Abstract:

Campus leaders are struggling to create learning outcome management programs that contribute to substantive improvements in student achievement. Departments often spend countless hours on manual processes that may meet the letter but not the spirit of accreditation requirements and leave limited time to actually assess curriculum strengths and weaknesses.

This paper explains the increasing call for student learning accountability at U.S. universities and gives examples of how technology supports data driven solutions that enable thorough analysis and improvement of underperforming outcomes. It also looks at methods for inspiring faculty to develop learning outcomes in their courses as they make the shift from a teaching to a learning paradigm (Barr and Tagg 1995). A range of perspectives is presented from the traditional faculty-freedom institution to centralized, online for profit universities.

In their book “Disrupting Class”, Christensen, Horn, and Johnson (2008) assert that innovation occurs when an organization discovers a new model for delivering goods or services to non-consumers which creates a market on a new plane from the predominant existing market. The rise of the online, for-profit university served as such a disruptive change to the higher education community. A key contribution of the online medium has been its sharp focus on learning outcomes along with its ability to document everything that takes place in the virtual classroom. This, in turn, has pressured traditional universities to play catch-up as faculty are challenged, oftentimes for the first time, to document student learning outcomes.

Essentially, it becomes vital that there be no disconnect between the outcomes creator(s), the professors, the students, and the tasks. Using a curriculum design tool such as Understanding by Design (Wiggins and McTighe, 2006) can help groups deal with the needs of the specific student, while still creating a framework of learning for the collective. This process calls for curriculum integration, problem-based learning, essential knowledge, enduring understanding, and authentic assessment. And in the end, deeper learning outcomes connected to better curriculum design leads to richer data and diagnostic capability.

Technology-based outcome management tools provide institutions with scalable solutions to improve teaching and learning. Well designed programs engage technology to automate what has been an arduous, manual process and provide an opportunity to dramatically increase student cognitive engagement. The paper concludes by presenting key features to consider when selecting outcome management software along with some basic implementation plans that have been successfully initiated on campus. Readers should have concrete ideas for how peer institutions have developed technology enhanced plans along with thoughts about how to make logical connections to their local contexts.

References:

Barr, R. B. & Tagg, J. (1995, November/December). From teaching to learning--a new paradigm for undergraduate education. Change Magazine, 27 (6): 12-25.

Christensen, C. M., Horn, M. B., & Johnson, C. W. (2008). Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Wiggins, G., McTighe, J., & Tomlinson, C.A. (2006). Understanding by design and
differentiated instruction: Partners in classroom success . San Francisco, CA: ASCD Publishing.

Keywords:

student learning outcome evaluation and assessment, technology enhanced.