Creating Course Outcomes and

Objectives

Higher Education by Design:

Best Practices for Curricular Planning and Instruction

Bruce M. Mackh, PhD

Course Context• Before we can create the outcomes and objectives for our course, we need to form a sound

understanding of its purpose and its placement within the program, department, school, college, or university. This is true whether we’re designing a new course or simply preparing to teach a course that other faculty have taught previously. The answers to the following questions will help to contextualize the course you’ll plan.

• Why would students take this course?

• General education requirement

• Major/minor requirement

• General elective

• Major/minor elective

• How does this course fit into students’ educational experiences?

• Prerequisites

• Level: beginning, intermediate, advanced, graduate

• Primary purpose

• General knowledge

• Disciplinarily-specific knowledge

• General skills

• Disciplinarily-specific skills

• Professional preparation/experience

• What do I want the students to learn in this course?

pp. 45-46

Outcomes vs. Objectives

Our first task is to understand the underlying process of writing outcomes and objectives.

Remembering that our goal is to create curriculum supporting disciplinary norms and aligning with university requirements, outcomes reflect what we want students to know and be able to do by the time they exit our programs.

Objectives, on the other hand, remain specific to the faculty member and the given course, allowing us to define and measure our students’ accomplishments by the end of our course.

Outcomes must align with objectives, and they must also be consistent with the actual instruction, activities, and assessment employed within a course.

p. 47

Another Definitionfrom Pivoting Your Instruction (Mackh 2021)

• Outcomes are what we want students to achieve by the end of the course.

• Objectives are the checkpoints or benchmarks that lead to the outcomes.

• In settings outside higher education, we might refer to these as goals (outcomes) and action steps (objectives).

• Outcomes are not always unique to a particular course. For instance, all courses offered in a degree program might share the same outcomes, with objectives customized for each course to support those outcomes but appropriate to the course's level and topic.

• All objectives and outcomes must be measurable and tied to the course’s assessments. Every objective should be associated with an outcome, and every outcome and objective should be associated with an assessment.

❑ What do I want students to learn? (outcomes)

❑ How will I teach it to them? (objectives)

❑ How will I know if they learned it? (assessment)

Disciplinary Accreditation Organizations

• In some academic disciplines, course outcomes primarily depend upon accrediting organizations, which set forth expectations for student learning in accredited programs such as ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) or AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business).

• These organizations publish sets of Standards, which can provide us with concrete information we can use in writing appropriate course outcomes.

• When such guidelines are available, they supply concrete information about what students must know and be able to do, serving as the basis for both outcomes and objectives.

p. 49

Other Information Sources

• In the absence of (or in addition to) disciplinary accreditation standards, a course developer should consider the following in order to determine the distinctive, specific, and measurable body of skills and knowledge students must possess by the time they exit a given degree program. Any one or more of the following might help you work through this process:

• Consult professional organizations in your discipline, considering their published guidelines, goals, mission statement, or professional standards. What unifying ideas are present at the professional level?

• Examine programmatic goals and objectives published by similar academic programs at peer institutions. How do these compare to professional standards and your own prior teaching?pp. 49-50

Other Information Sources-Cont.

• Evaluate syllabi for all the courses you’ve taught. Where do you see common themes and ideas? If possible, include your colleagues’ syllabi in this analysis as well.

• Investigate your department’s published goals, objectives, values, mission, or similar statements. What important ideas or themes emerge?

• Assess your department’s degree program requirements. What courses must all students take? What ideas or themes carry across those courses?

• In addition to your disciplinary outcomes, you must consider institutional requirements such as policies, initiatives, or goals pertaining to your course.

• These might exist at any level: program, department, school, or the institution.

p. 50

Outcome Characteristics

• Reflective of disciplinary norms

• Aligned with university standards and expectations

• Limited in number (no less than 3, no more than 10)

• Framed in terms of program rather than specific to an individual course or student

• Distinctive, specific, and simple

• Measurable by more than one method of assessment

• Clearly indicative of:

• Fields that are the focus of the outcome

• Knowledge, skills, and abilities students in the program must demonstrate

• Depth of knowledge and ability students must achieve

pp. 51-52

Bloom’s Taxonomy – Using Active Verbs

LOWEST

• Remembering: define, duplicate, list, memorize, recall, repeat, reproduce, state

• Understanding: classify, describe, discuss, explain, identify, locate, recognize, report, select, translate, paraphrase

• Applying: choose, demonstrate, dramatize, employ, illustrate, interpret, operate, schedule, sketch, solve, use, write

• Analyzing: compare, contrast, criticize, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, examine, experiment, question, test

• Evaluating: appraise, argue, defend, judge, select, support, value, evaluate• Creating: assemble, compose, construct, create, design, develop, express,

formulateHIGHEST

p. 24

Aim Higher than “Learn, Understand, and Know”

When writing our course outcomes and objectives, we should use the active verbs from Blooms Taxonomy, selecting those best suited to our pedagogical purposes and aiming for higher order thinking rather than acquisition of facts and information.

Discipline Too Generic More Specific

BiologyStudents will learn fundamental theories of biology.

Students will write knowledgeably about theoretical aspects of biology, using appropriate scientific references and examples.

PhilosophyStudents will understand a variety of philosophical positions.

Students will develop relevant arguments and examples in order to discuss a variety of philosophical positions.

History

Students will know the difference between primary and secondary sources.

