Learning Outcomes that Lead to Student Success 

What are learning outcomes and why do you need them?

There’s a famous misquote from Lewis Carroll, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.” The same is true in our courses: if you don’t know what you want your students to learn, it doesn’t really matter how or what you teach them. Every instructor wants to ensure student success, but if we as instructors don’t have accurate and well-thought-out learning outcomes, what does success mean in our classes? Creating learning outcomes should be a collaborative process where instructors responsible for teaching a course come together to craft these statements based on the most important learning in a course, taking care to maintain a balance between critical thinking and base knowledge while keeping an eye toward what makes a learning outcome an achievable learning goal.

Learning outcome creation

Before you create course learning outcomes

  • If your course is part of a program, you should ensure that the learning outcomes mesh with the rest of the program to meet all program learning outcomes.
  • Plan collaboratively with colleagues teaching the same course. All learning outcomes for sections taught of the same course should have the same learning outcomes according to the HLC (Higher Learning Commission) criteria 3a.
  • With colleagues, determine and list the most important learning or skills that will take place in this course.
  • Whittle down the list if it is too large. Consider what you and your colleagues can reasonably accomplish during the semester.
  • Pay attention to the conversation around Generative AI. What your students need to know and do may change because of the rapid development of AI.

Considerations as you create your learning outcomes

  1. Keep assessment and, therefore, your verb choices in the forefront of your mind. As you write learning outcomes, you want to ensure that the learning outcomes contain actions that can be demonstrated. When you ask students to “understand” something, this is difficult to demonstrate. If they “explain” it instead, that is an action that can be done and measured in various ways.
  2. Keep Bloom’s Taxonomy next to you as you create. It makes sense to use a taxonomy when writing outcomes. In Bloom’s model, skills and verbs on the bottom of the pyramid are less complex or intellectually demanding than those at the top of the pyramid; keep in mind they may still be totally appropriate, especially for lower-level courses. More critical thinking skills are required for those skills at the top of the pyramid, but it is useful and acceptable to use verbs and abilities from all levels of the pyramid. If you are teaching an upper-level course, you don’t want to draw all your verbs and skills from Bloom’s Taxonomy’s knowledge level. You should be using some higher levels in Bloom’s system.  The chart below can be a guide as you create those learning outcomes and note that generative AI developments may make the original chart problematic in different ways. There are alternatives to Blooms, as well.

    Alternatives to Blooms Taxonomy levels and verbs.
    Newtonsneurosci, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, v Wikimedia Commons
  3. Use SMART Goals also. In addition to including Bloom’s Taxonomy as part of your learning outcomes, we encourage you to make sure that your learning outcomes are created using the SMART goals model.   SMART goals were developed in 1981 by George Duran, who noticed that most business goals were not created in a way that could be implemented effectively.

SMART is an acronym we can use to describe the attributes of effective learning outcomes for your students. Please note that you will find different versions of the acronyms in the SMART goal model, but these are the ones CATL uses to discuss learning outcomes:

    • Specific – target a specific area, skill, or knowledge
    • Measurable – progress is quantifiable
    • Attainable – able to be achieved or realistic
    • Relevant – applicable to the students in the class
    • Time-based – achieved in a specific timeframe, such as a semester

Example: By the end of the semester (T), students will be able to diagram (M) the process of photosynthesis (S, A) in this biology class (R).

Learning outcomes are more likely to be meaningful if they can meet all of the qualifiers in the SMART acronym. Think specifics as you create your learning outcome. If you can’t tell if your learning outcome meets one of the qualifiers, you should rework it until it does.

Review your learning outcomes

Your next step as a team should be to review your learning outcomes. Compare them to the SMART model and Bloom’s Taxonomy or any other relevant model you might be using. If it helps, consider these examples. First, “Students will improve their understanding of passive voice.” On the surface, it might look like a reasonable goal, but then as you ask, “What does it mean to improve? Where did the student start from? When does this need to be done by?” This goal offers no answers to those questions.

How about this one? “By the end of the semester, all students will receive a 100% score on their math notation quiz.” For context, this is a Writing Foundations course. That begs the question, is this outcome relevant to this group of students? Is 100% a reasonable and attainable goal?

