1. The document provides guidance to new faculty on developing learning outcomes, aligning assignments, and assessing courses. It emphasizes that learning outcomes should describe what students will be able to do upon completing the course and focus on competencies and skills. 2. Faculty are instructed to consider how their course goals relate to students' professional, educational, citizenship, and personal goals. They are also told to align their course with their department's strategic objectives. 3. Examples of Bloom's taxonomy of learning objectives and tools for writing measurable outcomes are referenced to help faculty draft 5-12 appropriate learning outcomes using action verbs. Faculty are then tasked with identifying course assignments that accomplish the stated learning outcomes.

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NEW FACULTY ORIENTATION
AUGUST 2013
LEARNING OUTCOMES, SOAPS AND ASSESSMENT
Ida M. Jones, Verna Mae and Wayne D. Brooks Professor of Business Law
CSALT DIRECTOR
What are your course goals?
What are your course goals? Consider the impact of your course on your
students’ workplace or professional, education, citizenship and personal
goals to evaluate why students need your course.
How does your course relate to the department and/or
program?
Find your SOAP
(http://www.fresnostate.edu/academics/oie/assessment/soap.html)

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What is a learning outcome? It
Describes what students should be able to do when they complete the
course.
They are competency-based and measurable, in that they describe
exactly what the student must do to demonstrate mastery of course
material.
Use specific language (Bloom’s)*
• Outcomes may be separated by knowledge, skills and
values (attitudes)
• Should be an appropriate number of outcomes (5-12) and
should be written at appropriate level
Review the attached information on Bloom’s Taxonomy
Model of Learning Objectives p. 4
(http://www.celt.iastate.edu/teaching/RevisedBlooms1.html)
Task-oriented Question Construction Wheel p. 7
(http://think.stedwards.edu/cte/sites/webdev1.stedwards.edu.cte/files/docs/
BloomPolygon.pdf)
Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy Activity Analysis p. 8
(revised version:
http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Bloom%27s+Digital+Taxonomy#Bloom%2
7s%20Digital%20Taxonomy%20Summary%20Map)
Aligning Assignments to Learning Outcomes
Activity: Take your learning outcomes and identify activities that accomplish
those

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