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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]).