Learning Outcomes

This tool allows instructors to align course and/or program learning outcomes with specific assignments, rubrics, quiz questions, and discussions.  Using a learning outcomes assessment approach allows instructors to separate measures of learning from grades, which may be impacted by factors unrelated to learning (e.g., attendance, participation, and task completion). 

  1. Click on Edit Course in the Navigation Bar
  2. Under Assessment, click Learning Outcomes
  3. Click the Add Outcome button and copy/paste or type in the course outcomes.
    • Outcomes are listed on the main website under Academics --> Explore Courses
  4. Click Save
  5. Select the dropdown arrow to add a lower level outcome, delete, or modify the outcome.

Best Practice Recommendation

The outcomes show up in alphabetical order rather than the order they were entered in.  To maintain organization, we recommend that the objectives be labeled with A, B, C and the lower-level outcomes be labeled with A01, A02, B01, C01.

  1. From a quiz that already has questions, click Add/Edit questions.
  2. Use the checkboxes to select all the questions that align with one outcome
  3. Click More Actions
  4. Click Align to Outcomes
  5. Select the appropriate outcomes
  6. Click Align to Outcomes
  1. Open an existing assignment or create a new assignment
  2. Under the assignment name, click the blue Outcomes link
  3. Select the appropriate outcomes
  4. Click Save
  1. Open an existing discussion topic or create a new discussion topic
  2. Select the Learning Outcomes tab on the top
  3. Click the Add Outcomes button
  4. Click Align to Outcomes.
  1. Open an existing rubric or create a new rubric
  2. Under each criterion select the blue Outcomes link
  3. Select the appropriate outcomes
  4. Click Align to Outcomes
  1. Click Grades in the navigation bar
  2. View Achievements by Mastery
  3. Adjust the Mastery settings to the desired calculation method
    • Most Common: This method selects the most frequent level of evaluation (or the statistical mode) from a selected number of assessments or all assessments in the course.
    • Most Recent: You can use the Most Recent evaluation method to represent the learner’s overall level of achievement related to an outcome. This method is convenient in cases where a high-stakes assessment or end of course summative assessment is provided to the learner. In those scenarios, the learner’s overall outcome achievement in the course is determined by the evaluation of this assessment. This scenario assumes that the summative assessment is the last (or most recent) assessment in the course.
    • Highest: Use the Highest calculation method if the learner’s overall level of outcome achievement in the course should be represented by the highest level achieved on any individual assessment evaluated with this outcome. This method can be used in cases such as competency-based education models where the learner needs to demonstrate mastery related to an outcome at some point in the course or within a range of assessment activities or submission attempts.
    • Decaying Average: The decaying average calculation method provides a weighted average calculation whereby the older assessment evaluations contribute less to the overall calculation compared to newer assessments. This method also offers the options to limit the scope of calculations to a specified number of assessment activities as well as granular control over multiple submission attempts from learners related to an activity.
  4. Publish Achievement Level
    • The Publish All button at the top of the page publishes all of the suggested levels of achievement to all learners for all outcomes. You can publish these items at any time during the course.  The overall level of achievement calculation is updated every time a new assessment activity is evaluated as long as a manual evaluation has not been performed or feedback has not been provided. This provides the learner with a continually updated suggestion regarding the level of performance in the course for each outcome.
    • Once all the evaluations are published, the button becomes Retract All, which allows instructors to retract all the published evaluations. You can publish or retract evaluations at any point in the course depending upon when or if the instructor wants to make the overall level of achievement evaluations visible.
  5. Click on an individual student to view User Progress toward each outcome
  6. Click on achievement level to view evidence towards an individual outcome.