Students will appropriately utilize primary and secondary sources in their written work, demonstrating knowledge of sound disciplinary practices in historical scholarship.

p. 52

ExampleOutcomes for

Design Thinking for

Entrepreneurs

Design Thinking for Entrepreneurs OUTCOMES

Students will investigate the principles and practices underlying innovation and entrepreneurship through critical analysis of ideas and information, synthesizing this knowledge with increased understanding of the social and cultural contexts in which innovations occur and their impact on diverse populations. Students will develop the knowledge and skills necessary to create, launch, or sustain a business venture or community organization, including ideation, vision, prototyping, modeling, financial management, strategic planning, knowledge of applicable governance systems, effective business communications, promotions and marketing, branding and identity, social engagement, and other factors.

Students will integrate their learning in the course by critically applying acquired skills and knowledge within an entrepreneurial context, using a variety of strategies for inquiry and ideation in order to make value judgements, solve problems, respond to challenges and generate new understanding.

p. 54

Your TurnProgrammatic Outcomes: Research and Planning Notes

Standards published by disciplinary accrediting

organization

Professional Organizations’ published mission,

standards, or guidelines

Programmatic information published by peer

institutions

Syllabi from other courses you’ve taught. If

available, syllabi from your departmental

colleagues’ courses.

Departmental goals, objectives, values, and

mission statements

Departmental degree program requirements.

Other sources as appropriatep. 54

How to Write Objectives

The Next Step

p. 55

Identification and Analysis – Step 1

• Read both your outcomes and your current syllabus.

• Mark the places where they are similar in yellow.

• Mark the places where they are different in blue.

• This probably won’t be a word-for-word match -you’re looking for corresponding keywords or similar ideas.

• Depending on how you wrote your syllabus, you might find everything you need in the course overview.

• Remember, we’re looking for big ideas, not fine details.

p. 56

Identification and Analysis – Step 2

• Start with your outcomes document:

• What did you highlight in blue? This shows you what requirements are missing from your syllabus.

• What should you add to your syllabus in order to align your course with your outcomes?

• Now look at your syllabus.

• If you have a lot of blue highlighting here –in other words, if you’re teaching many things that are not mentioned in your outcomes – that’s okay!

• We can always teach MORE than is required, just not less.

p. 56

Identification and Analysis –Step 3

• Think about the level of your course and apply your knowledge of your discipline to determine whether your intended objectives are appropriate.

• Introductory level

• General history of the discipline

• Direct instruction in disciplinary methods, procedures, and terminology

• Basic technical skills where appropriate

• Intermediate and advanced levels

• Increasingly complex disciplinary knowledge

• Increasing proficiency in communication, critical thinking and problem solving in disciplinary contexts

• Focused study of disciplinary content

• Skills and knowledge required for graduation

• Disciplinary knowledge and/or skill sufficient to qualify for admission to graduate study or entry-level professional employment in the field

• Proficiency in communication, critical thinking, and problem solving within disciplinary contexts

pp. 56-57

Time to Write

• Now you’ll need to write specific objectives for your course that are (1) aligned with the outcomes you developed and (2) address your course content.

• You don’t need a word-for word match between outcomes and objectives.

• You don’t need a 1:1 correspondence between outcomes and objectives.

• One objective can address multiple outcomes.

• One outcome can cover several objectives.

• The point is to align what you intend for students to learn by the end of their degree programs (outcomes) with what you plan to teach in your course and how you’ll measure their learning (objectives).

pp. 56-58

Example –Design Thinking for Entrepreneurs (excerpt)

OUTCOMES OBJECTIVES

Students will investigate the principles and practices underlying innovation and entrepreneurship through critical analysis of ideas

and information, synthesizing this knowledge with increased understanding of the social and cultural contexts in which innovations occur and their impact on diverse populations.

Students will explore the intersection of ethics, social responsibility, cultural contexts, multiple ideation strategies, andentrepreneurial skills and knowledge as they identify problems to address through the development of a project addressing a “wicked problem” by engaging in instrumental research, synthesizing their findings, and articulating possible solutions.

Students’ participation in course discussion and activities will reflect their knowledge of entrepreneurial strategies and their ability to identify opportunity, demonstrate empathy, assess and mitigate risk, create value, and to understand the social contexts and issues surrounding innovative solutions to wicked problems.

Students will develop the knowledge and skills necessary to create, launch, or sustain a business venture or community organization, including ideation, vision, prototyping, modeling, financial management, strategic planning, knowledge of applicable governance systems, effective business communications, promotions and marketing, branding and identity, social engagement, and other factors.

Students will examine practices and principles of social and ethical responsibility as they solve problems by using multiple ideation strategies in the service of pursuing a solution to a “wicked problem” through an innovative and entrepreneurial process.

They will utilize and refine their communications skills as they interact with potential clients or customers, compose documents related to their project, and build professional relationships.

They will develop awareness of applicable governance systems and strengthen their ability to ethically solve societal problems through empathetic understanding of the target population’s needs and wants.

pp. 58-59

Your Turn

In a chart like those used in the previous examples, enter the outcomes you developed previously.

01Then write your specific course objectives, ensuring that each outcome links to an objective and each objective proceeds from an outcome.

02Remember to use active verbs from the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

03

p. 59

Remember

Outcomes address intended student learning by the conclusion of a program, but objectives are unique to each course.

Course objectives and outcomes must align with one another and they must also support university requirements.

The process of composing objectives involves analyzing what you’re already teaching based on your current syllabus and relating it to your knowledge of disciplinary norms and practices as reflected in the course outcomes.

Where differences exist, you’ll need to ensure that your syllabus is modified to include the intended content among your objectives. You cannot change departmental or university requirements.

pp. 59-60