The Centrality of Outcomes

On Monday, I attended a workshop given by Prof. Harry Hubble (more details here) on Curriculum Development. Harry is well respected in the International Teaching and Learning community, and had a great deal of value to give, substantially more than could be delivered in a two hour workshop. The workshop was captured, and will be available on the NAIRTL website on video in due course.

What I picked up from the workshop was the centrality of having clearly and well defined learning outcomes before setting out to design your curriculum. If you don't have clear definition and agreement on what your course/programme/institution is trying to achieve, good luck with getting any coherent output.

One of the in-class exercises Harry set was to come up with learning outcomes at an Institutional level. What are the Universal Learning Outcomes one of our graduates (regardless of discipline) should achieve?

People came up with lots of good ones, to my mind, they all fitted into a framework of three pillars:

The Craft of Learning

They must have learned how to learn. They are capable of self directed learning. They are committed to lifelong learning and continious development. This is vital in a world where the half life of technical knowledge is increasingly short.

The Application of Reason

They must be able to do high order critical thinking, to Reason, to see past the headline. They must have the information literacy to assess the quality of evidence, the capacity to develop a reasoned course of action based on that, and an understanding of the scientific method (in the broad sense) so they can adapt their strategies in light of what works.

The Skills of the Discipline

They must an acceptible competance in the skills of their discipline. Calculate a dosage, conduct an interview, design a doorway - they actually have to be able to do what the degree says they can do.

I had it all wrapped up in this neat framework until somebody mentioned Ethics, which didn't even occur to me. I'm a child of the 80's. We don't do Ethics.

Nevertheless, the framework was useful to me in understanding what a University should do, and how important the first two pillars are. Universities claim to operate above the level of Technical Colleges and vocationally focused tertiary education. If we don't deliver on those first two pillars, we are kidding ourselves.

Note:

This is slightly off-topic for the blog, but framing good outcomes at course level is going to be central, and should drive the how, which and whether of your usage of Technology Assisted Learning.

I will add the link to the Video on the NAIRTL website once it becomes available.