Learning Outcomes
Tutorial for Assessing Outcomes | FAQs about Outcomes Assessment | Instructional Committees
Learning Outcomes Purpose & Definitions
PURPOSE
The purpose of learning outcomes assessment is to ensure that students are equitably achieving learning goals. Outcomes assessment helps faculty to identify specific improvements that need to be made to curriculum and pedagogy. Learning outcomes assessment is also one of the tools faculty and administration use to make informed decisions that meet the needs of our students, disciplines, and community.
DEFINITIONS and TERMS
Learning Outcomes. Learning Outcomes are measurable (assessable) statements about what is essential that students know or be able to do at the end of a course or program. They are student-centered statements that focus on the essential evidence of knowledge, performance, products, or skills that students will develop as a result of learning rather than on instructional techniques or course content. Learning outcomes articulate what students should be able to know and/or do by the time they exit a program or course.
DEFINITIONS
Types of Learning Outcomes
1. General Education Learning Outcomes (GELOs):
General Education Learning Outcomes (GELOs) are the common skills, knowledge, and abilities required in all associate degree programs at Skagit Valley College (SVC). SVC has a responsibility to the communities that it serves to guide our students toward becoming engaged, knowledgeable, and skilled community members and to prepare them for educational and professional success. We have developed our GELOs to support purposeful student learning with these goals in mind. We use these GELOs to guide our teaching practices, curriculum design, and program review process to build more equitable approaches to student access, student achievement, student learning, and student satisfaction. However, we recognize that these outcomes cannot be reduced solely to the measures that we use to evaluate them or contained to the classrooms where they are taught. Learning happens both inside and outside of classrooms and beyond campus, in places like our libraries, student services, campus events, and local communities. SVC is accountable to students and the larger communities that we serve to support the achievement of these GELOs and the professional skills, curiosity, and sense of purpose that they cultivate.
2. Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs)
Program learning outcomes (PLOs) are the measurable knowledge, skills, and abilities that students can expect to develop by the end of a program. They inform the content, design, and delivery of all courses within a program. Competency in program learning outcomes is essential to students’ success in their future academic and/or career endeavors.
3. Course-Specific Learning Outcomes (CSLOs)
Course-specific learning outcomes (CSLOs) are the measurable knowledge, skills, and abilities that students can expect to develop by the end of a course. They inform the content, design, and delivery of a course. If a general education outcome or program outcome is mapped to a course, that outcome is considered one of the course outcomes.
4. Degree or Certificate Learning Outcomes (DLOs)
Together, program learning outcomes, general education learning outcomes, and course-specific outcomes make up each degree or certificate’s learning outcomes (DLOs = GELOs + PLOs + CSLOs).
TERMS
Indicators. These provide descriptions of each performance level to enable more reliable and unbiased scoring. Indicators should:
- be consistently assessed
- be representative of student performance
- be supported by evidence
- have continuity between levels
- speak directly to the outcome
Levels of Performance delineate students’ work along a continuum of standards mastery
Program. An educational “program” is defined as a systematic, contextualized, (often) sequential grouping of courses that make up a considerable portion of a specific degree’s requirements.
Rubric. A guide to evaluate the quality of students' responses to assignments. Rubrics typically feature criteria for evaluation, define the quality expected of each criteria at various levels of achievement, and a scoring strategy. Rubrics can be used by instructors to grade assignments and to evaluate learning outcomes. They can also be used by students to plan their work.