Intended learning outcomes are direct statements that describe the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that students are expected to demonstrate in successfully completing a course or program.
Learning outcomes describe, from the student’s perspective, what learning looks like. As such, they should be observable and assessable in some way and written in a way that is both rigorous and flexible -- rigorous in that they specify the complexity of the learning that’s expected, and flexible in that the learning might be demonstrated in a variety of ways.
The Faculty of Arts and Science is incorporating intended student learning outcomes into its curriculum, starting with new course additions in 2014/15.
Learning outcomes are also the basis for reviewing curriculum in the Cyclical Program Reviews that Departments undergo as part of the University’s Quality Assurance process.