Consider these questions as a guide when creating SMART goals. A more reasonable goal for this group of writing students is that by the end of the semester, students will be able to identify and accurately and effectively use scholarly research in their writing projects 80% of the time. One part of the review process is ensuring your outcomes are SMART, but there are additional elements to consider, including the questions below.

  • Can you identify the verb in your learning outcome?
  • If your students master the skills in your learning outcomes, will they be satisfactorily prepared to go to another course that teaches the next level of this material?
  • If this is a course in a series, have you checked to be sure that your outcomes make sense with the previous and next courses?
  • Has your unit done curriculum mapping for its goals, and do your course outcomes align with that mapping?

Put it all together

Creating learning outcomes that reflect the learning necessary to achieve mastery in a course can be an arduous process. It should be a collaborative process as well. We encourage you to reach out to the CATL team if you would like guidance or help walking through Bloom’s Taxonomy and the SMART goal model. We are always available to help!

Resources on creating learning outcomes

Implementing Open Educational Resources (OER) into Your Course

This article is the third part in our series on OER. You can read more about Open Educational Resources and Affordable Educational Resources in part one and two alternative models for textbooks, Inclusive Access and Equitable Access, in part two.

I’m ready to adopt an Open Educational Resource (OER) – how do I find a text?

First, realize that OER don’t have to be a formal textbook, although often they are. OER can be pieces of textbooks that you use in conjunction with each other. They can be a Canvas course, a module, or a series of resources that meet your learning outcomes and the topics you need to ensure your students are meeting the learning outcomes. They could even be podcasts, films, and websites. This broadens the field of where to find OER. So where do you start?

  • Start with the librarians on your campus. Librarians are experts in locating materials and can make the search easier.
  • Use the libguide created by the library about materials you already have access to that can be used as part of an OER course.
  • Use one of the many repositories available online that offer the distinct types of resources mentioned above. College of the Canyons maintains an up-to-date OER/Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) Repository which is a good jumping-off point.

Can I create my own OER?

An option for integrating OER into your course is creating your own materials. Creating your own materials doesn’t necessarily mean writing a textbook. Open Educational Resources can be any of the items below or some combination thereof.

  1. Written textbook
  2. Videos
  3. Curated articles that are openly licensed
  4. Podcasts
  5. Curated textbook chapters taken from openly licensed books
  6. Media you create yourself

As you begin searching, you may decide you want help creating and licensing your materials. As mentioned earlier, the library is a great place to start. The library may be able to offer significant resources to help you create your OER, so be sure to reach out and see what support is available.

Ready to get started?

If you’re interested in getting started on creating low or no-cost resources for your class or just want to get some more information, you can reach out to Carli Reinecke, the OER Librarian to get started with your project.

Resources

Inclusive and Equitable Access Models for Course Materials: Comparisons with OER and AER

This article is the second part to our post about Open Educational Resources and Affordable Educational Resources.

It is important to acknowledge a few other contenders in the push to lower textbook costs for students: Equitable Access and Inclusive Access. Equitable access replaces the costs of textbooks with a fee added to students’ tuition at the beginning of a term that covers the cost of all course materials for that semester, no matter the discipline. Students have the option to opt out and can apply their financial aid. The cost is the same for every student, which creates some concerns when you consider the cost difference between a low-material-cost humanities course and a science course with books that may cost hundreds of dollars. There is an expected course savings with this, as deals have been negotiated between the publishers, the bookstore, and the university. This is a textbook system that is becoming more popular with universities.

Inclusive Access is more common, as it focuses on just one or a few courses instead of all the courses a student is taking. Like Equitable Access, it is a service provided by publishers and college bookstores, marketed as a tool to lower costs for students. Inclusive Access involves a plan to provide eBooks to students for an entire course section, course, or department, depending on the agreements entered into by the publisher and a bookstore. The selected text is provided to all students by the first day of class and is typically paid for as a registration fee instead of a separate textbook cost. This can provide significant savings to students who would be likely to buy a new copy of the textbook, but savings are debatable for those who would acquire their texts by other means. Students can normally opt out, but penalties could arise for departments that sign on and don’t end up with enough student participation.

Please note that there are certain concerns with both the EA and IA models. The cost savings suggested for both models are often based on the difference between students participating in the program or students buying full-price textbooks, which is the only option available to students. There have also been concerns about the issue of these programs being opt-out instead of opt-in for students. The Department of Education is presently reviewing whether financial aid will cover these programs if they are opt-out only.

