This is part II of a series of resources on student learning outcomes. View part I or part III (coming soon).
Who should be involved in crafting learning objectives?
It can be tempting for the department chair either to write the learning objectives herself or to delegate the writing of the learning objectives to those faculty who have demonstrated the greatest interest in teaching. However, in a best case scenario, as many faculty as possible who teach in the department should be involved in drafting, revising, selecting, and eliminating learning objectives. Each department should be sure to create learning objectives that all faculty are willing to support in their courses.
What constitutes a strong student learning objective?
A well crafted learning objective:
- is in line with the thinking your department’s faculty have already done about curriculum, course design, and learning objectives;
- focuses on skill development (e.g. critical thinking, verbal expression, experimental design) as well as content knowledge (e.g. theories, facts, bodies of literature);
- is discipline-specific, engaging with the questions, standards, concepts, and methodologies of the department’s field of study;
- reflects current understandings of how people learn and how they demonstrate that learning.
- is demonstrable and measurable in qualitative or quantitative ways.
I’m having trouble writing my learning objectives. Do you have any tips?
Sometimes it helps to think about what verbs you might use in your statement. Here are some possible action verbs you might consider as you consider your learning objectives:
Analyze, Apply, Appraise, Argue, Assess, Build, Classify, Compose, Compute, Construct, Create, Critique, Decide, Demonstrate, Design, Develop, Diagram, Discriminate, Distinguish, Dramatize, Evaluate, Examine, Explain, Illustrate, Integrate, Interpret, Invent, Judge, Justify, Make, Organize, Perform, Plan, Predict, Prepare, Produce, Propose, Prove, Research, Review
Choose verbs that give students a means of showing you their learning, either by speaking, writing, or demonstrating a skill.
Once you’ve written an objective, you immediately want to ask how students can demonstrate their mastery of this objective? What evidence can the department provide to accreditors that students are meeting these goals?
What are some examples of a good student learning objective?
What constitutes a “good” learning objective varies by discipline and by university. That said, Washington State University has a couple of excellent examples of how learning objectives can be derived from program goals in multiple disciplines. In this case, let’s consider the method of gleaning learning objectives as well as the granularity of them:
Natural Sciences Program Goal: Students who major in the natural sciences will become critical thinkers who are able to judge scientific arguments created by others and see relationships between science and societal problems.
Natural Sciences Learning Outcomes:
- Students can apply scientific methodology.
- Students can evaluate the validity and limitations of scientific theories and claims.
- Students can assess the relevance and application of science in everyday life.
This example demonstrates nicely the relationship between a department’s larger, holistic goals for its students and its specific objectives for them. These statements might be improved, however, by explaining how, where, or when students will demonstrate these objectives. For example, instead of “Students can apply scientific methodology,” a better learning objective might be
Students demonstrate a mastery of scientific methodology through designing, performing, and evaluating an experiment that tackles current issues in [the discipline].
If you would like to see examples specific to your discipline, enter the phrases “learning outcomes” and the name of your discipline into Google or your favorite search engine; you’re likely to find many, many examples.
Now, let’s consider assessment. On to part III of our series (coming soon). . .