Workshop for Writing Outcomes

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Workshop for Writing Outcomes Objectives

• Sheryl Duggins
• Briana Morrison
• Becky Rutherfoord

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Objectives of Workshop

• Define Mission, Program Educational Objectives,
  Program Outcomes, and Course Learning Outcomes
• Understand how to write these
• Practice writing them

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Mission Statement

• Each department and unit should have a Mission
  Statement. This should look at what you do in
  broad statements. It should tie into the
  University Mission Statement.

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Other Terminology

• We are following ABET terminology for our SACS
  accreditation efforts
• Program Educational Objectives
• Broad statements that describe the career and
  professional accomplishments that the program is
  preparing graduates to achieve

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Terminology continued

• Program Outcomes
• Narrower statements that describe what students
  are expected to know and are able to do by the
  time of graduation
• Course Learning outcomes
• Statements that describe what the student is
  expected to learn in the course

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Mission
Educational Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Assess/ Evaluate
Course Outcomes
Constituents
Feedback for Quality Assurance
Evaluation Interpretation of Evidence
Assessment Collection, Analysis of Evidence
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Mission
Educational Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Assess/ Evaluate
Course Outcomes
Constituents
Feedback for Quality Assurance
Evaluation Interpretation of Evidence
Assessment Collection, Analysis of Evidence
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Mission
Educational Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Assess/ Evaluate
Course Outcomes
Constituents
Feedback for Quality Assurance
Evaluation Interpretation of Evidence
Assessment Collection, Analysis of Evidence
9
Mission
Educational Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Assess/ Evaluate
Course Outcomes
Constituents
Feedback for Quality Assurance
Evaluation Interpretation of Evidence
Assessment Collection, Analysis of Evidence
Assessment for Quality Assurance
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WHY Do All of This?

• Both SACS and ABET require that we look at
  Student Learning as the basis for what we do. We
  need to be able to look at student learning as it
  relates to our Program Education Objectives,
  Program Outcomes and Course Learning Outcomes.
  We will be looking at Assessment in the spring
  term.

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Program Educational Objectives

• Describe the overall objectives of the program
  why do you exist?
• Are you preparing for specific career goals?
• These objectives can be more than just for
  students you can have faculty objectives,
  research objectives, etc.

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Objectives continued

• Each program has to have documented, measurable
  objectives, including expected Program Outcomes
  for graduates
• If you are a support area this will show how
  you are supporting students in their time at SPSU

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Program Outcomes

• Define what your graduates should know and be
  able to do when they graduate
• Need to begin with an action verb (refer to
  Blooms Taxonomy for help) that can be measured
• Know xxx is not valid how do you measure
  knowledge?

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Outcomes continued

• Outcomes should be supportive of one or more
  Program Educational Objectives
• DO NOT include measures or performance
  expectations here

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When to Assess

• Program Educational Objectives these will be
  assessed AFTER graduation
• Program Outcomes these are assessed throughout
  the program and by the end of graduation

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How to Design Objectives Outcomes

• Make them measurable in terms of student action
• Cannot measure attitude
• cannot measure appreciation of
• cannot measure future behavior

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How to continued

• 1. Each OBJECTIVE addresses one or more needs of
  one or more constituencies
• 2.Understandable by constituency addressed
• 3.Number of statements should be limited
• 4.Should not be simply restatement of outcomes
• We will be mapping Program Outcomes to Program
  Educational Objectives later during assessment

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Exercise 1

• Get into small groups and discuss the following
  sample objectives and outcomes. Decide if each
  is well written, and if not, identify the
  problem(s).
• Assume these are for an Electronics Engineering
  Technology Program.

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Objectives

• Produce graduates who
• 1. Can function effectively as electronics
  technicians for state and regional government and
  non-government employers that deal with
  manufacturing and production systems,
  communications electronics, telecommunications
  and computing systems.
• 2. Will function individually and in teams, both
  professionally and socially, practice ethical
  conduct in their responsibilities, and
  communicate effectively.

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Outcomes

• Each graduate will demonstrate the following
  attributes before graduation
• The ability to effectively use information
  acquisition tools, implement technology and
  incorporate emerging technology into problem
  solutions.
• The aptitude to identify and analyze a problem
  from all angles and concisely define its scope
  propose alternative solutions and techniques
  assess viability of potential solutions and
  exhibit ability and willingness to anticipate
  impact of proposed problem solutions.

