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Learning Outcomes Assessment Policy

Policy

1. Introduction

In an outcome-based education, Assurance of Learning Outcomes (AoL) is a structured process of assessing and revising the achievement of learning outcomes. This requires, among other things:

Proper formulation of program goals and learning outcomes (PLOs and CLOs) at the correct level of QFEmirates: 

  • Writing PLOs according to Bloom’s Cognitive Levels.

  • Mapping of Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs) to program goals.

  • Mapping PLOs to QFEmirates Strands.

  • Aligning courses to PLOs through Curriculum Map.

  • Writing Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) according to Bloom’s Cognitive Levels, the curriculum map and the level of PLO.

  • Mapping CLOs to QFEmirates Strands.

This policy describes UD guidelines for writing  and measuring the achievement of Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs) and Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs).


2. Definitions

The following definitions shall be adopted:

  1. Assessment Methods: The pedagogical methods for assessing student performance in a course. It includes formative and summative assessments.

  2. Formative Assessments are usually conducted in-class to assess student understanding of a topic(s) related to a CLO, as learning progress, to decide to move to the next topic or enhance student learning further.

  3. Summative Assessment is part of measuring student performance at the end of a learning phase in a course. It includes projects, quizzes, assignments, written or practical exams.

  4. Curriculum Map is a matrix that maps courses to PLOs to provide gradual learning, identify gaps, repetitions, and misalignments for improving program coherence

  5. Rubric is a marking scheme to measure student performance in a summative assessment.

 

3. Goals and Learning Outcomes

  1. In the literature, the terms Goals and Program Objectives (POs) are used interchangeably to mean the same thing. 

  2. All UD programs shall not include POs, except when required by an international accreditation such as ABET and AACSB.

  3. Every program at UD shall have Goals and Learning Outcomes (PLOs). Program Goals are broad statements that describe what the program intends to accomplish, in terms of providing students with knowledge, skills, and competency in line with Qualification Emirates Framework (QFEmirates).

  4. Learning Outcomes (LOs) are specific statements describing what is expected from the student to know or do, after their completion of the program or courses. There are two common LOs: Program Learning Outcomes (PLOs) and Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs).

4. Writing Goals, PLOs, and CLOs

Components of Goals

  1. Goals should flow from the Mission Statement of the College and UD.

  2. Each goal statement shall be written with 3 components as follows:

    • “An action verb” “Object” “Modifier”.
    • The action verb needs not be from Bloom’s Taxonomy action verbs.
    • Example: Provide students with the knowledge and understanding of the foundation subjects of Common, Civil and Islamic Laws.

  3. It is not advisable to have more than 6 program goals. This does not apply to ABET.

  4. When a program consists of more than one concentration/major, there should be goals for the program and separate goals for each concentration/major. This is to make the assessment of learning outcomes more accurate.

 

Components of PLOs and CLOs

  1. PLOs and CLOs should describe the knowledge, skills, and competency a student will develop after successfully completing the program or course.

  2. PLOs should be more specific than Goals and should flow from the program goals.

  3. CLOs should be more specific than PLOs.

  4. The design of PLOs and CLOs should comply with Standards (Guide to Writing Los 2019), and should be aligned to QFEmirates Strands at the required degree level.

  5. Each PLO and CLO should consist of:

     

    •  An action verb that captures the student's knowledge (explain, describe, list...) or skill (apply, analyze, design, create, test...)
    • A scope that elaborates on the action verb (explain the fundamentals of statistics, evaluate business claims…)
    • Each action verb must be from the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy Action Verbs available at this link: UD Workshops Slides - Google Drive
    • The action verb must reflect the correct QFEmirates Level.

 

Writing PLOs 

  1. Start the PLOs with the phrase:
    “ On successful completion of this program the graduate will be able to…”

  2. It is not advisable to have more than 6 program goals. This does not apply to ABET.

  3. When a program consists of more than one concentration/major, there should be PLOs for the program and separate PLOs for each concentration/major. This is to make the assessment of learning outcomes more accurate.

Writing CLOs 

  1. Start the CLOs with the phrase:
     “ On successful completion of this course the student will be able to…”

  2. It is advisable to have between 4 and 6 CLOs in each course.

  3. Course learning outcomes must flow from the course description.

Notes

  1. Program learning outcomes are broader in scope than course learning outcomes. 

  2. In line with the CAA Standards 2019:
    1. A program learning outcome may have more than one action verb, preferably 2, whereas a course learning outcome should have one action verb only.

