When considering the role of learning outcomes in instructional design, the first question that came to mind was: are learning outcomes a necessary component of instructional design? Gustafson and Branch (2002) state that all instructional designs should incorporate six characteristics:
- Instructional design is learner-centered: Learner and his/her performance are the focal points.
- Instructional design is goal-oriented: Well-defined goals are essential.
- Instructional design focuses on real-world performance. Help learners perform the behaviors that will be expected of them in the real world.
- Instructional design focuses on outcomes that can be measured in a reliable and valid way. Creating valid and reliable measurement instruments is essential.
- Instructional design is empirical. Data are the heart of the process.
- Instructional design typically is a team effort. This process usually involves teamwork. (Gustafson & Branch, 2002, p. 21)
By looking carefully at the six bullets above, it is clear that learning outcomes are essential to instructional designs. There will be unquestionably differences in the actual learning outcomes identified by instructors; however, well-articulated learning outcomes will be impactful, measurable and reliable. In a podcast, Jon Fox, Professor in Music Industry Careers, discusses the importance of transparent and clearly developed learning goals (Ghazzagh, 2022). He furthermore shares that one major concern for students is “the fear of missing something.” This statement really emphasizes the importance of good instructional design. When learning activities, assignments and goals are clear, easy to navigate and provided consistently, the learning goals and assessments are attainable, and students know what learning is necessary and what outcome is expected to be fairly assessed at the learning outcome stage. Therefore, the role of learning outcomes in instructional design is to ensure that the instructional design itself incorporates the relevant activities that, when accomplished, lead to students meeting the pre-developed learning outcomes. Gustafson and Branch caution that when learning outcomes lack consensus or are expected to fall into place later, they will often fail, suggesting those outcomes will not be met (2002).
Writing learning outcomes in a way that is both engaging and can be reliably assessed can be leveraged again by the above bullets mentioned by Gustafson and Branch (2002); two examples are ensuring that the instructional design is learner-centred and goal-oriented. Understanding learners’ motivation and creating learning objectives that provide real-world, transferable skills and knowledge is one way to engage learners. Secondly, identifying learning goals or the “what do I need to know” for learners is the first step to reliably measuring if those goals have been met. Fox (2012) describes backward design as a unique model in which first, the learning outcomes are created, followed by creating metrics to measure whether the specific outcome was met and lastly, curriculum development. This model furthermore puts learners’ needs at the forefront of the design. If evaluating the effectiveness of learning outcomes compared to learner competencies, Gosselin explains learning outcomes as a glimpse or snapshot of the often specific learning objective the student has met; the objective may be related to an activity versus the ability to apply the knowledge in contexts outside of the instruction or classroom “A true learning outcome is written so that it can be measured or assessed” (Gosselin, 2013). Zhang and West (2020), provide examples of how microlearning is a form of delivering competency-based education, where competency speaks the skills a learner will have once a series of outcomes have been met and more often speaks to large areas of knowledge or professional fields (Gosselin, 2013).
References
Fox, B. E., & Doherty, J. J. (2012). Design to learn, learn to design: Using backward design for information literacy instruction. Communications in Information Literacy, 5(2), 144-155. https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2012.5.2.109
Ghazzagh, J. (Host). (2022, November 06). Going off the Rails in an Online Class [Audio podcast]. MAC Talks. https://anchor.fm/mccidi/episodes/Going-off-the-Rails-in-an-Online-Class-e1qbq2j
Gosselin, D. (2013). Competencies and Learning Outcomes. InTeGrate. https://doi.org/10.2/JQUERY.MIN.JS</div>
Gustafson, K. L., & Branch, R. M. (2002). What is instructional design? Trends and issues in instructional design and technology, 16-25.
Zhang, J., West, R.E. (2020). Designing microlearning instruction for professional development through a competency based approach. TechTrends, 64, 310–318. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-019-00449-4
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