JOHN'S JOURNAL: Based Learning 15: OBL

OBL: Outcome-Based Learning

Outcome-Based Learning is a process that involves the restructuring of curriculum, assessment and reporting practices in education to reflect the achievement of high order learning and mastery rather than the accumulation, of course, credits.

A Well-Defined Outcome is:

What the student knows; what the student can actually do with what he or she knows; and the student's confidence and motivation in carrying out the demonstration.
A culminating demonstration of learning; a demonstration of learning that occurs at the end of a learning experience.
The result of learning which is a visible and observable demonstration of three things - knowledge, combined with competence, combined with orientations.
Content or concepts and demonstrated through a well-defined process beginning with a directive or request such as 'explain', 'organize', or 'produce'.
Future-oriented, publicly defined, learner-centered, focused on life skills and contexts; characterized by high expectations of and for all learners, and sources from which all other educational decisions flow.
A mixture of knowledge, skills, abilities, attitudes, and understanding that an individual will attain as a result of his or her successful engagement in a particular set of higher education experiences.

OBL Definitions:

Focusing and organizing a school's entire programs and instructional efforts around the clearly defined outcomes we want all students to demonstrate when they leave school.
A process that focuses on what is to be learned - the outcomes.
Shifting the focus of educational activity from teaching to learning; skills to thinking; content to process; and teacher instruction to student demonstration.
A learner-centered, results-oriented system founded on the belief that all individuals can learn.

OBL Prerequisites:

What the student is to learn must be clearly identified.
The student's progress is based on demonstrated achievement.
Multiple instructional and assessment strategies need to be available to meet the needs of each student.
Adequate time and assistance need to be provided so that each student can reach the maximum potential.

OBL Features:

All students can learn and succeed, but not on the same day in the same way.
Success breeds success.
Schools control the conditions of success.
It emphasizes authentic, achievable and assessable learning outcomes.
It is primarily concerned with what students' culminating capabilities at graduation time.
It centers curriculum and assessment design around higher order exit outcomes.
It is accountable to the stakeholders, the learners, the teachers, the employees and the public.
It leads to the change of schooling, including the curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

OBL Principles:

Clarity of focus, meaning that all activities (teaching, assessment, etc.) are geared towards what we want students to demonstrate;
Expanded opportunity, meaning expanding the ways and numbers of times kids get a chance to learn and demonstrate a particular outcome;
High expectations, meaning getting rid of the bell-curve and all students should achieve at the highest level;
Design down, meaning designing the curriculum from the point at which you want students to end up.

OBL Essence:

In OBL, what matters ultimately is not what is taught, but what is learned;
Teachers must set appropriate course intended learning outcomes, instead of teaching objectives;
Constructive alignment: What we teach, how we teach and how we assess ought to be aligned with the intended learning outcomes, such that they are fully consistent with each other;
The quality of teaching is to be judged by the quality of learning that takes place;
All OBL approaches take a criterion-based view of assessment and focus on what students can do with knowledge after a period of learning.

OBL Benefits:

Clarity: The focus on outcomes creates a clear expectation of what needs to be accomplished by the end of the course. Those designing and planning the curriculum are expected to work backward once an outcome has been decided upon, they must determine what knowledge and skills will be required to reach the outcome.
Flexibility: With a clear sense of what needs to be accomplished, instructors will be able to structure their lessons around the student’s needs. OBL does not specify a specific method of instruction, leaving instructors free to teach their students using any method. Instructors will also be able to recognize diversity among students by using various teaching and assessment techniques during their class.
Comparison: On an individual level, institutions can look at what outcomes a student has achieved to decide what level the student would be at within a new institution. On an institutional level, institutions can compare themselves, by checking to see what outcomes they have in common, and find places where they may need improvement, based on the achievement of outcomes at other institutions. The institutions can compare outcomes to determine what credits to award the student. The clearly articulated outcomes should allow institutions to assess the student’s achievements rapidly, leading to increased movement of students. These outcomes also work for school to work transitions.
Involvement: Student involvement in the classroom is a key part of OBE, students are expected to do their own learning so that they gain a full understanding of the material. Increased student involvement allows students to feel responsible for their own learning, and they should learn more through this individual learning. Another aspect of involvement is parental, and community involvement, while developing curriculum, or making changes to it. OBE outcomes are meant to be decided upon within a school system, or at a local level. Parents and community members are asked to give input in order to uphold the standards of education within a community, and to ensure that students will be prepared for life after school.

OBL Concerns:

Definition: The definitions of the outcomes decided upon are subject to interpretation by those implementing them. Across different programs or even different instructors outcomes could be interpreted differently, leading to a difference in education, even though the same outcomes were said to be achieved.
Assessment: When determining if an outcome has been achieved assessments may become too mechanical, looking only to see if the student has acquired the knowledge. The ability to use and apply the knowledge in different ways may not be the focus of the assessment.
Generality: Assessing liberal outcomes such as creativity, respect for self and others, responsibility, and self-sufficiency, can become problematic. There is not a measurable, observable, or specific way to determine if a student has achieved these outcomes.
Involvement: Parental involvement, as discussed in the benefits section can also be a drawback if parents and community members are not willing to express their opinions on the quality of the education system, the system may not see a need for improvement, and not change to meet student’s needs. Parents may also become too involved, requesting too many changes so that important improvements get lost with other changes that are being suggested.

Use of Rubrics:

Developing rubrics helps clarify expectations for student performance and comprises of criteria and descriptors matched to levels of achievement or grading scale, presented in a format such as a table or a matrix.
Once the criteria for a performance are clearly defined, an instructor can align the course with the criteria to help students meet the requirements.
The use of rubrics not only helps to specifically and consistently assess and evaluate qualities of learning but also communicates expected standards of learning.
Rubrics help students interpret their own levels of performance, learn what must be done to improve performance and subsequently achieve higher standards of performance.

Using New Bloom’s Taxonomy:

Benjamin Bloom, in 1956, led a group of educational psychologists who established six levels of intellectual behavior important to learning. These levels were organized cognitive levels which ranged from simple, recall of knowledge, to making judgments about the reliability and value of an idea. During the 1990’s Lorin Anderson (a former student of Bloom) headed a new group of cognitive psychologists and updated the taxonomy to coincide with the relevance of 21st-century work. Nouns (Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation) in the old taxonomy have become verbs (Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating) in the new.