OUTCOMES  COMPETENCIES

EVEN BEFORE YOU BEGIN..

• Take a look at all of the syllabi for the seminars you are taking this term
• Examine your seminar outcomes , competencies, assignments
• Now, analyze how these are all in alignment!

UNION LEARNING OUTCOMES

• As a university Union has four major Learning Outcomes at all Program Levels
• Each university outcome is accompanied by a set of competencies
• All university course syllabi include a minimum of one university learning outcome with competencies

Assessment Defining Terms

• Learning Outcomes are sometimes used interchangeably with
• goals, benchmarks, standards for accountability, guides for course design

Learning Outcome

• A statement of what a student should understand and be able to do as a result of what he or she has learned in a course or learning program ... in other words, "the essential and enduring knowledge, abilities, and attitudes or dispositions" that enable a student to practice and apply learning in the real world.

Learning Outcomes

• Well-written learning outcomes serve two functions that are critical for quality teaching and learning: -- 1. Guide content, activities, and assessments: Learning outcomes describe the boundaries and scope of instruction. These boundaries and scope guide the selection of content, activities, and assessments. -- 2. Communicate instructional intent: Learning outcomes tell students (and other stakeholders such as department heads) the intent of instruction and what students will be expected to do.

The bottom line is that learning outcomes are critical to good design and to communicating intent.

Assessment Defining Terms

• Competencies demonstrate the ability to apply or use a set of skills, knowledge, abilities. Incremental learning steps students must take to reach a broader learning outcome. Students must normally learn several competencies for each course learning outcome.
• For our purposes, synonymous with objectives

Assignment design Ask yourself:

• Does evidence of student learning outcomes align with Union’s stated learning outcomes?
• Are our students able to transfer knowledge learned in one course to another in the same discipline or allied discipline?
• How does student faculty interaction influence our students’ success and learning outcomes?

OVERLOAD

OVERLOAD!

• Any teacher can retrieve an overabundance of information. What is more, courseware makes distributing this information to students amazingly easy. As a result, teachers risk (unintentionally) giving students much more information than they can reasonably digest, including electronic texts, supplementary texts, and background information.
• The key to avoiding information overload when writing competencies is remembering: “What are your learning outcomes for the students?”

Purpose of Assignments

• Remember Learning Outcomes are what you want your students to know and to be able to accomplish by the end of the course Learning Competencies are the specific ways in which you will apply your learning towards achieving the intended learning outcome
• Assignments should speak directly to the competency so that they serve as evidence

Assessment vs Evaluation

• Assessment is the process of objectively understanding the state or condition of a thing, by observation and measurement. Assessment of teaching means taking a measure of its effectiveness. “Formative” assessment is measurement for the purpose of improving it. “Summative” assessment is what we normally call “evaluation.”
• Evaluation is the process of observing and measuring a thing for the purpose of judging it and of determining its “value,” either by comparison to similar things, or to a standard. Evaluation of teaching means passing judgment on it as part of an administrative process. (Institute for Teaching, Learning & Academic Leadership, University of Albany, State University of New York)

Outcomes, Competencies & Assignments

• What course would you love to teach to college students?
• Now – consider your desired course, select one of the four UI&U Outcomes, and complete the assignment for forum 4A