    2. Compound CLOs that contain more than one action verb from different levels of Bloom should not be used.

  3. It is advisable to organize program and course learning outcomes in an ascending order (Knowledge, Skills, and Competency) to indicate progression of learning, in accordance with Bloom’s Cognitive Levels and QFEmirates.

  4. To ensure accuracy of assessment of learning outcomes, it is advisable to apply Curriculum Map to map courses to PLOs, prior to writing the CLOs. Refer to the UD QA&IE Workshop slides on Goals, Objectives, and Learning Outcomes available at this link: UD Workshops Slides - Google Drive

  5. It is expected that CLOs of third- and fourth-year courses focus on the higher Bloom’s Cognitive Levels.

  6. For more details on writing goals, learning outcomes, and curriculum map, please refer to the UD QA&IE Workshop slides available at this link: UD Workshops Slides - Google Drive

5. Mapping of Goals, PLOs, and CLOs

All UD programs shall have the following mappings to ensure accuracy of learning outcomes assessments:

  1. Mapping of PLOs to Goals.

  2. Mapping of PLOs to QFEmirates Strands.

  3. Mapping of Courses to PLOs, through the Curriculum Map (see Fig. 1 below).

  4.  Mapping of CLOs to PLOs.

6. Achievement of Learning Outcomes
PLOs are achieved through the achievement of CLOs at the course level, through various assessment methods, such as assignments, exams, capstones, and exit exams. It is, therefore, mandatory that these assessments are precisely and properly aligned to CLOs. The following section describes some guidelines for the precise assessment of PLOs and CLOs.


6.1 Mapping of CLOs to PLOs

There are 2 types of mapping of CLOs to PLOs: One-to-One and One-to-Many (Fig. 2 in the next page). The One-to-One mapping is more effective and easier to implement, than the One-to-Many. In the One-to-One, the achievement of one CLO is mapped directly to the associated PLO, according to the layout of the Curriculum Map. In comparison, in the One-to-Many the achievement of a one CLO must be split among the 2 connected PLOs and this splitting is hard to calculate. All programs at UD shall adopt the One-to-One Mapping between CLOs and PLOs.

6.2 Mapping of Assessment Questions to CLOs

The following are some guidelines to be followed when designing assessment questions:

  1. Assessment question(s) should be properly and precisely aligned to CLOs, according to the Bloom’s Cognitive Levels, as demonstrated below:

  2. For example, the CLO “Evaluate business data using central tendency and hypothesis testing to reach meaningful decisions” requires that the learner makes judgment based on evidence. 


7. Assessment of Multiple-Skill PLOs

Some PLOs may consist of 2 action verbs, each at different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Such PLOs are termed Multiple-Skill PLOs (MSPs). The assessment of such MSPs shall be conducted as follows:

  1. Identify the skills in the MSP;

  2. Align a course, or courses, to each skill in accordance with curriculum map;

  3. Design the CLOs of each course in accordance with the skill complexity (Bloom’s Cognitive Level);

  4. Design the assessments to achieve the CLOs.


As an example, consider the ABET Criterion 3 – Student Outcome 4 : “an ability to recognize ethical and professional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgments, which must consider the impact of engineering solutions in global, economic, environmental, and societal contexts”

This learning outcomes consists of 3 skills (Larry Shuman):

  1. Recognize ethical …

  2. Make informed engineering judgment …

  3. Consider the impact of engineering solutions …

These skills can be assessed in courses, such engineering ethics and sustainability courses. The assessments could be Case study, seminars, group discussion, etc.

 

8. Assurance of Proper Alignment of Assessments to CLOs

  1. A moderation process shall be conducted at the College level to assure that assessments are properly aligned to the CLOs, prior to assessment dates. 

  2. The moderation shall include midterm and final exams, quizzes, and course projects.

  3. The moderation template is available at the QA&IE Department.

  4. All assessment moderations shall be included in the course files (folder 3).

 

9. Assessment of Effectiveness

The QA&IE Department shall conduct an annual audit to ensure adherence to this policy and assess its effectiveness. The following tasks shall be conducted:

  1. Conducting regular workshops to faculty on writing learning outcomes in line with the Standards.

  2. Conduct regular workshops on aligning assessments to CLOs.

  3. Auditing random samples of moderation forms to assess the effectiveness of aligning test questions to CLOs.