The University of Guelph has been incorporating learning outcomes for many years now. They were one of the first to specifically define what students would learn starting in the late 1980s. A set of five institutional learning outcomes was established in 2012 that includes critical and creative thinking; literacy; global understanding; communication; and professional and ethical behaviour.
This project attempted to align and refine course- and program-level outcomes and their assessments through a collaboration with Desire2Learn (D2L) that focused initially on two programs: Bachelor of Arts and Science and Bachelor of Engineering with the goal of eventually scaling up to the institution as a whole.
As with all LOAC projects, researchers at U of Guelph found that faculty engagement was crucial to ensure success. They also found that professional support was critically important given the online natures of the tool being developed.
The research team found that they could successfully track student achievement of learning outcomes using the online tool developed with D2L. More work can be done going forward to ensure the tool fulfills all pedagogical needs and continues to evolve based on the needs and feedback of everyone involved.
Materials and Outcomes
Throughout the course of this project, updates and final reports will be posted here.
University of Guelph Evaluates Online Outcomes Assessment Tool The University of Guelph was one of the first institutions to define the skills students would learn in their programs. This evolved into a list of five institutional learning outcomes that were approved in 2012. As a next step, researchers worked in collaboration with Desire2Learn (D2L), a […]