Learning Outcomes

Getting Started with Learning Outcomes

The D2L Learning Outcomes tool provides an additional method to track and evaluate student achievement by aligning course and/or program-level student learning outcomes (SLOs) with D2L assessments. Using learning outcomes can provide insights into student achievement across all course assessments.

Create or add Learning Outcomes to D2L Course(s).

Associate Learning Outcomes with D2L Assessments.

View achievement data through Mastery View.

1 - Create Learning Outcomes2 - Associate Learning Outcomes with Assessments3 - Learning Outcomes Mastery ViewLearning Outcomes Best PracticesEditing Learning OutcomesUnlinking Learning Outcomes

1 – Create Learning Outcomes

From within a course/master course, select Course Admin from the Manage Course menu.
Within the Assessment section, select Learning Outcomes.

Note: If you are currently using Competencies within a course, you will need to remove them in order to access the Learning Outcomes tool.

Select an Achievement Scale.

Note: Learning Outcomes are assessed based on the selected achievement scale. LCC’s default achievement scale is a four-level scale.

Prior to adding Learning Outcomes, consider how best to organize them. Outcomes will appear in alphabetical order rather than the order they were entered in. If maintaining an order is important, eLearning recommends using a numbering or letter system.
If setting up an organizational scheme:

Select Add Outcome, enter the category heading (SLO1, SLO2, SLO3 etc.)
Select Save.
Select the … menu for the appropriate category, then select Add lower-level outcome.

Note: Be sure to add the outcomes or objectives to the desired category as there is no way to move them. They would need to be deleted and recreated within a category.

Copy/paste or type the outcome or objective.
Select Save.

Repeat this process until all outcomes and objectives have been added.

2 – Associate Learning Outcomes with Assessments

Once you’ve created your Learning Outcomes structure for your course, you’ll need to associate the outcomes to items within your course so they can be tracked and measured. Learn how to add Learning Outcomes to assessments and rubrics by exploring the sections below.

Note: Regarding Learning Outcomes for Surveys and Self-Assessments: LOs are not an option to align with surveys and/or self-assessments as these tools are not assessed.

Assignments

From the Assessments Menu, select Assignments.
Select the arrow next to the assignment you wish to associate Learning Outcomes to, and select Edit Assignment.
Select Outcomes.

Check the box for each outcome you’d like to add to the assignment.

Select Save.
To remove outcomes from the assignment, select the X for the outcome you wish to remove.

Select Save and Close.

Discussions

From the Assessments Menu, select Discussions.
Select the arrow next to the Discussion Topic you wish to associate Learning Outcomes to, and select Edit Topic.
Select the Learning Outcomes tab.

Select Add Outcomes

Check the box for each outcome you’d like to add to the discussion topic.
Select Align Outcomes.
Select Close.

Quizzes

Note: eLearning recommends creating an outline in Word or Excel of all quiz questions and the outcomes/objectives they align with prior to building in D2L. This will make the process of aligning outcomes/objectives in D2L much faster.

From the Assessments menu, select Quizzes.
Locate the desired quiz, and select Edit from the menu options.
Using the outline you created as your guide, within the Questions section:

Select all the checkbox(es) for the questions that align with a particular outcome, or if preferred select one question at a time. For example, if questions 1, 3, 5, 12, and 20 align with the same outcome, select the checkboxes to apply the outcome to all.
Select the More Actions menu, then select Align to Outcomes.

If the quiz question is shared among other quizzes or the question library, a pop-up message will appear. Read the message, and select Continue to move froward.
Select the checkbox for one or more outcomes to apply it to all of the selected questions.

Review outcomes that have been applied to each question by viewing the items below each question.

To edit or remove an outcome from a quiz question:

Select the checkbox for that particular question.
Select More Actions then Align to Outcomes.
If the pop-up message appear, select Continue.
Select or deselect the outcomes for the question.
Select Save.

Select Save and Close to maintain all changes.

Rubrics

From the Assessments menu, select Rubrics.
Open an existing rubric or create a new rubric.
Under each criterion select the Outcomes link.

Select the check box for each appropriate outcome.
Select Align Outcomes.

NOTE: The selected outcomes will be listed under the criterion.

Repeat as needed for each criterion in the rubric.
Select Close.

3 – Learning Outcomes Mastery View

The Mastery View dashboard, located within a course D2L Gradebook, displays all student learning outcomes that have been associated with D2L assessments. This dashboard allows instructors to monitor and analyze students’ level of achievement of the defined student learning outcomes (SLOs) as assessments are completed and graded.

Note: Mastery View becomes available within a course or master course gradebook when learning outcomes have been imported or created. Learning outcomes will populate into Mastery View once they have been associated with a D2L assessment.

