes: a Faculty resource on Development and Assessment
   http://depts.washington.edu/grading/slo/SLO-Home.htm
   
5. Student Outcome Assessment: Opportunities and Strategies
   http://www.calpress.com/outcome.html
   
6. UW-Madison Assessment Manual
   http://www.wisc.edu/provost/assess/manual/manual1.html#approa

Discuss

1. Meet with other learners who are enrolled in this course for an hour.
   
2. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of learning outcomes from the perspective of a learner in the ICT Policy and Regulation diploma program.
   
3. Report back on the outcomes of your face to face discussion by posting it on the discussion forum.
   
4. Comment on 1-2 of the postings from the other learners.
   

Create

1. Add more slides to your powerpoint presentation (which you have started after completing Lesson 1) to articulate the concept of learning outcomes; assess the relevance of the learning outcomes on the course on ICT applications to your work requirements.
   

Learning Assessment

1) Assess yourself by sharing your views with a peer on the following:

• Explain the meaning of learning outcomes
  
• State the reasons why learning outcomes are valuable in designing e-lessons
  
• Critique the learning outcomes provided in the course on ICT applications
  
• Recommend improvements on the learning outcomes from one of the courses on ICT Policy and Regulation

2) Points towards final grade

• Participation in the discussion forum = 1 point
  
• Quality of participation in the discussion forum = 2 points
  
• Powerpoint slides = 1 point