Similarities and differences between OER, AER, IA, and EA
Conditions OER AER IA EA
Free to students yes possibly no no
Free to university yes possibly yes** yes
Low cost yes yes possibly possibly
Copyright applies no possibly yes yes
Reduces equity gaps yes yes possibly possibly
Open to share with others yes no no no
Able to be remixed yes no no no
Available on the first day of class yes yes yes no
Potential for hidden fees no no yes yes
Students can get a hard copy of the book possibly possibly possibly possibly
Students can get a digital copy of the book yes yes yes yes
Students get their books at the bookstore possibly possibly yes yes
Ability to make modifications to the materials yes no no no
Might include scholarly articles found in the library databases no yes no no
Who benefits from the use students students publishers publishers

** Free as long as certain conditions are met.

The table above presents in tabular format the distinctions between OER, AER, EA, and IA throughout this toolbox article. It highlights how materials can be shared, how costs are passed on, and who benefits from the specific textbook arrangement.

Resources

Intro to Open Educational Resources and Affordable Educational Resources

What are Open Educational Resources (OER)?

You will find multiple definitions of OER, but for our use, we will focus on the 2017 definition from UNESCO, Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research materials in any medium – digital or otherwise – that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions.” While OER used to be difficult to find and were only available for the most common general education courses, more and more professors are creating the materials they would like for their classes and then offering those resources to other educators at no cost.

For materials to be considered Open Educational Resources, there is no cost to use the materials — either for the student, the faculty member, or the university involved. There is an alternative to this model, Affordable Educational Resources, which will be discussed below. Ideally, Open Educational Resources will have an open license. An open license has a 5Rs framework, as proposed by David Wiley. A completely open license allows the user to do all of the following:

  • Reuse: Share content as-is
  • Revise: Content can be adapted, revised, or modified
  • Remix: Content can be combined with other material to create new content
  • Redistribute: Share the original, revised, or remixed versions with others
  • Retain: the right to make, own, and control copies of the content

While open licenses are ideal, many faculty creators choose a Creative Commons license which offers some rights to those who choose to adopt the OER. Creative Commons licenses work alongside copyright, where it makes transparent to the user how they can use, modify, or distribute the work.

Why choose OER?

The most obvious reason for making the choice to switch to OER is the cost savings to students. As of Spring 2024, UWGB instructors have saved 1957 students $240,442. This represents 34 instructors who have participated in the formal OER program. In addition to this obvious benefit to students, the reasons instructors choose to use OER can be any or all of the following:

  • Increase equity
  • Allow for customization
  • Improve access to information
  • Avoid copyright issues
  • Increase representation and diversity in course resources
  • Meet changing learning outcomes

What’s the difference between OER and AER?

Open Educational Resources are explained in detail in the previous section. What we have not explored yet are Affordable Educational Resources (AER). Many of the textbooks our students are asked to purchase for their classes cost in the hundreds of dollars. Because of limited resources or lack of financial aid, students may attempt to take the course without purchasing the text or might not be able to get the text until weeks into the course. While affordable educational resources might have a cost associated, it is a much more manageable cost. AER means something different at every university. At UWGB, the cost is $50 or less for the total cost of resources purchased by the student for one class. There are other distinctions between OER and AER. This video explains them succinctly.

Want more information? Contact the UWGB OER librarian, Carli Reinecke.

Three Types of Activities (Absorb, Do, Connect)

In higher education, the effectiveness of teaching plays a significant role in how students engage with the material and achieve learning outcomes. One approach to structuring the course activities involves categorizing them into three distinct types: Absorb, Do, and Connect. By classifying activities this way and designing them intentionally to meet dynamic learning objectives, instructors can ensure a comprehensive and engaging learning experience for their students.

Absorb

Absorb activities are those where learners gain the information they need. Examples include videos, readings, or podcasts. Typically, absorb activities take less time in online classes than they do in face-to-face classes where lecture is a popular form of instruction.

Here are some common examples of absorb activities:

Presentations (slide shows, videos, demonstrations)

Presentations are usually best used when information can best be conveyed visually, and the presentation can help the learner visualize something that is difficult to convey by other means. Learners typically tune out after five or six minutes, so it is important to keep presentations concise.

