This document outlines a project at McMaster University focused on improving learning outcomes through collaboration with D2L and other institutions, funded by the Government of Ontario. The project timeline spans from 2013 to 2015, detailing the development of course and program outcomes and the creation of organizational structures to enhance educational alignment. Future plans include addressing challenges related to external standards and reporting requirements in engineering and continuing education programs.

1. Learning Outcomes at
McMaster University
Lavinia Oltean,
McMaster University
Jon Kruithof,
McMaster University

2. Background Story
• Gov’t of Ontario was giving money to various
projects around productivity and innovation
• University of Guelph and four other D2L
clients (McMaster, Mohawk College,
Waterloo, Wilfred Laurier) part of the project
to work with D2L to improve
Analytics/Insights

3. Timeline
• September 2013 – submit proposal for
funding
• November 2013 – proposal accepted
• November 2013 – budget for spending from
April 2013, write a mid term report
• March 2014 – budget for spending up until
March
• June 2014 – start doing the work

4. Life Sciences
• Looking for alignment between course &
program outcomes
• Fall 2014 – one course, one outcome
• Winter 2015 – three courses, five outcomes
• Spring/Summer 2015 – five courses, all
outcomes
• Fall 2015 – full program

5. Geography and Earth Sciences
• Looking for alignment between course &
program outcomes
• Fall 2014 – four course, two outcomes
• Winter 2015 – six courses, three outcomes
• Fall 2015 – all courses, all outcomes

6. Org Structure

7. Org Structure
• Create “shadow” structure to the Org
– In our case Program
• Add competencies at the Org level
• Add competencies at the Program level
• Add objectives at the Template level
• Add activities at the Course Offering level
• Connect Offering > Template > Program

8. Report

9. Lessons Learned
• Logic of Competencies are too rigid
• Year over year? How to manage?
• Introduced/Practiced/Mastered classification
• Global reporting was slow
– Fixed by D2L
• Structure of D2L system can be flexible
– Using the DOME/OrgUnit Editor to connect
courses allows for multiple levels of reporting

10. What’s Next - Engineering
• 140 external standards that need to be
assessed per student
• 4 levels of achievement – will be assessed
with different competencies…
– Problematic as reporting will not recognize two
“distinct” competencies are related (eg. Level 1 –
Numeric Literacy and Level 2 – Numeric Literacy)

11. What’s Next - Continuing Education
• Fall 2014 will compare/contrast same course
delivered in a blended approach and a face-to-
face approach

12. Beyond “Next”
• Extending to Nursing, MedRadSci
– Both programs have external accreditation that
must be reported to
– Both have unique challenges in the types of
information they require
• Reporting back to D2L