School for Academic Administrators: Learning Objectives

School for Academic Administrators:Learning Objectives Rodney A. Webb, Associate Vice-President, Academic January 24, 2005

UPRAC requirements – why? • Background to the changes: • Jurisdictions around the world – Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States – have a greater focus on accountability with a new focus on student achievement • Quality assurance for degrees and international accreditation of degree programs is increasingly higher on governmental agendas • Degree level qualifications frameworks for graduate and undergraduate degrees are being prepared for Ontario universities and colleges

UPRAC requirements • York’s Senate UPR Policy and Procedures updated in accordance with UPRAC requirements and approved by Senate December 2004. • Consistency of the program with …….. the standards, educational goals and learning objectives of the degree • …….. effectiveness of the admission requirements (eg., preparation and achievement) for the learning objectives of the degree and the program • Relationship of the program’s structure and curriculum to its learning objectives

UPRAC requirements - contd • Relationship and effectiveness of the mode of delivery …… to the program’s learning objectives • Appropriateness of the methods used for the evaluation of student progress and, where possible, consideration of the effectiveness of the methods used • The level of achievement of students, consistent with the educational goalsfor the program, the learning objectives, the degree and institutional standards;

UPRAC requirements contd • Appropriateness and effectiveness of the utilization of the existing human/physical/financial resources • Articulation of indicators that provide evidence of the quality of the program’s faculty and students, the program’s graduation rate, length of studies, etc., And the achievement of learning objectives.

Goals, learning objectives, learning outcomes • ‘The curricular content, admission requirements, mode of delivery, bases of evaluation of student performance, commitment of resources and overall quality of any undergraduate program and its courses are all necessarily related to its goals, learning objectives and learning outcomes’*: • Goalsprovide an overview for students, instructors and program/course evaluators of what the program or courses aim to accomplish (difficult to measure directly – helps us to focus on the big picture) • Learning objectives for the program are an expression of what the unit intends the student to have learned or achieved by the end of the program (more specific than a goal - measurable) • Learning outcomes are what the student has actually learned or achieved in the program • * Quotation from the UPRAC Guidelines.

Learning Objectives • Learning objectives are statements which describe what the learner is expected to achieve by taking the program • sometimes these statements are called • Behavioral objectives • Learning outcomes • Enabling objectives • Terminal objectives • Educational objectives • Performance objectives • Instructional objectives • Aims • Competencies

Why engage in this process? • We are required to…….. • + • provides guidelines for using objectives to design your program • objectives allow the unit to know where it intends to go - increases the chances that the unit and the learner will follow that path • goals and objectives - fundamental to selecting appropriate curriculum/content for a new program, or for determining the degree of alignment of curriculum/content with same • if learning activities centred in the curriculum do not align well with learning objectives, then assessment of how well the objectives are being met will be poor

Engagement + • the process benefits our students – • Students can see how components in courses are related to the educational goals and learning objectives of the program • Methods and content of assessment of learning outcomes will correspond to the stated learning objectives • Students will better understand why there are various core components and what they are expected to be able to do after the instruction

Dynamics – an iterative process

Example from our ‘doorstep’ • University of Guelph Learning Objectives (approved in 1987): • Literacy • Numeracy • Sense of Historical Development • Global Understanding • Moral Maturity • Aesthetic Maturity • Understanding of Forms of Inquiry • Depth and Breadth of Understanding • Independence of Thought • Love of Learning

Indicators of ‘learning outcomes’ • Articulation of indicators that provide evidence of the quality of the program’s faculty and students, the program’s graduation rate, length of studies, etc., and the achievement of learning objectives • Previously, many indicators of program quality were centred on inputs i.e. quality of the faculty (= # with PhDs), quality of student body on entry • Although there may be typical institutional indicators, quality indicators are best developed by the program as many indicators are likely to be program specific

School for Academic Administrators: Learning Objectives