Writing and Evaluating Student Learning Outcomes

A learning outcome has three components:

A phrase or sentence beginning “students can” or “students will be able to.”
A verb that captures the action the student will be able to take that demonstrates the knowledge or competency in question.
A concluding phrase that elaborates on the verb (e.g., explain how socialization works in everyday life, analyze DNA using electrophoresis, etc.)

Here is template version of the three components above:

“Students will be able to <<verb>> <<something>>”

Strong versus Weak Learning Outcomes

Weak Learning Outcomes	Strong Learning Outcomes
Outcome verbs are vague (e.g., understand, appreciate, comprehend, demonstrate an understanding of) and don’t really get at the intended outcome (how do students demonstrate appreciation?)	Outcome verbs are clear, specific, and demonstrable (e.g., create, calculate, explain, summarize) and make it crystal-clear what students should be able to do at the end of the major or minor
Multiple verbs per learning outcome	One verb per learning outcome
Wordy, packing in multiple ideas and perhaps including assessment demonstrations	Brief and to the point – bullet-point length is fine
Not easy to observe/measure	Readily observable/measurable