Why Learner Program Outcomes?

Learner program outcomes are a translation of the performance expectations in industry skill standards into a measurable description of what learners must know and be able to do by the end of a program. They provide students with a clear expectation of the knowledge, skills and abilities they must acquire and be able to perform in order to be successful in a given career field.

What are Learner Program Outcomes?

Learner Program Outcomes should be:

• clear, concise and measurable
• focused on what learners must know and be able to do
• described in terms of competency attainment to the level of performance defined in the skill standard
• amenable to credible assessment

The learning process emphasizes the attainment of specified outcomes. The focus of a competency-based program is on outcomes - what learners actually achieve. Examples from Technical Support:

Skill standard-based curriculum must specify the learner outcomes in terms of performance to the level of knowledge, skill, and ability described in the standard.

Examples of Learner Program Outcomes from Technical Support:

Installation/Configuration

Technical Learning Component

• Demonstrate the ability to install and configure hardware and software in a Windows environment, to optimize system performance and troubleshoot problems with software and hardware installation/configuration

Problem Solving - Troubleshooting

Foundation Learning Component

• Demonstrate the ability to identify and use a wide range of resources to solve technical problems
• Demonstrate the ability to identify and use appropriate communication techniques to correctly isolate and identify technical problems

The Learning Process developed based on the outcomes should:

• be congruent with the learner program outcomes
• include authentic assessments that measure performance to the level of the skill standard
• integrate technical content and foundation skills
• give balanced emphasis to both technical content and foundation skills

In order to capture all the key curriculum outcomes, learner program outcomes should be developed from all the categories of the skill standards: functions, tasks, performance criteria, technical knowledge, and foundation skills.

It is essential when framing the outcomes that the expectation for performance is to the level of the standard. The performance criteria should be used as the benchmarks/indicators for competency attainment to the standard.

Why develop learner program outcomes ?

"In order to develop integrated curriculum, learning experiences (activities) and student assessment, it must be clear what is expected of students. Developing learner outcomes requires teachers and other stakeholders to agree to and articulate what students should know and be able to accomplish once the complete a project, course, or program. From the learner outcomes, appropriate learning activities and assessment strategies can be developed."

Getting to Work: A Guide to Better Schools.
National Center for Research in Vocational Education.
Berkeley, 1996

The section on Model Process describes how the learner program outcomes were developed using the IT Skill Standards. The Technical Support career cluster is used to provide specific examples.

How do learner program outcomes, activities and assessments fit together?

Learning activities are developed that will structure experiences that give learners opportunities to develop the knowledge and skills necessary to demonstrate competency at the level of the outcomes.

"The assessment criteria (rubrics, scoring, grading) for the learning activities are also developed from the learner outcomes. Therefore, curriculum and assessment are integrate through the use of learner outcomes."

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SOURCE: Getting to Work: A Guide for Better Schools
National Center for Research in Vocational Education. Berkeley, 1996