Use Mastery View to:

Monitor and analyze student achievement across all outcomes.
Monitor overall comprehension of a learning outcome across all students.
Identify outcomes students may be struggling with, spot areas for growth and development, and evaluate the design and efficiency of course assessments and pedagogies.
View a color-coded, visual representation of achievements to identify trends and areas of concern.
Drill further into individual students’ progress and performance by viewing the specific assessment items associated with each outcome, and provide feedback or manually override achievement levels using professional judgment.
Publish achievements and feedback to students either all at once or individually.

Note: In order for students to view their progress towards meeting defined learning outcomes, instructors must publish the levels of achievement from Mastery View; similar to how Final Grades must be released in the Gradebook in order for students to view them. Students can view learning outcomes associated with each assessment, as well as their overall level of achievement through Class Progress.

Accessing Mastery View from the Gradebook

From within a D2L course, select Grades from the navigation bar.
Select the Mastery View button.

The Mastery View screen will open and display users in the course and their levels of achievement.

Select Mastery View Settings to select one of the following calculation methods:

Most Common (default) – This method should be selected to determine student’s most frequent level of evaluation (or the statistical mode) from a selected number of assessments or all assessments in the course.

Most Recent – This method should be selected in cases where a high-stakes assessment or end of course summative assessment is required. In those scenarios, the student’s overall outcome achievement in the course is determined by the evaluation of this assessment. This scenario assumes that the summative assessment is the last (or most recent) assessment in the course.

Highest – This method should be selected if the student’s overall level of outcome achievement in the course should be represented by the highest level achieved on any individual assessment evaluated with this outcome. This method can be used in cases such as competency-based education models where students need to demonstrate mastery related to an outcome at some point in the course or within a range of assessment activities or submission attempts.

Decaying Average – This method should be selected to determine a weighted average. The decaying average calculation method provides a weighted average calculation whereby the older assessment evaluations contribute less to the overall calculation compared to newer assessments. This method also offers the options to limit the scope of calculations to a specified number of assessment activities as well as granular control over multiple submission attempts from students related to an activity.

Learning Outcomes Best Practices

Below are a series of best practices to follow when using the Learning Outcomes tool in D2L. By following these guidelines, you can simplify and streamline the process of adding learning outcomes, as well as help ensure you get the most usable data for you and your students.

Before Adding Learning Outcomes to D2L

Before adding learning outcomes in D2L, create a list of all course assessments (discussions, quizzes/quiz questions, assignments, and rubric criteria) and identify the learning outcome(s) they align with. This will make the process in D2L go much quicker and smoother. Learning Outcomes cannot be aligned with D2L tools that are not assessed, such as surveys and/or self-assessments.

Note: Quiz questions can be exported out of D2L into a Word document using Respondus 4.0 for easier alignment.

Organizing and Structuring Learning Outcomes

Four child learning outcomes with checkboxes nested under a parent outcome with no checkbox.

Before adding learning outcomes to a semester or master course, consider how best to organize them. Key factors to consider before setting up outcomes within D2L are:

In the Learning Outcomes tool, outcomes will appear in alphabetical order rather than the order they were entered. If maintaining an order is important, use a numbering or letter system or use shortcodes to identify LOs.
Only the lowest-level outcome(s) can be assessed. If you are setting up a parent/child scheme, only the child-level outcomes will be assessable.
Example: In this setup, only the child-level outcomes (2.1, 2.2, 2.3 & 2.4) are assessable. The parent-level outcome (SLO 2 – Demonstrate safe driving practices) is not. If you need to assess a parent-level outcome, organize the outcomes so that they are all at a single level.

Using Learning Outcomes in Semester and Master Courses

Set up learning outcomes in a Master Course (either personal or program/department) due to the dynamic nature of the Learning Outcomes Tool. When learning outcomes are copied into another course, a source course/target course relationship is established. Edits made to LOs in the Source Course will automatically permeate to all Target Courses.

Source Course – The original course where the learning outcomes were created.
Target Course – Any course that a Source Course was copied into.

Maintaining a master course provides these benefits:

Actively used master courses will remain available to enrolled users, while semester courses are available for up to one year after the end date of the course in Banner.
Using a master course with Learning Outcomes in the title helps clearly identify which course is the Source Course

Copying Learning Outcomes Between Courses

When learning outcomes are copied into another course, a source course/target course relationship is established. Edits made to Outcomes in the Source Course will automatically permeate to all Target Courses.

Source Course – The original course where the learning outcomes were created.
Target Course – Any course that a Source Course was copied into.

Learning outcomes in Target Courses can not be edited. Edits must be made within the Source Course.

Using Program Achievement Scales

Learning Outcomes are assessed based on the selected achievement scale. LCC’s default achievement scale is a four-level scale. Custom achievement scales can be created upon request to better align with program and/or accreditation requirements. To inquire about a custom achievement scale, contact the eLearning Department.

