Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILOs The experience here at CityU is that the specific differences between the concepts of outcomes, aims, and objectives need to be clarified, in order that OBTL can be better understood as being student-centered and focused on producing deep learning. The distinctions are presented below with reference to the CityU context:

Outcomes
These describe what the learners will be able to do when they have completed their course or programme. They are expressed from the students' perspective so most outcomes statements begin with the phrase: "By the end of this course/programme you will be able to..." followed by a short list of outcomes (normally around five). Outcomes MUST be measurable and assessable.

Therefore, outcomes are more student-centred because, whilst objectives indicate the intentions of the teacher, outcomes are the specific measurable achievements of the successful student.


Outcomes in relation to Aims and Objectives

The experience here at CityU is that the specific differences between the concepts of outcomes, aims, and objectives need to be clarified, in order that OBTL can be better understood as being student-centered and focused on producing deep learning. The distinctions are presented below with reference to the CityU context:

Aims
The aims of a course or programme should summarise broad purposes and goals. Aims can be aspirational and are not necessarily easily measurable. For example, we might have a set of aims or attributes for the City University Ideal Graduate but these might, by their very nature, be more difficult to measure than intended learning outcomes for a particular course.

Objectives
These are best seen as specific intentions that indicate the steps to be taken to achieve our aims or goals as teachers. They should be measurable and indicating the teaching intentions.

Outcomes
These describe what the learners will be able to do when they have completed their course or programme. They are expressed from the students' perspective so most outcomes statements begin with the phrase: "By the end of this course/programme you will be able to..." followed by a short list of outcomes (normally around five). Outcomes MUST be measurable and assessable.
Therefore, outcomes are more student-centred because, whilst objectives indicate the intentions of the teacher, outcomes are the specific measurable achievements of the successful student.

Examples of Intended Learning Outcomes

From Creative Media
ILO: Describe the early history of Chinese language cinema.

From Marketing
ILO: Analyze the marketing strategy of 2 multinational companies (in the same field: Coca Cola / Pepsi - Singapore Airlines / Cathay - Giordano / H&M - McDonald's / Jollibee).

From Environmental Science
ILO: Theorise about the various explanations for the phenomenon commonly called 'Global Warming'.

Having clarified what an outcome is, we can now look at how we create outcomes for our course. They are called Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) because in good learning environments, students also learn many additional things about the academic subject, working with others, dealing with difficult people, teamwork, and general life and learning skills which are not necessarily included in our ILOs. These are called Unintended Learning Outcomes.

Thus: Intended Learning Outcomes are: "Statements of what students are expected to be able to do as a result of engaging in the learning process (studying a lecture/course/programme)".

They are:
  • Expressed from the students' perspective.
  • Expressed in the form of action verbs leading to observable and assessable behaviour.
  • Related to criteria for assessing student performance.


Action Verbs

A well written ILO will make use of action verbs; describe, analyse, theorise. They are just examples and other verbs can be selected from the TAIT Gallery. The Action Verb in the intended learning outcome expresses achievements or what a person does in a concise and observable manner. Intended learning outcomes contain an action verb which identifies what it is a learner can do after successfully completing the course. Action verbs are often organised into a hierarchical structure or levels such as in the SOLO (Structured Observed Learning Outcomes), Bloom's Taxonomy, or Krathwohl's taxonomy of the affective domain. Organising the verbs into a structure helps us classify learning outcomes according to their perceived complexity and decide on appropriate teaching and learning activities and assessment tasks. For example, making a list or describing something is generally seen as a less complex task than generating a new theory from existing concepts.

The three taxonomies can be seen in detail by following this link

So a well written intended learning outcome consists of:

  • Verbs that express what the student is expected to be able to do by the the time the course is completed.
  • Words or phrases that describe the context, the material, the area, subject, etc. which the student works with or experiences.
  • Optionally, words or sentences that describe how the knowledge should be used (individually, in summary, in detail, with the help of, orally, written, etc.)