Writing Instructional Outcomes

I've spent most of this week getting ready to facilitate an innovative teaching retreat for a new client. One of the elements we will be covering is writing robust curriculum outcomes for adult learners at the community college level. I've posted before about curriculum outcomes, but more about the process for eliciting the content that actually gets us to the point of writing the outcome, rather than how to write the outcome itself.

Outcomes are built from the rest-of-life roles of our audience. To write an outcome we ask, 'What is it our student/audience/trainee will do, out there, in the rest-of-life, that we want to take responsibility for in this course or training?' With the roles of worker, life-long learner, parent, citizen, mechanic, caregiver, romantic partner, dental hygienist or whatever, we ask, what is it the student/trainee must be able to DO to carry out that role? You can read the post on the process, but once you have identified and labeled the clusters of "things the person will need to be to do," you are ready to write the outcomes.

The model I learned in graduate school, based on the the work of Ruth Stiehl in The Outcomes Primer, involves beginning with an action word, establishing the context (where in real life), setting the scope (expectations and time frame), embedding what needs to be understood, all while being brief and clear!

For example: Write and speak (actions) using correct grammar (scope, context, and what needs to be understood). It is also brief and clear.

Another example: Use (action) problem solving strategies and effective communication (scope and what needs to be understood) on the job (context). Also brief and clear.

One more example: Practice (action) nonviolent discipline and positive reinforcement (scope and what needs to be understood) when parenting your child (context). Brief and clear.

Notice that outcomes are not about understanding, but doing, with understanding embedded in the doing. They are also not about what the teacher will teach, or what the student/trainee will do in class or the training. Outcomes are also not discrete competencies, unrelated to a rest-of-life context. Outcomes are about what adults will do, AFTER our course or training, in their rest-of-life roles.

Outcomes, written first, will guide your instructional design, acting as the target or destination for all of your training and teaching activities.