Course Design

Student-centered CLOs are statements of what a student should be able to do that demonstrates the knowledge and skills they’ve gained in your course. They represent the enduring understandings students should have upon completing the course. Highline’s Assessment Committee advises that CLOs should:

1. Contain a performance statement

2. Be measurable

3. Be specific

4. Be concerned with learning (not teaching)

5. Be related to the end, rather than the means

Outcomes should also be written in a way that ensures all students, including English language learners, can readily understand what is expected of them by the end of the course. The Assessment Committee further explains criteria for student-centered CLOs here, which includes CLO examples.

Activities to support developing clear and effective CLOs:

1. Here is a short presentation on developing CLOs that can help guide faculty on how to write CLOs that meet all of the above requirements.

2. Here is an activity to help faculty design CLOs by discerning between enduring understandings and other knowledge that is less essential (adapted from Mark Sample's 2011 article "Teaching for enduring understanding" in the Chronicle of Higher Education.)

In this step, instructors should consider two questions:

1. What evidence must students provide to demonstrate they have achieved the CLOs?

2. What assessment methods will allow students to best demonstrate or provide that evidence?

It is crucial that assessments align with and match the stated CLOs. See the alignment Table below for an example of matching assessment to CLO. In addition, the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principle of “multiple means of action and expression” stresses the importance of allowing students to demonstrate their learning in different ways. This is an important equity and accessibility consideration in supporting students of diverse backgrounds.

Instructors can find more resources about assessment on the Assessment Committee website and on the Assessment page of TIDL’s website.

Content and instruction come last in backward design. Now that the CLOs and assessment methods have been established, instructors have a clear path forward to design content and learning experiences that will lead to the desired results. Instructors should consider:

1. What do students already know? And what knowledge (even imperfect) will students bring to the course?

2. What knowledge, skills, and abilities will students need to learn to perform effectively and achieve desired CLOs?

3. What relevant practice and scaffolds will help solidify the knowledge, skills, and abilities?

To be relevant, the practice and scaffolding should match the CLO expectation. For example, if a CLO requires a student to properly install a LAN or solve quadratic equations, then at some point, they should have practiced LAN installation or solving equations.