Elicited Learning an Important Outcome of Successful Teaching

Research and Markets have announced the addition of the 'Assessing Learning Outcomes' report to their offering.

If a key element of your organizations mission is to teach, there is no outcome more important than elicited learning. Whether a college
or a corporate training division, learning is the intended product of instruction. Most teaching institutions today have accessible data on the number of hours spent in teaching; the credit hours and degrees generated; the proportion of instructors with doctorates; the grade point averages of the students; and even the percentages of entrants who obtain the
targeted certificates, licenses to work, and degrees. But none of these outputs is a valid or reliable measure of what was learned.

Those who need to know the effectiveness of an instructional service-production
managers, university administrators, students or employees whose learning is being measured, teachers, tuition-paying parents, or other stakeholders-must understand what was learned if they are to make intelligent judgments regarding the time and monetary value of the instruction. What is learned in various instructional programs differs in substantial ways even among organizations with the same or similar educational missions. Is the primary goal the accumulation of knowledge or should the student also learn how to apply that knowledge appropriately in future work settings or citizenship roles?

Should greater priority be given to enabling individuals to become highly effective learners early on or covering what specialists consider the most important knowledge in their fields? What balance between generic capabilities and occupationally specific skills should a particular instructional program achieve? To succeed, leaders of an institution need to be clear about what learning they strive to evoke and then determine by sound assessment how well they are meeting that goal.

Assessing the end-of-course knowledge and skills a student or trainee possesses and establishing what part of that was learned in the course or training program are two completely different tasks. Measuring learning gains requires preinstruction measures to compare end-of-instruction results. Proving the gains takes additional time and money and presents technical challenges in legitimately ruling out causes other than the instruction. Each of these requirements of good assessment presents a challenge to those who teach. In addition, students in college and employees in training vary enormously in characteristics that affect their potential for learning.

A recent study on risk and promise among working adults found that at least 18 factors besides traditionally studied demographic differences have statistically significant effects on such measures of success as grades, ratio of courses completed to courses attempted, and semesters completed. Mapping issues that teaching and support personnel face in helping such diverse students succeed reveals the inadequacy of programs built on the idea that one size can fit all.

The diversity of student characteristics interacts with the diversity of environments in which students and employees learn. The normal working adult has at least three primary environments impacting the likelihood of effective learning-work, home, and school. Thus, deciphering what learning may be attributed to the education and training program is an urgent and difficult undertaking.

STUDY SCOPE

The following scope defines the content and structure of the benchmarking study. Sponsors spent a day-and-a-half collaborating with the project team and subject matter expert Dr. Morris Keeton to create this scope. Focus Area 1: Planning for Assessing Learning Outcomes
- Starting with self-evaluation
- Creating/improving an organizational plan for assessing learning outcomes
- Deciding what learning outcomes to assess
- Focusing on a variety of learning outcomes
Focus Area 2: Deciding How Best to Assess
- Using diverse, appropriate methods of assessment
- Choosing, preparing, and supporting the assessors
- Determining when and how often to assess
Focus Area 3: Managing the Assessment Process
- Using and applying assessment findings
- Coordinating assessment with other functions within the organization
- Coordinating assessment practice and results with other organizations

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