1. Student Learning Outcomes
Best Practices in Writing
Student Learning Outcomes
Jill Allison Kern, PhD
Director of Assessment & Accreditation
Eastern Washington University
June 2018

2. Learning Outcomes for Today’s Training
At the end of today’s training, participants should be able to do the following:
Distinguish among course, program, and institution learning outcomes
State the two necessary and sufficient criteria that make a student learning outcome assessable
Write an assessable student learning outcome for their course or program
Provide an example of an assignment they could use to assess the student learning outcome they generate
Use the recommendations put forth in this presentation to evaluate the soundness of a student learning outcome

3. Learn Scales
Play Bach

4. What Are Student Learning Outcomes?
The knowledge and skills students are required to demonstrate at the end of a learning unit

5. are NOT: NOT What Student Learning Outcomes
Inputs (e.g., readings, lectures, experiential exercises, internships)
Student achievement outcomes (e.g., post-grad employment, graduate school admission, student- authored publications)
Program goals (e.g., increase course offerings, earn programmatic accreditation, improve retention and graduation rates of majors)
Self-reports (i.e., students’ reports of how much they learned about X)
Inputs: The educational experiences designed to generate learning (e.g., what students will read)
Attendant-educational outcomes: The desired consequences that may result from completing an educational program (e.g., getting a job, gaining entry into a graduate program, being an informed citizen)
Self-reports: Students’ judgements about their own learning

6. 3 levels
ClO’s
PlO’s
IlO’s

7. Bedrock of Assessment Edifice

8. Poorly designed SLOs

9. Weak Foundation

10. Fortify the Bricks

11. Equation for Building Sound SLOs

12. “Hook” and “Ladder”

13. The “Hook”
Students who successfully complete [name the learning unit] should be able to do the following:

14. Hook Examples CLO hook PLO hook ILO hook
Upon the successful completion of Psychology 101, students should be able to do the following:
Graduates from the Computer Engineering BS program Eastern Washington University should be able to do the following:
Those who earn an undergraduate degree at EWU should be able to:
CLO hook
PLO hook
ILO hook

15. List of skills and knowledge
The “Ladder”
List of skills and knowledge

16. Visual reminder; Not a hierarchy
Ladder
I call it a ladder as a visual reminder of a bullet-pointed list. The term “ladder” is not meant to imply a hierarchy or progression of skills.
Visual reminder; Not a hierarchy

17. Hook
Upon the successful completion of the BS degree in Computational and Applied Mathematics at EWU, students should be able to:
COMP MATH-PLO – 1: Solve problems using calculus.
COMP MATH-PLO – 2: Solve problems using real analysis.
COMP MATH-PLO – 3: Describe the logical structure of proofs.
COMP MATH-PLO – 4: Construct proofs of core mathematical results.
COMP MATH-PLO – 5: Develop viable mathematical models of physical or economic phenomena.
COMP MATH-PLO – 6: Utilize a programming environment to conduct a successful simulation.
Ladder

18. Hook
Graduates of EWU’s BA program in Studio Art should be able to:
Create a body of work that demonstrates conceptual intent.
Create a body of work that demonstrates technical skill.
Critically evaluate art work using appropriate terminology.
Produce a professional quality portfolio that includes an artist’s statement, résumé, and documentation of their work.
Ladder

19. necessary & sufficient
For each rung to be assessable,
it needs to meet two
necessary & sufficient
criteria:

20. Assessable SLOs
Observable
Single barreled

21. Criterion 1: Observable*
Starts with a verb that describes an action the student will engage in that a fac member can see or hear at a particular moment in time
If a faculty member can’t see or hear it, he or she can’t assess it.
*by the faculty member

22. Skills
Perform a monologue
Mix chemicals
Create a lesson plan
Conduct an audiology exam
Sing an aria
Build a robot
Write a press release
Program a computer
Compose an original jazz score
Prepare a financial statement
Take a patient history

23. What is inside the student’s head is not directly observable to the faculty member

24. Examples of Non-observable Verbs*
Become familiar with
Be knowledgeable about
Think
Value
Realize
Become aware of
See
Know
Learn
Understand
Comprehend
Appreciate
Study
Experience
*Don’t use these!

