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Date of entry: Wednesday, 04 February 2004 Question: How can I write effective learning outcomes? Answer: Well written learning outcomes are a useful teaching tool but there are certain key principles to keep in mind when writing them. Effective learning outcomes:
It is not always possible to conform to all of these criteria but it is worth reviewing your intended outcomes against them in order to see if they can be improved. A learning outcome must be relevant to the needs of the student. This may seem self evident but in practice there is a temptation for teachers to focus on the topics that interest them or that are convenient to do rather than checking what it is that the student needs to learn. The key to ensuring this is to draw on two essential sources of information about your learners' needs. The first is to ask the students themselves what they hope to achieve through the session or programme and the second is to examine the relevant curriculum requirements. These may already be written in outcomes form but may still need to be adapted to the specific situation. Note that any adaptation must be in order to clarify the application to that situation an must not lead to any modification of the specified outcome. A learning outcome should be written clearly and without unnecessary jargon or complexity. If an outcome is going to motivate students then they need to have an idea what it means. Of course this is not always fully achievable until the outcome has been completed but it should certainly be evident to the student once it has been achieved. Clarity and simplicity are the goal, within the constraints of the topics intrinsic complexity. A learning outcome should describe what the learner is to achieve and not the planned teaching activities. For example ‘discuss the causes of diabetes’ is not a learning outcome it is a teaching method. The appropriate learning outcome might be to ‘list the main causes of diabetes’. A tip for helping you write your outcomes in this way is to begin each outcome with the phrase … ‘By the end of this session/programme the learner will be able to ….' A learning outcome should describe how the learner can demonstrate that it has been achieved. Outcomes should describe something that the learner will be able to do after the learning experience that they could not do before. Outcomes are sometimes written describing a changed inner mental state. For example the student will ‘know’ or ‘understand’ the major symptoms of diabetes. The problem with this is that what someone ‘knows’ cannot be directly observed. It would be more helpful to specify how the learner could demonstrate that they knew this information. For example by being able to ‘list the main symptoms of diabetes’. Finally a learning outcome should be realistically achievable within the time and resources available. It is very tempting to be too ambitious in setting objectives with the result that the learners feel overwhelmed by the learning task and therefore may underachieve. Conversely students may feel patronised or frustrated if the intended outcomes are too simple. It is good practice to discuss the intended outcomes of a session or programme with the learners and modify them in response to their views. You could even consider allowing the learners to define their own outcomes, with you providing guidance as appropriate. You may also come across the term ‘learning objectives’. These are similar to learning outcomes but it has been suggested that they are less flexible and precise. For a discussion of the distinction between them and the advantages of using the term ‘outcomes’ see ‘Harden R.M. (2002) Learning outcomes and instructional objectives: is there a difference? Medical Teacher, Vol 24, No 2, pp151 – 155. For a contrary view see Prideaux, D. (2000) The emperors new clothes: from objectives to outcomes, Medical Education, 34, pp 168-169 For a slightly more detailed explanation of the principles of writing learning objectives/outcomes see http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/medical-school/tips/aims_objectives.html Author: This FAQ was written by Nigel Purcell and does not reflect an official endorsement by the Academy or any other organisation. Any questions or comments can be sent to: nigel@medev.ac.uk |
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