Aligning Outcomes to Assessment Strategies

Review your assessment strategy to ensure your assessments align with the correct learning outcomes. Also consider:

Do I have outcomes that are under or over-assessed (too few/many assignments measuring the outcome)?
Do the scope and complexity of the assignment(s) align with the learning outcome(s)?

Aligning Learning Outcomes to D2L Assessments

To be aligned with a learning outcome, assessments must exist in D2L. Learning outcomes cannot be directly aligned to a gradebook item. If an assessment is completed outside D2L (e.g. a presentation given in a face-to-face class), create an assignment link for it in D2L and change the submission type to On Paper Submission or Observed in Person as appropriate.

Using Outcomes on Formative and Summative Assessments

Learning outcomes can be attached to both smaller, low-stakes (formative) assessments, as well as larger (summative) assessments designed to measure student achievement like exams or projects. Attaching Learning Outcomes to different assessment types can be valuable depending on the types of data you want to gather:

Use learning outcomess on Formative Assessments to:

Get a sense of how students are learning throughout the course
Identify challenging content or topics early
Provide students regular opportunities to assess their own learning

Use learning outcomess on Summative Assessments to:

Determine if learning outcomes are being met effectively
Compare different sections, modalities, or semesters of similar courses to determine best instructional practices

Using Mastery View to Interpret Learning Outcomes Data

Mastery View can help you get a sense of how well your students are performing on each outcome.

If you have multiple assessments or questions linked to a learning outcome, consider using the MOST COMMON or DECAYING AVERAGE calculation method. This can provide a clearer picture of how students have performed over multiple assessments.
Review outcomes where multiple students are in lower achievement bands. These might be opportunities to restructure assessments, provide additional learning support such as resources, or highlight out-of-class resources like tutoring or the LCC library.
If you teach multiple sections of the same course across different modalities (Online, F2F, etc), or the same course over multiple semesters, comparing mastery view across courses can provide insight into which teaching strategies or assessments are more effective in specific contexts.

Editing Learning Outcomes

How a learning outcome (LO) was added to a course determines how and if it can be edited. Please view the table below to determine if the outcome(s) can be edited:

How were the LOs added to the course?	Can the LOs be edited?
Manually Added	Yes
Copied from another course	Yes, but LOs must be unlinked from the source course first
Imported from the Achievement Standards Network (ASN)	No
Imported from the Program Level	No

From the Manage Course menu, Select Course Admin.
Select Learning Outcomes.
To edit a LO, select the Options menu, then select Edit. Make necessary edits, then select Save.

How edits made to LOs will reflect in other course(s) depends on the relationship between those cousres. Use the following information to guide you:

Source Course – The original course where LOs were created.
Target Course – Any course that a Source Course was copied into.

You can edit LOs in both Source and Target courses. How D2L handles these edits depends on the relationship between source and target courses and if they have already been copied.

Where are you trying edit LOs?	Expected Outcome
In a Source Course that has been copied into Target Courses.	All edits made within a Source Course will permeate to all Target Courses, unless LOs have been unlinked within the Target Course.
In a Source Course that has not been copied into Target Courses.	Edits can be made to LOs. Once copied into Target Courses, all edits to LOs will permeate to the Target Courses.
In a Target Course that has been unlinked from the Source Course.	Edits can be made to LOs in a Target Course once the LOs have been unlinked from the Source Course.
In a Target Course that has not been unlinked from the Source Course.	Edits cannot be made to LOs in a Target Course if the LOs are still linked with a Source Course. The link to the Source Course must be broken before edits can be made within the Target Course.

Unlinking Learning Outcomes

NOTE: Be cautious when unlinking LOs from its Source Course. Unlinking LOs is permanent and cannot be reversed. Unlinked LOs will not inherit any changes made to Outcome in the Source Course. Additionally, assessed LOs data will not be included in the report of the Source Course LOs.

Unlinking a Single Learning Outcome
Unlinking Multiple Learning Outcomes

Unlinking a Single Learning Outcome

From the Manage Course menu, Select Course Admin.
Select Learning Outcomes.

Locate the Learning Outcome to be unlinked from a Source Course.
Select the options menu for the outcome, then select Unlink from Source.

Once unlinked, users can follow the steps above to edit an outcome.

Unlinking Multiple Learning Outcomes

From the Manage Course menu, Select Course Admin.
Select Learning Outcomes.

From the More Actions menu, select Unlink Outcomes.
Select the checkbox(es) for each Learning Outcome to be unlinked from the Source Course.

Select Unlink.
Read the Unlink outcomes from the source? confirmation popup. If you wish to proceed with unlinking outcomes, select Unlink All.