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Empowering Instructors | Supporting Excellence

Learning Outcomes

Understanding and setting goals for students.

On this page:

The Importance of Learning Outcomes

Learning outcomes explain what students should be able to achieve by the end of a course. This may be changes in their knowledge, skills, attitude or behaviors. Learning outcomes are the first element to improve in course design because assessments and activities will subsequently align to these.

In some cases, learning outcomes are supplied by a department or program, in others, instructors are able to write or revise outcomes themselves. In both instances, the goal is to ensure that appropriate and high-quality outcomes will have benefits for academic programs, instructors and students.

  • Instructor: Determining and defining learning outcomes makes it easier to choose or align content and activities.
  • Students: Clear learning outcomes help students understand why and how specific activities will contribute to their understanding. Learning outcomes establish student expectations and increase motivation when students understand the reason for, and value of, what they are doing.

Improving Learning Outcomes

To improve learning outcomes, ensure that they are clear, well-written, and align with the assessment and activities you want students to do.

Step One: Ensure Quality

Learning outcomes characteristics:

  • Specific, measurable, achievable and relevant student-centered statements
  • Expectations for what students are able to do independently by the end of the course
  • References to changes in students' knowledge, abilities and/or skills
  • Incorporate various levels of cognitive complexity
  • Approximately 5-7 per course

Further, Fink recommends focusing on impact by asking yourself what your students will:

  1. know
  2. be able to do
  3. value a year from now

Learning outcomes structure: 3 parts

  • Stem: student-centered, although this does not need to be included (see below).
  • Verb: states what students will do to demonstrate their achievement. It is best to avoid overgeneralized words such as “know”, “appreciate” or “understand”
  • Learning Statement: how students will demonstrate their learning

Student-Centered

(do not need to include)

Verb

(start with verb)

Learning Statement

Students will be able to...

I will be able to...

Describecharacteristics of self-regulated learners
Speakknowledgeably about a scientific research study
Exploreinformation related to infectious diseases
Synthesizemultiple articles to share information with others

The following rubric, adapted from Nilson (2016), measures several of the characteristics listed above. You can use this before writing for further guidance, or after to ensure quality.

Learning outcomes rubric

Step Two: Build Variety

While the above resources may help ensure that a learning outcome is well written, they do not determine the content students should learn in your course. For example, an instructor’s goal may be for students to memorize roles and relationships in an ecosystem. Another might be to analyze the function of these roles, while another may be for students to reflect on their own roles and how they might affect change in their local ecosystem. While the content is the same, goals differ by complexity and focus.

There are several frameworks that attempt to categorize types of learning and the cognitive complexity of activities, but these ultimately rely on the instructor to make choices. Overall, it is best to use a variety of outcomes based on your goals for students and their current ability level. The following frameworks will help you better understand the complexity and focus of your learning outcomes and provide further options for you to consider.

The revised version of Benjamin Bloom’s taxonomy (Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001) categorizes the cognitive complexity of tasks. These categories help determine the difficulty of learning outcomes, types you might want to use, and whether there is variety of complexity between outcomes.

Learn more about Bloom's Taxonomy

Your goals for students, and your field often require more than just cognitive complexity. For example, a future doctor needs to know how to deliver information to patients, not just the information. This taxonomy categorizes other aspects of learning besides cognition such as caring, learning how to learn, and learning about yourself and others.

Learn more about Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning

While Fink’s taxonomy builds on Bloom’s to include non-cognitive outcomes, other taxonomies have continued to address other goals faculty may have for students. Consider the following resources to better understand if these taxonomies align with your goals.

5 critical thinking alternatives to Bloom’s

A brief overview of five alternative taxonomies.

Solo taxonomy

Focuses on classifying learning outcomes by the quality of the task.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Program Learning Outcomes Considerations

Steps towards creating more inclusive outcomes and language.

Writing Learning Outcomes

Step 1:
 Review and choose one or more of the above-mentioned taxonomies.

Step 2:
Using the course planning sheet draft your learning outcomes following the structure and characteristics of quality outcomes listed above. If you already have learning outcomes, ensure that they follow the same structure and quality.

Step 3:
 Identify the specific level within Bloom’s, Fink’s or another taxonomy. Determine if you have an appropriate variety of cognitive complexity or outcome categories, and that these align to your instructional goals.

Step 4:
 Evaluate your learning outcomes using the Learning Outcomes Rubric to ensure quality.

Next Steps

Now that you have drafted learning outcomes, the next step is determine assessments to measure student achievement.

Designing assessments
Course objectives & learning outcomes

An explanation of the difference between course objectives and learning outcomes.

ABCD methods of learning outcomes

A four-step guide for writing learning outcomes.

Developing Learning Outcomes

Another guide for developing learning outcomes.

The intellectual development of science and engineering students: Part one
The intellectual development of science and engineering students: Part two

A history and explanation of the development of complexity in student learning and how researchers have improved frameworks.

For further information about learning outcomes see the following readings.

  • Anderson, L.W. (Ed.), Krathwohl, D.R. (Ed.), Airasian, P.W., Cruikshank, K.A., Mayer, R.E., Pintrich, P.R., Raths, J., & Wittrock, M.C. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Complete edition). New York: Longman.
  • Bloom, B.S. (Ed.), Engelhart, M.D., Furst, E.J., Hill, W.H., & Krathwohl, D.R. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook 1: Cognitive domain. New York: David McKay.
  • Fallahi, C. R. (2008). Redesign of a Life Span Development Course Using Fink’s Taxonomy. Teaching of Psychology, 35(3), 169–175. 
  • Fallahi, C. R. (2011). Using Fink’s Taxonomy in Course Design. Association of Psychological Science. Retrieved from https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/using-finks-taxonomy-in-course-design.
  • Irvine, J. (2017). A Comparison of Revised Bloom and Marzano’s New Taxonomy of Learning. Research in Higher Education Journal, 33.
  • Krathwohl, D. R. (2002). A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy: An Overview. Theory Into Practice, 41(4), 212–218. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip4104_2
  • Nilson, L. B. (2016). Teaching at Its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors (Fourth). San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.Blooms (Sub-page)
  • Noyd, R. K. et & Staff of The Center for Educational Excellence. A Primer on Writing Effective Learning-Centered Course Goals. US Air Force Academy, Retrieved from https://docplayer.net/6680344-A-primer-on-writing-effective-learning-centered-course-goals.html