26. Examples of Observable Verbs To Assess Student’s Knowledge
Describe
Explain
List
Present
Write
Formulate
Create
Analyze
Arrange
Critique
Synthesize
Predict

28. Convert Not Observable Observable Know the arguments
Reflect on the issues
Think critically
Understand the principles
Comprehend the methods
Appreciate art
Summarize the arguments
Discuss one’s reflections on the issues
Question the assumptions implicit in theories
Apply the principles
Explain the methods
Describe the aesthetic properties of art works that appeal to you

29. Criterion 2: Single-Barreled*
*One action

30. *
Double-Barreled
Students who earn a degree in French should be able to write and speak fluent French.
Just like a survey item. You’ve had the experience of a survey that asks you something like, to what degree was the teacher helpful and the class interesting? Well, if the teacher was helpful but the class was boring, you’re stuck on how to answer the question. It’s exactly the same principle with double barreled SLOs. Your measurement will conflate two things creating ambiguous results. *
not assessable

31. *
Single-Barreled
Students who successfully earn a degree in French should be able to write fluently in French.
Students who successfully earn a degree in French should be able to speak fluently in French.
*assessable

32. Multi-Barreled
Students who successfully earn a degree in French should be able to write fluently in French about literature, philosophy, and science.
Students who successfully earn a degree in French should be able to write fluently, persuasively, and expressively in French.

33. Avoid “and”

34. However, SLOs that connect two or more verbs with “ ” are .
assessable

35. Those who earn a degree in music should be expected to compose complex scores
or play an instrument skillfully.

36. Requirements
Describes an action that’s observable to a faculty member at a moment in time
Describes one action only

38. Recommendation 1:
Be succinct

39. Explain how inequality between identity groups is perpetuated
Rather than . . .
Examine the ways in which economic, political and social systems perpetuate and reinforce inequality based on differences in class, race, culture and gender, and access to power.
Oy!
Go with . . .
Explain how inequality between identity groups is perpetuated

40. Students who earn a BA in Economics from EWU should be able to:
Apply the cost/benefit principle to a current socio- economic issue.
Use supply/demand modeling to explain an economic event.
Identify the appropriate economic concept to resolve a policy issue.

41. Avoid comparative verbs or adjectives
Recommendation #2
Avoid comparative verbs or adjectives

42. Avoid Improve Improved Enhance Enhanced Deepen Deepened Strengthen
Strengthened
Develop
Developed

43. Examples of “Comparative” SLOs
Those who earn a degree in computer science should improve their capacity to solve software engineering problems.
Graduates of the BA program in Sociology are expected to demonstrate an enhanced ability to pose researchable questions about societal problems.

44. DOUBLES YOUR WORK! Pre Post
You need to collect pre- and post-measures, which makes assessment more laborious and time intensive. It’s harder to sustain. If you want to collect pre- and post-data because it’ll give you insight into the skills and knowledge students have at the start of the quarter or program, I certainly wouldn’t stop you. I’m just saying that it’s not necessary provided that you follow the next best practice I’m going to discuss in a bit, which is to craft learning that you can reasonably assume most students wouldn’t be able to demonstrate at the start of the course or program.
Pre
Post

45. Doesn’t set threshold

46. Convert Non-Comparative Comparative
Those who earn a degree in computer science should improve their capacity to solve software engineering problems.
Those who earn a degree in computer science should be able to solve software engineering problems.

47. Collect “post” data only

48. Unlikely acquired prior to learning unit
Recommendation #3
Specify
Skill
Body of knowledge, or
Level of mastery
Unlikely acquired prior to learning unit

49. Example
Upon successful completion of EWU’s BA program in Art History, students should be able to produce original art history research.

50. Recommendation #4
For every learning outcome statement you write, you should be able to create a graded activity that flows logically from the observable verb that begins each rung of the SLO ladder.

51. When writing your SLOs, think about what you will ask students to do
When writing your SLOs, think about what you will ask students to do. Then choose the SLO’s verb.

52. Well designed assignments are key to good assessment

53. Well designed SLOs are key to good assignments

54. Keep list of SLOs short About four to six CLOs for a three-unit course
Recommendation #5
Keep list of SLOs short
About four to six CLOs for a three-unit course
About five to seven PLOs for a major
About five to seven ILOs for a degree (GE outcomes)

56. SLOs Are Precious Real Estate

57. Your PLOs:
Meaningful
Necessary & sufficient

58. The End!

59. SLO Checklist Do the SLOs have a “hook” and “ladder”?
Does each rung in the ladder start with a verb that can be observed by the instructor at a specific moment in time?
Is each rung in the ladder single-barreled?
Do all rungs in the ladder avoid using verbs or adjectives that imply a comparison between two points in time (e.g., develop, improve, transformed, strengthened)?
Does each SLO specify a skill, body of knowledge, or degree of mastery that one would anticipate that students would not have acquired prior to enrolling in the course or starting the program?
Is each SLO succinct?
Could each SLO lead logically to an assignment?
Is the number of rungs on the ladder a manageable number to assess—that is, about four to six CLOs for a four-unit course or about five to seven PLOs for a program?