How do I create effective intended learning outcomes for a course?
For each course, there shall be a syllabus stating the intended learning outcomes that the student must achieve in order to pass the course. The intended learning outcomes must be formulated in such a way that they indicate what the student must be able to do upon completion of the course, i.e. set the minimum requirements for passing the course.
The intended course learning outcomes do not need to capture everything that the students are expected to learn in the course, but as the correcting teacher or examiner you must be able to guarantee that all passing students have achieved all of the intended learning outcomes of the course. For this to be possible the intended learning outcomes must be clear, realistic and assessable. The video below gives you tips on how to create intended learning outcomes that are effective for your teaching.
When creating your intended learning outcomes, it is also important to think about what kind of knowledge you want your students to develop. Should they learn factual knowledge or skills? Should they be able to use the knowledge to make wise judgements in their future professional life?
There is also reason to reflect on the level of knowledge that the students are to achieve during the course and how this can be expressed in the intended learning outcomes. Is the aim for them to be able to describe the meaning of a number of concepts or do they also need to be able to apply the concepts and perhaps also take a critical approach to them? A knowledge taxonomy – a model that organises knowledge into levels or stages – can be helpful here.
The intended course learning outcomes must also be consistent with a number of overarching objectives for education set out in the Higher Education Act, the Higher Education Ordinance and the programme syllabus (if the course is part of a programme). The overarching objectives are often broadly formulated, high light complex knowledge, and thereby provide an important holistic perspective of the students' education. However, it is only when they are broken down into concrete intended course learning outcomes that it becomes clear what the students should achieve and what the teacher should assess in a course.
Keep in mind that the intended course learning outcomes must be
- clear and understandable,
- assessable, and
- realistic and relevant.
Think about how the intended course learning outcomes
- relate to different forms of knowledge,
- relate to different levels of knowledge, and
- correlate with the overarching objectives of the programme.
Read more about how to create intended learning outcomes that are effective for your teaching.
- Nena Skrbic & Jane Burrows, "Specifying Learning Objectives", i Lyn Ashmore & Denise Robinson (red.), Learning, Teaching and Development: Strategies for Action (Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2014), p. 39–69.