Download Program Learning Outcomes - TLSS

Program Learning Outcomes
Definition
What are program learning outcomes? (PLOs)
They are brief statements describing knowledge, skills, abilities or attitudes that students can
demonstrate upon completion of the program.
For example:
o By the end of the program, the student will communicate geographical ideas, principles
and theories with accuracy and clarity using written, oral and visual means.
o By the end of the program, the student will be able to analyze complex health problems
and issues from a variety of theoretical perspectives.
The structure of a learning outcome may be broken down to three components:
1) A verb that specifies the performance to be demonstrated (see Bloom’s taxonomy)
2) A learning statement that articulates the nature of the learning
3) A statement of the standard, context or examples of the performance
Using the examples above:
Verb
Learning statement
communicate
geographical ideas, principles and
theories
analyze
complex health problems and
issues
Standard/context/ examples
with accuracy and clarity using
written, oral and visual means
from a variety of theoretical
perspectives
Why do we need them? Purpose and benefits
Professors/programs
To develop shared perspectives and goals for the
program and its courses
To informally or formally evaluate if and when
students are achieving some or all outcomes as
initially intended
Students
To understand expectations and how each course
and their requirements contribute to the
program goals and expectations
To initially help students self-select and then later
help them self-evaluate as they are progressing
through the program
Levels, specificity and focus of learning outcomes
The difference between learning outcomes and learning objectives is that learning outcomes encourage
us to think about learning from the perspective of what learners’ are able to do by the end of a program.
For example, when writing a learning outcome it is not enough to list the content that students will be
presented with, we need to articulate what they are expected to do with this content.
Program learning outcomes describe what students are expected to be able to know and perform at
the end of the program whereas course learning outcomes highlight what students are expected to
know and perform at the end of a specific course. You may also have class learning outcomes for each
of the 3 hour classes within a course. Each of these types of learning outcomes differ in terms of level of
specificity and in terms of timeframe of learning experiences.
Suggested steps to develop your program learning outcomes
1. Brainstorm about what the ideal student should be able to demonstrate by the end of the
program in terms of: 1) knowledge, concepts, ideas 2) abilities, skills 3) values, attitude or 4)
other.
2. Write specific program learning outcomes by composing complete statements using your initial
list. We recommend using the Bloom’s taxonomy to guide the selection of verbs, which are
often a good indicator of level of complexity of the learnings.
3. Refine your statement by looking at different examples in similar programs (ideally in Canada
and from your discipline) and contact us for feedback ([email protected]).