Rough Guide to writing learning outcomes at Aston University
This rough guide provides a ‘quick reference’ to writing learning outcomes within the context of effective
programme-level design.
Background:
In 2013, Aston University introduced a set of design principles intended to reshape modules and
programmes in order to enhance the learning experiences of students and the working lives of staff. The
principles include:
Principle: no more than four learning outcomes for any module
Principle: no more than two pieces of assessment for any module
Principle: no more than 2,000 words (or equivalent) of assessment per 10 credits within a module
Principle: 10cr modules should be an exception not a norm
The full guidance can be found in the Quality A-Z on the Aston intranet but this resource is about the first
guideline – ensuring modules have no more than four learning outcomes.
The problem with learning outcomes at Aston:
Some modules have a large number of learning outcomes often arranged under the headings of
‘knowledge and understanding’, ‘intellectual skills’ etc. The organisation of learning outcomes under these
headings is no longer required or desired. Module leaders should be looking to move to modules having no
more than four learning outcomes (with no subheadings at all). If a professional body requires you to have
more – then that’s OK, you’ll just need to make your case when your module is next formally reviewed.
What are learning outcomes?
Learning outcomes exist at programme and module level. Programme learning outcomes describe what a
student is expected to learn as a consequence of successfully completing a programme. Often, it makes
sense to draw programme learning outcomes directly from the published expectations of a professional
body. It is not normal practice for module learning outcomes to be directly derived from the programme
learning outcomes. That is to say you should not simply divide up programme learning outcomes and
distribute them into modules in order to author module learning outcomes.
Instead, module learning outcomes should reflect programme learning outcomes within a specific module
context.
For example, a programme learning outcome on CLIPP’s MEd course reads: “On successful completion of
their programme students are expected to be able to engage in the process of critical review in relation to
their own practice and that of others.”
Within the module Promoting Quality Processes in Academic Programmes, this programme learning
outcome is reflected in the following module learning outcome:
“On successful completion of the module the student will be able to:
Reflect critically on the conceptual approaches to quality assurance and enhancement in the
context of higher education”
Within another module (Evolving Your Teaching Practice), this same programme learning outcome is
reflected as:
“On successful completion of the module the student will be able to:
Critically reflect on their identity as a teacher in Higher Education”
You can see how the overarching programme learning outcome is delivered in different ways on different
modules. It’s worth taking a look at your programme’s curriculum map; there you will see how individual
programme outcomes are picked up multiples times across a programme. A section of the MEd curriculum
map is shown below:
You can see how programme learning outcome B2 is picked up by the two example modules (and others as
well). Each module will reflect some of the programme outcomes and between the modules all
programme learning outcomes will be picked up at least once. Remember, students MUST be able to
achieve ALL of the programme learning outcomes. You couldn’t have an optional module being the only
module to pick up a particular programme learning outcome – if the student chose a different module they
wouldn’t be able to achieve all of the programme learning outcomes. So, if you rewrite (and reduce) some
learning outcomes, you should check that your changes don’t have a negative impact on the students’
ability to achieve the programme learning outcomes. Check the curriculum map for your programme.
N.B. Although we aren’t currently using the subheadings of ‘knowledge and understanding’ etc. at module
level, we are using them at programme level at the moment (although this may change in the near future).
So, how do we write module learning outcomes?
Module learning outcomes are intimately related to assessment. Modules are the vehicles through which
we assess students - and we assess them specifically against the module learning outcomes. You shouldn’t
(re)write learning outcomes in isolation of (re)designing the module assessment. This is to ensure that
modules remain ‘aligned’ – i.e. you are assessing what you intend for the students to be learning.
Because the assessment and the learning outcomes are so intimately related, it is true that someone who
passes a module (as measured through assessment) must have met the learning outcomes. Therefor the
learning outcomes represent the threshold pass level for the module. Your assessment criteria should
reflect this – demonstration of additional learning should yield additional marks and your assessment
design and marking scheme must allow for this.
There is an accepted structure to the wording of learning outcomes:
“The outcome statements contain a learning activity, a verb, that students need to perform to best achieve
the outcome, such as “apply expectancy-value theory of motivation”, or “explain the concept of … “. That
verb says what the relevant learning activities are that the students need to undertake in order to attain
the intended learning outcome. Learning is constructed by what activities the students carry out; learning is
about what they do, not about what we teachers do. Likewise, assessment is about how well they achieve
the intended outcomes, not about how well they report back to us what we have told them or what they
have read.” (Biggs, 2016. www.johnbiggs.com.au)
Each module learning outcome must be assessed at least once, and there should be no element of
assessment that falls outside the scope of the learning outcomes.
Learning outcomes should drive the type, nature and content of the assessment; and in return, the type,
nature and content of the assessment should map to the style and mode of teaching. In this way, the there
is a tightly designed circuit in which there should be no more and no less than the explicit learning
outcomes and aligned assessment tasks.
In order to enhance the relationship between learning outcomes and assessment it is essential to think
carefully about the way in which a learning outcome is written. The challenge is to ensure that the
learning outcome is measureable; and this often relates to the choice of verb. For example, a learning
outcome that requires a student to ‘understand’ career choices in science requires an assessment activity
aligned to the verb ‘understanding’; this can lead to vague or misleading assessment. Instead, the learning
outcome could be re-written to require a student to ‘review’ career choices in science. This simple change
enables a clear and aligned assessment task to be designed based on a (written) review.
It is often assumed that the design of a module proceeds from learning outcome to assessment. However,
when designing a module you could start from the assessment: what is it you want students to be able to
do by the end of the module? Then from this you can figure-out the learning outcomes that are aligned to
this. And the design process doesn't stop there: it is an iterative design process or writing, testing and
refining learning outcome and assessment until you are confident that they are indeed aligned and that
there is nothing extra or left out between them. It is often necessary to write the marking rubric to really
figure-out if assessment and learning outcomes are fully aligned. This will also allow you to work out how
the learning outcomes map to a threshold pass and what the students need to do in order to get higher
marks.
Your set of four (or less) learning outcomes will normally be prefaced with the following statement:
“On successful completion of this module a student will be able to:”
The learning outcomes then follow on. E.g.:




Critically reflect on their identity as a teacher in Higher Education
Explain and discuss diversity and inclusion in the context of anti-discriminatory practice
Select and apply different conceptual approaches to learning, including the use of learning
technologies
Take responsibility for professional practice in relation to methods for teaching and assessment for
a specific context
It is normally better to use the prefacing statement shown above as it focuses on what the students will be
able to do, although sometimes it is acceptable to preface the learning outcomes with:
“On successful completion of this module a student will have knowledge and understanding of:”
Or, you can include both if need be – e.g. two under each.
This second prefacing statement is sometimes useful for first year modules where the intention is for
students to learn underpinning theory and a precursor to modules that focus on application of knowledge
in the following stages.
That is a quick guide to writing or rewriting module learning outcomes. Further support is available from
the CLIPP academics. Please contact [email protected] if you would like to access such support.
We hope you have found this ‘rough guide’ useful.
Dr Julian Lamb
Professor Paul Bartholomew
February 2016