Readings

Use reading activities to present complex and difficult information in a stable form for careful study by the learner. Reading activities are important for moving beyond memorizing and recalling information and they can be used to encourage learners to find and understand information. It is often useful to have reading activities available to students where they will need to use it (as a reference in responding to a discussion, for example).

Stories by a teacher

Stories told by a teacher can be a great way to make a point memorable. They can be a type of presentation and should also be constructed in an efficient way. When done by a teacher, storytelling is an absorb activity. When done by a student, it is often a connect activity.

Do

Do activities are where students practice their knowledge. These are similar to formative assessments. Typically, “do” activities have lower stakes and allow for students to have multiple attempts. The focus is on mastering new knowledge or skills. This is equivalent to doing basketball drills to prepare for a game.

Here are some common do activities as well as some best practices:

Practice activities

Drill and practice (e.g., worksheets, quizzes from a textbook publisher) are best used for foundational material that will be used again and again.

Hands-on activities might include performing a calculation with an on-screen calculator, completing a dialogue in a foreign language, or filling in a missing term in a piece of computer code.

Guided-analysis activities, such as an activity where agronomy students may be asked to classify soil based on a chart that shows the proportion of sand, silt, and clay in the soil.

Discovery Activities

Case studies are when an instructor presents a situation that requires learners to draw upon course knowledge to reckon with a complex problem. These are usually best used when instructors would like learners to draw upon multiple sets of knowledge, draw fine distinctions, and work with shades of meaning. Case scenarios are often good to use once students have mastered foundational concepts.

Games and Simulations

Similar to case studies, games can be a good way for learners to draw upon multiple sets of knowledge and draw fine distinctions. Games can also help stimulate learners’ curiosity.

Connect

Connect activities help learners close the gap between learning and the rest of their lives. They prepare learners to apply learning in situations they encounter at work, in later learning efforts, and in their personal lives. The purpose of these activities is not necessarily to learn something new — that is typically for absorb and do activities — but rather to link something that is already known or prompt an application of learning.​

Here are some common connect activities as well as best practices:

Ponder activities

This type of activity requires learners to think deeply and broadly about a subject. Learners may answer rhetorical questions, meditate on a subject, identify or evaluate examples, summarize learning, or brainstorm ideas.

Questioning activities

Let learners fill knowledge gaps and resolve confusion by reserving time to ask questions of teachers, other experts, or fellow learners.

Stories by learners

These activities, which might take the form of a written reflection, in-class or online discussion, or oral presentation, let learners relate the subject matter to events in their own lives.

Research activities

Require learners to apply their knowledge while also discovering and using their own sources of information. These activities might include scavenger hunts and guided research.

Arraying Activities in a Sequence

A cycle showing absorb, do, and connect.

Not every lesson will have a connect activity, but in general, it is good to plan activities so that students acquire information (absorb) and then practice information (do) and apply information (connect). A common example is for students to read a textbook (absorb) and discuss their knowledge in a Canvas discussion (do) in preparation for an exam (connect).

Sometimes these activities overlap. For example, embedding questions in a video is one way to have students practice their knowledge while they absorb it.

On other occasions, students may practice their knowledge ahead of absorbing it. For example, a pre-reading quiz or scavenger hunt can point students to important information in a complicated text. This way the instructor can help students filter out the information that they should spend their time absorbing.

Connect activities often come at the end of an absorb/do sequence as students are often practicing for activities such as group projects, speeches, exams, etc. Yet, there are other activities that students connect to course material. A student survey, for example, may ask students about their motivations for taking the class. This can be a subtle way to orient the student learning toward their lived experience. Similarly, reflective exercises can be done prior to a new unit of instruction or as a way to bridge two modules together. In this way, connect activities can be the glue that holds modules together while also forging bonds between the students and the course material.

The sequence of absorb, do, and connect activities is often linear, but it does not have to be. Whatever order you go in, it is important to ask: how will students acquire knowledge (absorb)? How will they practice (do), and how will they apply their knowledge (connect)? Finding activities that lead students through all three phases will help answer the question “what do we do in class?” whether that class is in-person, online, or somewhere in-between.

If you would like to connect on a more detailed discussion of use cases and how you can harness the Absorb, Do, Connect schema in your own course, you can schedule a consultation with CATL.

Reference

The absorb, do, connect schema comes from William Horton, E-Learning by Design, second edition, New York: Wiley Publishing, 2011. (Requires UWGB login.)