Being in the middle of the re-validation process for my MA course I am often thinking about what are appropriate Learning Outcomes and also the relevance of them. It was valuable in our PGCert Workshop 4 to discuss and debate them and to understand how other academics and schools approach them. In our breakout group we created a SWOT board and analysed Learning outcomes from my course in the Business School with a course in the school of design. Both sets of LOs seemed ambiguous and had considerable overlap – if tutors find them confusing how can students understand them! Also they are often very prescriptive and restrict more creative methods and unique ways of thinking. It is a shame that we “grade” often 1 route versus encouraging a more constructivist practice based on co-creation. One of the key issues was how especially some action verbs can mean a variety of things, connecting to an argument put forth by Davies (2012):
“To insist on using terms such as ‘identify’, ‘explain, ‘analyse’ and so on does not make the task of assessment any easier since explanations and analyses, etc, are discipline specific and are likely to be equally ambiguous for students who have not been yet been inducted into the language of the discipline.”
This made me think about emphasising the noun outputs e.g. [identify] drivers of global fashion marketing versus the action as we all will have different “journeys” to the “destination”. Our conversation also is encouraging me to really simplify language and be as straightforward as possible to accommodate a variety of learners and language abilities. Not only does this make expectations clear for students, but more importantly for tutors who can then more effectively provide support and feedback. I was particularly impressed by Pg Colleague Luke who coded a very effective format of providing feedback and I hope this can be adopted and implemented across the university.
This process has allowed me to challenge and refine LOs in future and create a more holistic learning experience!
Davies, A., 2012. Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria in Art and Design: What’s the Recurring Problem. Networks, 18(9).
