Developing Learning Outcomes

Learning outcomes describe what students are expected to know, understand, or be able to do as a result of a learning experience. They help instructors make intentional decisions about course content, teaching and learning activities, and assessments, while communicating expectations to students.

Developing learning outcomes is an important part of course design. This resource provides guidance on writing clear, meaningful learning outcomes, using educational taxonomies to support their development, and aligning outcomes with teaching, learning, and assessment.

Understanding Learning Outcomes

Learning outcomes translate broad course goals into more specific statements of what students should be able to demonstrate by the end of a course or learning experience.

Course goals describe the broader learning instructors hope students will achieve. They may reflect important knowledge, skills, perspectives, or ways of thinking that students will develop.
Learning outcomes articulate what students are expected to demonstrate as evidence of that learning. They provide a foundation for selecting appropriate assessments and designing teaching and learning activities.

For example:

Course goal: Students will develop an understanding of how social and economic factors influence health.
Learning outcome: By the end of the course, students will be able to analyze how social and economic factors contribute to health inequities in different communities.

The learning outcome makes the intended learning more explicit by identifying what students should be able to do with their understanding. Effective learning outcomes emphasize how students can apply and integrate their learning rather than simply identifying the content an instructor intends to cover.

Connecting Learning Outcomes Across Courses and Programs

Learning outcomes can help connect individual learning experiences with broader program and institutional educational goals. While outcomes for an activity or assignment focus on particular knowledge and skills, course learning outcomes describe what students should be able to demonstrate by the end of a course. Program learning outcomes articulate the broader knowledge, skills, and attitudes (values) students are expected to develop across their studies.

Considering these connections can help instructors understand how their courses build on prior learning, contribute to program expectations, and prepare students for subsequent courses or other contexts. At the program level, learning outcomes can also support curriculum mapping by identifying where intended learning is introduced, developed, and demonstrated across courses.

Institutional educational goals and priorities may also inform program and course learning outcomes, alongside disciplinary expectations and relevant accreditation or professional requirements.

Connecting Goals, Outcomes, Assessments, and Learning Activities

Course goals and learning outcomes are part of an interconnected course design process:

Course goals → Learning outcomes → Assessments → Learning activities

Instructors begin by considering the broader learning they want students to achieve. They then develop learning outcomes that clarify what students should be able to demonstrate, identify assessments that provide evidence of this learning, and design activities that help students develop the necessary knowledge and skills.

These decisions are interconnected rather than strictly sequential. Instructors may revisit and refine goals, outcomes, assessments, and activities throughout the course design process.

For a guided approach to developing learning outcomes and connecting them with other elements of course design, explore Module 4: Developing Course Learning Outcomes in CTSI’s Course Design Foundations (CDF) self-paced learning program.

Developing Effective Learning Outcomes

Effective learning outcomes communicate what students are expected to learn and how they can demonstrate that learning. The following four characteristics can guide their development.

Focus on Student Learning

Write learning outcomes from the student’s perspective, emphasizing what students will know, understand, or be able to do rather than what the instructor will teach or cover.

Instead of: Introduce students to different theories of motivation.
Consider: By the end of the course, students will be able to compare different theories of motivation and explain their implications for learning.

Identify How Learning Can Be Demonstrated

Use clear language that helps instructors and students recognize what evidence of learning might look like. Action-oriented verbs such as analyze, interpret, design, and evaluate can help communicate the intended learning.

Broad terms such as understand, know, and appreciate may express important learning goals, but they do not always make clear how students will demonstrate their learning.

Instead of: Understand the factors that influence climate change.
Consider: By the end of the course, students will be able to explain how human activities contribute to climate change using scientific evidence.

Set Realistic Expectations

Develop outcomes that are achievable within the scope, level, and duration of the course. Consider students’ prior knowledge, the opportunities they will have to develop their learning, and the resources and support available.

Instead of: Master all aspects of statistical analysis.
Consider: By the end of the course, students will be able to select and apply appropriate descriptive statistical methods to summarize and interpret a dataset.

Consider Transferability

Develop outcomes that reflect how students might use their learning in other courses, professional settings, or contexts beyond the immediate learning experience.

Transferable learning may involve applying disciplinary knowledge, evaluating information, solving problems, communicating ideas, or making informed decisions.

Instead of: Identify the steps of the research process.
Consider: By the end of the course, students will be able to develop a research question and select an appropriate approach to investigate it.

Writing Learning Outcomes

A useful starting point is to complete the following statement:

By the end of this course, students will be able to…

Follow this statement with an action-oriented verb and a description of the knowledge, skills, or understanding students are expected to demonstrate.

Learning outcomes do not need to describe every activity or topic covered in a course. Instead, they should communicate the most significant learning students are expected to achieve.

Examples of Learning Outcomes Across Disciplines

Learning outcomes can address different types of learning, including disciplinary knowledge, conceptual understanding, analytical abilities, and practical skills. The following examples illustrate how outcomes may be articulated across disciplines.

