The primary purpose of assessment is to evaluate and improve student learning. Clear communication is a key ingredient for making a connection between what students are expected to know and be able to do (outcomes), assessing how well they are learning and have learned (formative and summative assessment), and reporting assessment results that are meaningful and useful to all stakeholders. This article suggests a three-level model to accomplish these connections. The information in this article is taken from Connecting The Dots: Developing Student Learning Outcomes and Outcome-Based Assessments (Carriveau, 2016, 2^nd edition). More details regarding the model can be found here.

A Model for Communicating Student Learning Outcomes

In the three-level model, student learning outcomes (SLOs) typically fall into one of the following:

• A broad level that is not measurable because it lacks specificity, but helps communicate the bigger picture of what students are expected to know and be able to do (such as “to understand”) when they finish a course. An outcome statement at this level can be labeled “Goal.”
• A more specific level that breaks down and helps clarify the meaning and intent of the Goal, but is not specific enough to communicate what it is that students are expected to know and be able to do. An outcome statement at this level can be labeled “General Learning Outcome, or GLO.” The GLO level statements often are the outcome stated in the first column of a rubric row for measuring a constructed response test item.
• A level that breaks down the GLO into more specific statements in order to clarify exactly what the student is expected to know and be able do can be labeled “Specific Learning Outcome, or sLO.” A lower case “s” is used to differentiate a sLO from the general term SLO (Student Learning Outcome) because all the levels of outcomes are SLOs. The sLO level statements are used to construct selected response items and sometimes for rubrics for constructed response items where only one GLO is being measured.

The Three Level Model

The following short example shows how the three-level model would work for creating learning outcomes for a chemistry class. For any one course, there typically will be four to six Goals, with two to four GLOs under each Goal. Under the GLO could be two to four (or possibly more) sLOs. 

1. Goal: Students will understand molecular structure and its implication for basic chemical reactivity.

1.1 General Learning Outcome (GLO): Students will know and apply the naming system for organic compounds.

Specific Learning Outcome statement (sLO):

1.1.1 Recognize and correctly name molecules containing functional groups.

1.1.2 Correctly name stereoisomers.

This three-level model makes it is easy to communicate to students exactly what their learning expectations are and what they will be tested on. Because all the outcome statements are coded, the coding can be used to refer to any part of the outcomes, to items associated with particular outcomes, and to outcomes associated with particular class assignments, making the outcomes based process transparent.

Keep in mind that:

• Only the sLO level is used to develop selected response test items. It is also used for developing constructed response items that are measuring only one GLO.
• Almost all constructed response items and rubrics use the GLO level. However, this does not mean that the sLO s are not taught. The sLOs are what students need to specifically know and be able to do, and they can become part of the descriptors in the cells for each row of a rubric.

Linking Test Items to Outcome Statements

As was stated previously, the coding structure (1.1.1) of the three-level model is useful for communicating to students or other stakeholders exactly what students need to know and be able to do. The next step is to create test items that measure each specific outcome statement (sLO). The logic flow is that high percentages correct for the items means high attainment values of the sLOs, and high attainment of the sLOs calculates up to high attainment values of the GLOs, and high attainment of the GLOs calculates up to high attainment of the Goals. 

References

Carriveau R.S. (2016), Connecting the dots: developing student learning outcomes and outcome based assessments (2^nd ed, Stylus Publications, Sterling, VA)