Student learning outcomes provide clear targets for students, a common framework for faculty, and a shared vision for faculty and student work. Writing clear outcomes improves instruction and simplifies assessment. Here are some tips to get you started.
Student Learning Outcomes
Recommended Format
Students should be able to [action verb] [something].
- Only one action verb
- Identify single accomplishments
- Focus on students (what they can do), not on faculty or curriculum
Examples
- Students should be able to articulate the strengths and limitations of various research designs.
- Students should be able to place the author in relation to other authors writing on the same or a similar topic.
- Students should be able to perform a representative body of solo and ensemble literature from diverse musical periods.
- Students should be able to formulate testable research hypotheses based on operational definitions of variables.
- Students should be able to evaluate differing historiographical traditions.
- Students should be able to explain interactions between levels of organization in the biological world, from molecules to the biosphere.
- Students should be able to produce sound philosophical discourse.
Recommended Words
On the left, outcomes for lower-level courses should use more of the words in white and fewer of those in blue. On the right, upper-level outcomes should use more of the words in white and fewer of the words in blue.
(images courtesy of Susan Hatfield)