Art History: Analyze the role of art and of the artist in Italy during the Renaissance.
Economics: Categorize macroeconomic policies according to the economic theories from which they emerge.
Geology: Describe the characteristics of the three main types of geologic faults (dip-slip, transform, and oblique) and explain the different types of motion associated with each.
Sociology: Identify and develop data collection instruments and measures for planning and conducting sociological research.

These examples demonstrate that effective learning outcomes can involve different cognitive processes and disciplinary expectations. The appropriate level of specificity and complexity depends on the learning experience and its intended outcomes.

Reviewing Learning Outcomes with SMART(TT)

The SMART(TT) framework offers an optional checklist for reviewing learning outcomes.

S – Speak to the learner: Address what the learner will know or be able to do upon completion of the learning experience.
M – Measurable: Indicate how the intended learning can be assessed.
A – Applicable: Emphasize how learners may use the knowledge or skills they develop.
R – Realistic: Describe learning that students can reasonably demonstrate upon satisfactory completion of the learning experience.
T – Time-bound: Identify when the intended learning should be achieved.
T – Transparent: Use language that learners can readily understand.
T – Transferable: Address knowledge and skills that learners can apply in different contexts.

SMART(TT) can complement the characteristics described above when drafting or revising learning outcomes, rather than serving as a required formula.

Adapted from Blanchard, K., and Johnson, S. (1983), The One Minute Manager.

Using Taxonomies to Support Learning Outcomes

Educational taxonomies can help instructors identify different types of learning and develop outcomes that reflect the knowledge, skills, and ways of thinking students are expected to demonstrate. Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy and SOLO Taxonomy offer complementary approaches to considering cognitive processes and the complexity of student understanding.

When identifying broader course goals, instructors may also find Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning useful. Fink’s framework considers six interconnected dimensions of learning: foundational knowledge, application, integration, the human dimension, caring, and learning how to learn. Explore CTSI’s Course Design Foundations (CDF) self-paced learning program for a guided introduction to this framework and its application to course design.

Bloom's Revised Taxonomy

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001) describes six cognitive processes that can help instructors articulate what students should be able to do with their knowledge. The taxonomy can support the selection of action-oriented verbs when writing learning outcomes.

Remember: Retrieve or recognize relevant knowledge
- Examples of active verbs: Cite, copy, define, enumerate, identify, label, list, locate, match, memorize, name, order, quote, recall, recognize, recite, reproduce, retrieve, select, spell, state, tabulate
Understand: Construct meaning from information or ideas
- Examples of active verbs: Classify, compare, contrast, describe, differentiate, discuss, distinguish, exemplify, explain, express, extend, generalize, group, illustrate, infer, interpret, outline, paraphrase, predict, rephrase, represent, restate, summarize, translate
Apply: Use knowledge or procedures in a particular situation
- Examples of active verbs: Apply, calculate, carry out, compute, demonstrate, determine, employ, execute, experiment, implement, manipulate, model, operate, perform, practice, predict, simulate, solve, test, use
Analyze: Examine information and identify relationships or underlying structures
- Examples of active verbs: Analyze, attribute, break down, categorize, compare, contrast, deconstruct, differentiate, dissect, distinguish, divide, examine, identify relationships, infer, inspect, investigate, organize, question, separate, structure, survey, test for
Evaluate: Make judgments based on criteria or evidence
- Examples of active verbs: Appraise, assess, audit, check, compare, conclude, critique, decide, defend, determine, disprove, estimate, evaluate, judge, justify, measure, prioritize, rank, rate, recommend, review, select, support, validate, verify, weigh
Create: Bring elements together to develop something new
- Examples of active verbs: Adapt, assemble, build, combine, compile, compose, conceptualize, construct, create, design, develop, devise, draft, engineer, formulate, generate, hypothesize, imagine, improve, integrate, invent, modify, originate, plan, produce, propose, prototype, rearrange, reconstruct, redesign, reorganize, revise, synthesize

These cognitive processes are often presented as a progression, but learning does not always follow a strictly linear path. The complexity of a learning outcome depends on what students are expected to do, the disciplinary context, and the knowledge or skills involved.

Choosing an active verb is only one part of developing an effective learning outcome. For example, identify may describe a relatively straightforward task or a complex process requiring specialized disciplinary knowledge. The complete learning outcome should communicate the intended learning clearly enough to guide teaching and assessment.

SOLO Taxonomy

The Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO) Taxonomy (Biggs & Collis, 1982) describes increasing levels of complexity in students’ demonstrated understanding. While Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy focuses on cognitive processes, SOLO examines how students organize, connect, and extend their knowledge.

SOLO identifies five levels (Atherton, 2005):

Prestructural: The student demonstrates little or no meaningful understanding, with information remaining disconnected or unrelated to the concept.
Unistructural: The student identifies or understands one relevant aspect of a concept but does not yet recognize its broader significance.
Multistructural: The student identifies several relevant aspects or connections but does not yet understand how they relate to one another as a whole.
Relational: The student integrates different aspects of a concept, recognizing how they relate to one another and contribute to a coherent understanding.
Extended Abstract: The student extends their understanding beyond the immediate context, making broader connections, generalizing principles, or applying ideas to new situations.

