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Assessment Resources

Getting Started with Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)

A learning outcome is a concise description of what students will learn and what they should be able to do at the end of a course or program. It also informs students on the learning that will be assessed. Having clearly articulated learning outcomes can make designing a course, assessing student learning progress, and facilitating learning progress more effective. Learning outcomes can also help students regulate their learning and develop effective learning strategies.

Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

Pratt students can demonstrate the knowledge and ability to:

  1. Consider structures of power in relation to their creative work and its impact in the world;

  2. Apply sustainability principles to constructively contribute to social and environmental change through their practice;

  3. Engage responsibly with diverse communities and worldviews;

  4. Navigate towards academic and personal growth through individual reflection and feedback from others;

  5. Address challenges through inquiry and research, grounded in processes of imagination, reflection, collaboration, and/or iteration;

  6. Integrate modes of communication across different media, contexts, and publics; and

  7. Create work that incorporates skills and values informed by professional and ethical standards from within and across disciplines.


Pratt Goals Definition

Goals articulate in broad terms the substance and skills that students can expect to gain through the totality of learning opportunities available at Pratt.
 

Pratt Outcomes Definition

Outcomes are holistic, incorporating a range of learning inclusive of disciplinary, higher-order, and transferable skills that specify what students demonstrate through the totality of their learning experiences at Pratt.

Pratt Outcomes Criteria

  • Identify the purpose and scope of the course, program, or institutional outcome
  • Use action verbs
  • Include one demonstrable verb per outcome
  • Consider Bloom's or another learning taxonomy 
  • Ensure each outcome can be demonstrated through artifacts of student work and other forms of student learning, which may also include self-assessment
  • Align outcomes with Institute mission and goals, curriculum, and co-curriculum
  • Keep outcomes concise
  • Use language accessible to all stakeholders

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Benefits of Learning Outcomes

Students

  • Communicate the ideas, concepts, skills students need to master by the end of the course or program
  • Create equity and accessibility of knowledge through shared language and expectations
  • Increase accountability and responsibility for learning Instructors/Directors

Instructors/Directors

  • Provide a framework and rationale for making course or curriculum decisions about the sequence of topics or courses and instruction
  • Communicate to students what they must do to make progress in learning in the course or program.
  • Articulate your intentions for learning to all stakeholders.

Smart Goals

Verb Suggestions for SLOs

A wheel split into four quadrants with the word balance in the middle. The top right quadrant reads from middle out: Spiritual, self-actualize, empower, empowered, connect, connected, value, valued, honoring. The bottom right quadrant reads: Emotional, internalize, conceptualize, value, respond, receive. The bottom left quadrant reads: Intellectual, synthesize, analyze, apply, comprehend, learn material. The top right text reads: Physical, create, adapt, perform, follow, perceive.

 
Above: Medicine Wheel taxonomy created by Marcella LaFever.
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