Refers to assertions about what students should be able to achieve as soon as they finish the particular program or module being studied. Effective student outcomes are fully student-oriented and describe what both the teacher will teach, and the students should be able to learn. When developing student outcomes, educators should keep some important factors in mind.
There should be sufficient outcomes to make sure student progress can be evaluated without becoming overly complicated for teachers to review. Educators also need to remember that not all educational activities will measure all student outcomes.
The outcomes identified and defined in a plan should be simple and concise. They should avoid compound statements that mesh multiple statements together and complex phrasing to facilitate effective communication. Each student outcome should focus on the meeting of one goal or the development of one skill to ensure effective learning and the outcome’s straightforwardness.
It’s very crucial for the proper implementation of student outcomes that they’re described in the future tense. They should express what a student should be able to do by completing a specific educational activity or instruction. Outcomes need to involve active learning and should be observable so that they can be quantified for evaluating key student success metrics via learning assessments.
To ensure the success of student outcomes, they have to be attainable for the students for whom they’re designated. When designing outcomes, educators should consider the students’ ability, their cognitive development, initial skill sets, and the duration of the educational timeframe designated to attain the skill sets. Additionally, they should be aligned with the study materials for teaching to students.
The student outcomes need to be consistent with the curriculum objectives within the module/program and the discipline in which they’re taught. This is particularly crucial when educators interpret assessment results to analyze where modifications in instruction should be made. Curriculum mapping is an effective method to ensure that chosen student outcomes remain consistent with the designated curriculum. A curriculum map refers to a diagram that describes which student outcomes are plotted against particular program courses. This helps to ensure that learning objectives are attained in a timely manner.
The implementation of taxonomies can help educators get useful outlines for developing insightful and thorough lists of student outcomes. Once student outcomes have been created and approved, utilizing a curriculum map can help educators in viewing how those outcomes are being met in each module or course at an institution.