SOLO can help instructors consider the depth of understanding students are expected to demonstrate and how learning activities and assessments can support increasingly complex connections among ideas.

Applying Taxonomies to Learning Outcomes

Taxonomies can help instructors move from broad intentions toward more specific learning outcomes. Consider the following examples:

Broad: Develop an understanding of historical change. → More specific: Analyze how political, economic, and social factors contributed to a particular historical event.
Broad: Appreciate different perspectives on environmental issues. → More specific: Evaluate competing approaches to an environmental challenge using relevant evidence.
Broad: Develop problem-solving skills. → More specific: Apply disciplinary concepts to propose and justify a solution to an unfamiliar problem.
Broad: Become an independent learner. → More specific: Identify gaps in one’s understanding and develop strategies for further learning.

These examples illustrate different ways of articulating learning. They are not intended to suggest that every outcome must involve higher-order cognitive processes or that one taxonomy is appropriate for every learning goal.

The choice of framework should support the intended learning rather than determine it.

Aligning and Communicating Learning Outcomes

Learning outcomes are most useful when they inform course design and are communicated clearly to students. Connecting learning outcomes with assessments and learning activities helps ensure that students have opportunities to develop, practice, and demonstrate the intended knowledge and skills.

Align Learning Outcomes, Assessments, and Learning Activities

Alignment refers to the intentional connections among learning outcomes, assessments, and learning activities. Each component serves a related purpose:

Learning outcomes: What should students know, understand, or be able to do?
Assessments: How will students demonstrate their learning?
Learning activities: What opportunities will help students develop and practice the intended knowledge and skills?

For example:

Learning outcome: Analyze how social and economic factors contribute to health inequities in different communities.
Assessment: Analyze a community health case study, using evidence to explain how social and economic conditions influence health outcomes.
Learning activities: Examine relevant research, discuss examples of health inequities, and practice analyzing case studies in small groups.

In this example, the assessment provides an opportunity for students to demonstrate the intended learning, while the learning activities help students develop the knowledge and analytical skills needed to complete the assessment.

Alignment is an iterative process. As instructors develop or revise assessments and learning activities, they may also identify opportunities to refine their learning outcomes.

Communicate Learning Outcomes to Students

Learning outcomes can help students understand what they are expected to learn, why that learning matters, and how course activities and assessments contribute to their progress.

Rather than presenting learning outcomes only at the beginning of a course, instructors can revisit them at meaningful points throughout the learning experience.

Consider the following approaches:

Course syllabus: Share learning outcomes and explain how they connect to the course’s purpose, structure, and assessments.
Learning activities: Highlight relevant outcomes when introducing new topics, activities, or learning experiences.
Assignments and assessments: Identify which outcomes students will demonstrate and clarify how their work will be evaluated.
Feedback: Connect feedback to learning outcomes to help students recognize their progress and identify areas for improvement.
Reflection and self-assessment: Invite students to consider their progress toward the outcomes and identify strategies for continued learning.

Communicating these connections can make the purpose of learning activities and assessments more transparent, helping students recognize how different parts of the course contribute to their learning.

Reviewing and Refining Learning Outcomes

Developing learning outcomes is an iterative process. As courses evolve, instructors may revisit their outcomes to ensure they remain meaningful, achievable, and aligned with intended learning, assessments, and learning activities.

Reviewing learning outcomes also provides an opportunity to consider how changes in disciplinary knowledge, student needs, teaching practices, and emerging technologies may influence what students should learn and demonstrate.

When reviewing existing learning outcomes or developing new ones, consider the following questions:

Purpose and relevance: Do the outcomes reflect the most important knowledge, skills, and ways of thinking students should develop? How might students apply this learning beyond the course?
Clarity and assessment: Are the outcomes clear about what students should be able to demonstrate? Do assessments provide meaningful opportunities to demonstrate this learning?
Alignment: Do learning activities provide opportunities for students to develop and practice the knowledge and skills identified in the outcomes?
Accessibility and inclusion: Do the outcomes reflect learner variability and recognize diverse perspectives and ways of knowing? Are there opportunities for students to demonstrate their learning in different ways, where appropriate? Are any requirements or formats unnecessarily restrictive?
Changing contexts: Have developments in the discipline, professional practices, or technologies such as generative AI changed what students need to know or be able to do?

Not every learning outcome will require revision. The purpose of reviewing outcomes is to identify where adjustments may strengthen student learning and ensure that course design remains responsive to its context.

For a guided approach to developing and refining learning outcomes, explore CTSI’s Course Design Foundations (CDF) self-paced learning program. Module 4 includes disciplinary examples, reflective questions, and workbook activities to help instructors translate course goals into learning outcomes and connect them with assessments and learning activities.