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Course Learning Outcomes

• Heart of each course what you expect the
  student to learn and achieve in the course
• As with other outcomes these MUST be measurable
• Keep the number of outcomes small (3-5 good
  number)

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Blooms Taxonomy

• Cognitive learning is demonstrated by knowledge
  recall and the intellectual skills
• Knowledge remembering previously learned
  information
• Comprehension grasping the meaning of
  information

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Bloom continued

• Application apply knowledge of actual
  situations
• Analysis breaking down objects or ideas into
  simpler parts and seeing how the parts relate and
  are organized
• Synthesis rearranging component ideas into a
  new whole

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Bloom continued

• Evaluation making judgments based on internal
  evidence or external criteria

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Verb Examples

• Knowledge (arrange, define, describe, list,
  recognize, select, state)
• Comprehension (classify, describe, discuss,
  explain, identify, infer, report, summarize,
  understand)
• Application (apply, change, choose, compute,
  demonstrate, illustrate, operate, produce,
  sketch, use, write)

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Verbs continued

• Analysis (analyze, break down, categorize,
  compare, contrast, experiment, identify, outline)
• Synthesis (arrange, combine, compose, design,
  develop, modify, manage, revise, summarize, tell)
• Evaluation (assess, attach, choose, conclude,
  defend, describe, estimate, justify, interpret,
  predict, support)

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Affective Learning

• Demonstrated by behaviors indicating attitudes of
  awareness, interest, attention, concern, and
  responsibility, ability to listen and respond in
  interactions with others, and ability to
  demonstrate those attitudinal characteristics or
  values which are appropriate in the field of study

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Levels

• Receiving
• Responding
• Valuing
• Organization
• Characterization by a value

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Verb examples

• Receiving (asks, chooses, describes, identifies,
  selects, uses)
• Responding (answers, assists, discusses, labels,
  selects, writes)
• Valuing (completes, describes, explains, joins,
  reads)
• Organization (alters, arranges, compares,
  identifies, orders, relates)

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Verbs continued

• Characterization by a value (acts, displays,
  modifies, performs, practices, questions,
  verifies)

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Psychomotor

• Demonstrated by physical skills coordination,
  dexterity, manipulation, grace, strength, speed,
  actions which demonstrate the fine motor skills
  such as use of precision instruments or tools, or
  actions which show gross motor skills

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Levels

• Perception (use senses for activity)
• Set (ready to perform action)
• Guided response (respond with model)
• Mechanism (perform task habitually)
• Complex response (highly proficient)
• Adaptation (new but related tasks)
• Origination (new performance)

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Verb Examples

• Perception (chooses, describes, differentiates,
  identifies, selects)
• Set (begins, explains, moves, shows, volunteers)
• Guided response same for mechanism and complex
  response (assembles, builds, calibrates,
  displays, dissects, fixes, grinds, measures,
  mixes, sketches)

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Verbs continued

• Adaptation (adapts, alters, changes, rearranges,
  revises)
• Origination (arranges, combines, composes,
  constructs, creates, designs)

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Where to start?

• Decide the top 3-5 things you want the student to
  learn (achieve) in your course.
• Look at the level of the course freshmen,
  sophomoregraduate
• Look at Blooms taxonomy, Psychomotor and
  Affective learning to see what best fits your
  class level (these can be mixed in each class)

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Where to Start..

• Write course outcomes based on course level and
  using appropriate verbs
• Each course (such as Math 1111) MUST have only
  one set of student learning outcomes (all faculty
  must follow same learning outcomes)

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Where to start

• Each faculty member will be able to determine HOW
  they want to assess the course learning outcomes
  (these dont have to be the same for each faculty
  member)
• Write your course outcomes and have another
  faculty member look it over for suggestions or
  discuss in meetings

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Syllabus

• All course learning outcomes MUST be present on
  the syllabus (or with a link if they are on-line
  if youd like)
• Program Objectives and Program Outcomes do not
  have to be on the syllabus

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Exercise 2

• Step 1 Get together with one or two people from
  your department or a closely-related department
  select a degree program you want to use in this
  exercise.
• Step 2 Write One Program Outcomes that support
  it. (Most Program Objectives require the support
  of more then one outcome.)

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Exercise 2

• Step 3
• A. Identify ONE course in your degree program
  that would support the selected Program Outcome.
• B. Write TWO Course Outcomes for that course.
  Make sure they are measurable.

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Exercise 3

• Take one of your OWN courses and write two course
  learning outcomes
• Share with another person to see if you can make
  it better

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Questions?

• What questions can I answer?