Chapter 4. Establishing Learning Outcomes

Step 2 in the assessment process is establishing a list of learning outcomes for students in the program. Once faculty articulate the mission of the program, they need to focus on specific learning outcomes for students in the major. How are learning outcomes different from program goals? The distinction is not always sharply defined, but generally the focus of learning outcomes is on what students will learn rather than on what will be taught. Thus, goals tend to focus on delivery (i.e. teaching), outcomes on effect (i.e. learning).

It might be helpful to consider the following questions as a guide for discussion:

1) What do we want students in our major to know?

2) What do we want our students to be able to do?

3) What values or attitudes (dispositions) do we want to instill in our students?

Multiple perspectives on learning are useful. In addition to faculty, students in the major, colleagues from the discipline, alumni, or professionals/practitioners in the field might also be involved in the discussion about learning outcomes. Most importantly, learning outcomes should not be developed only by the faculty member “responsible for” assessment. Instead, conversations about the program’s learning outcomes should engage, as broadly as possible, other people invested in the success of the program’s students.

A. Starting the Conversation

A common way to start the conversation about learning outcomes is to begin with a review of the mission statement for the program and, if applicable, accreditation standards. Faculty might also review examples of learning outcomes published through their professional organizations or by departments with similar programs at other schools. This process should help generate a comprehensive list of ideas and suggestions for learning outcomes that can then be refined and narrowed.

B. Focusing Outcomes

Program learning outcomes should number fewer than a dozen and ideally five to ten. Because assessment determines student achievement in each outcome, having too many outcomes almost assures that the assessment effort will be onerous. Learning outcomes should not consist of the sum total of all outcomes identified by all faculty members in the department; on the contrary, it should contain only the minimum list of outcomes that the faculty consider to be essential.

Once the department has generated a comprehensive list of outcomes, the most challenging task can be deciding which outcomes are essential at the program level. During discussions, it might be helpful to raise the following points:

• All of the outcomes should be measurable; while broad program goals can articulate both measurable and non-measurable expectations for students, outcomes must be expressed in terms of demonstrable characteristics.
• Similarly, outcomes should focus on what students in the major can demonstrate rather than on what faculty members teach.

Remember that the list of learning outcomes can always be reviewed and revised as the need arises or as new developments occur in the discipline.

Finally, it is important to share the learning outcomes with students in the program. This helps students become aware of the direction of their education and be more engaged in the learning and assessment process.

C. Course Mapping

In the process of developing a comprehensive list of learning outcomes, several BSC departments have used course mapping to obtain a sense of how current course offerings in the program cover different learning outcomes. In essence, a course map consists of a table with two axes, one pertaining to program learning outcomes, the other to courses in the major. The coverage of a learning outcome in each course is shown in the cells of the table (see Table 4.1).

Table 4.1. Sample Template for a Course Map

Program Learning Outcomes	Course 1	Course 2	Course 3	Course 4	Course 5	Course 6	Course 7
Outcome 1	X	X	X	X	X	X	X
Outcome 2		X		X	X
Outcome 3	X		X	X			X
Outcome 4

Course mapping can provide a view of how individual courses are related to the program learning outcomes and can show the curricular emphasis given to each outcome. For example, Outcome 1 in the above table appears in seven courses and is therefore given greater emphasis than Outcomes 2 and 3. A map can also identify redundancies or gaps in the program. The above example shows that no course currently takes ownership of Outcome 4.

Table 4.2 gives an example of course mapping from BSC’s Master of Social Work program.

