Library Instruction: Learning Outcomes

Learning outcomes are statements that describe the learning that students can demonstrate at the end of a course, program, or class.  

Structure of a Learning Outcome: 

1.  an action work that identifies the performance to be demonstrated 
2. a learning statement that specifies what learning will be demonstrated in the performance 
3. a broad statement of criterion or standard for acceptable performance 

ABCD (audience, behavior, condition, and degree) method:

• Audience: Who is the target audience? (e.g., "FYS students will be able to")
• Behavior: What is the work to be accomplished by the learner? (e.g., "distinguish") 
  • Should be both observable and measurable behaviors
  • Should refer to action verbs that describe behaviors 
    • avoid verbs such as know, understand, learn, believe, know 
• Condition: What are the conditions/constraints in which the learners will be expected to perform these tasks? (e.g., "at the end of the class") 
• Degree: How will the behavior need to be performed (e.g., "between primary and secondary sources") 
• example: At the end of the course, FYS students will be able to distinguish between primary and secondary sources