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Subject:Re: a question about outcomes in a syllabus From:Gregory P Sweet <gps03 -at- health -dot- state -dot- ny -dot- us> To:Becca <becca -at- di -dot- org> Date:Tue, 9 Apr 2013 14:44:42 -0400
Hi Becca,
There's no guess work here, see: Bloom's Taxonomy.
A solid learning objective (or outcome) can be evaluated for success; it is
measurable. Bloom's purist like myself will tell you that you cannot
measure understanding thus it cannot be a valid learning objective. Those
follwing Bloom's revised include understanding as a valid learning
objective.
You get around the "should" issue with "Students who successfully complete
this course will...:" If the students cannot meet any of the objectives,
they did not successfully complete the course.
techwr-l-bounces+gps03=health -dot- state -dot- ny -dot- us -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com wrote on
04/09/2013 10:00:02 AM:
> From: Becca <becca_price -at- yahoo -dot- com>
> To: tech2wr-l <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
> Date: 04/09/2013 10:00 AM
> Subject: a question about outcomes in a syllabus
> Sent by: techwr-l-bounces+gps03=health -dot- state -dot- ny -dot- us -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
>
> The coursework I am developing with my SME has a syllabus in which
> my SME (who is designing the course; I'm only writing and editing
> the text) consistently says, in his section outcome statements "The
> student will understand..."
>
> This seems dangerous to me, in that a student who does *not*
> understand can say "you promised I would understand! I want my money
> back!" if the student fails the course.
>
> This is being developed under a very tight deadline, and I'm perhaps
> over-tired (well, no perhaps about it), but I can't think of a
> better way to say it, except to say "the student will be exposed
> to..." - but since this is a very intense seminar, designed for
> experts in their field and geared to prepare them for a certifying
> exam, "exposed to" seems overly wishy-washy and not strong enough.
>
> What is a better way of saying this? "We will teach..."?
>
>
> Regards,
> Becca
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