Table 4.2. Part of the Course Map for the MSW Program at BSC

MSW Program Foundation Year Objectives	Foundation Year -- First Semester Courses
	SW500 Roots: Ideology, Ethics and Policy	SW502 Dynamics of Diversity/Oppression	SW510 Human Behavior in the Social Environment	SW530 Generalists Practice with Small Systems	SW590 Field Practicum I
Foundation Objective #1 Apply critical thinking skills within the context of professional social work	X	X	X		X
Foundation Objective #2 Understand the value base of the profession and its ethical standards and principles and act accordingly	X	X	X	X	X
Foundation Objective #3 Practice without discrimination, with affirmation, and with respect, knowledge and skills related to client's age, class, race...				X	X
Foundation Objective #4 Demonstrate an understanding of the forms and mechanisms of prejudice, oppression...	X	X	X	X	X
Foundation Objective #5 Understand and interpret the history of the social work profession...	X	X

Initially, a course map can help facilitate faculty discussion about the extent to which the program currently addresses the list of learning outcomes. A course map, however, can go even further by displaying the degree to which a course emphasizes a specific outcome. In some cases, it may even be useful to show the number of hours devoted to each outcome in each course. In the case of outcomes that are developmental, the level of achievement that is expected in each course can also be indicated as low, medium, or high or other such descriptors. This would show how student achievement is expected to develop during their progress through the curriculum.

Table 4.3 shows the intensity of each learning outcome for courses at different levels in the BSC Management curriculum. Each outcome is given a point value from 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest. Adding the points across the rows of this matrix produces a score for relative intensity at each level.

Table 4.3. Intensity of Learning Outcomes for Different Course Levels in the BSC Management Curriculum

Level	Skills	Problem solving	Critical thinking	Teamwork	Analysis	Relative Intensity
100	10	2	2	2	2	18
200	8	4	4	4	4	24
300	4	7	7	6	8	32
400	2	10	10	10	10	40

Tables 4.4 and 4.5 indicate the level of coverage of each of the learning outcomes in the BSC Political Science undergraduate and graduate programs, respectively.

Table 4.4. Part of the Course Map for the BSC Political Science Undergraduate Curriculum (note axes reversed)

Courses*	Civic Engagement	Comparative Politics	Intellectual Skills	International Politics	Political Methodology	Political Philosophy	US Politics
172	H	L	M	L	L	M	H
260	L	H	M	H	L	L	L
274	M	L	H	L	H	H	M
275	L	H	M	H	L	M	L
277	H	L	H	L	L	L	H
285	L	M	H	L	L	M	H
279	M	L	H	L	M	M	H
341	L	L	H	L	M	M	H
342	H	L	H	L	M	M	H
343	L	L	H	L	M	M	H
344	L	L	H	L	M	M	H
350	L	M	H	L	H	L	M
361	L	H	H	H	M	L	H
365	H	H	H	H	L	L	H
370	L	H	H	H	L	L	H
372	H	L	H	L	L	M	H
374	M	L	H	L	H	H	M

L = Low emphasis on objective
M = Moderate emphasis on objective
H = High emphasis on objective
* Courses required for major are in bold

Table 4.5. Learning Objectives and Their Coverage in the BSC Masters of Public Administration Curriculum

Courses*	Governance Structures	Theory to Practice	Quantiative/ Qualitative Methods	Policy Analysis/ Evaluation	Budgeting/ Finance	Human Resource Management	Organization Theory
501	H	H	L	M	M	M	H
510	L	M	H	M	L	L	L
511	L	M	H	H	M	M	L
521	M	M	M	M	H	L	L
531	H	M	L	M	L	H	M
532	M	H	L	L	L	L	H
541	H	M	H	L	H	L	H
542	H	M	H	L	L	M	M
591	L	H	M	M	L	M	H

L = Low emphasis on objective
M = Moderate emphasis on objective
H = High emphasis on objective

As the following examples show, learning outcomes for each program are specific to each discipline: they embody and reflect the unique values, modes of thinking and expression, and skills of each discipline.

BSC Communication Studies Program
BSC Dance Program
BSC Undergraduate English Program
BSC Undergraduate Political Science Program
BSC Physics Program
BSC Theatre Program

On to Chapter 5. Assessment Tools

Last Modified: June 5, 2008