Learning outcomes

What are learning outcomes?

Learning outcomes are specific descriptions of what a student has demonstrated and understood at the completion of an activity or course. A learning outcome can be rated using a scale, or it can have no scale and simply describe a skill or piece of knowledge.

In simple terms, scaled learning outcomes are similar to sub components of a grade. A grade is an assessment of overall performance that may include tests, participation, attendance and projects. Learning outcomes assess specific levels of knowledge through a series of statements, that may be coded with numbers or letters. Thus an overall grade can be given for a course, along with statements about specific skills and knowledge in the form of learning outcomes.

Learning outcomes and competencies

Moodle has two features for describing what students should learn: learning outcomes and competencies. They do different jobs, and both can be used in the same course.

• Learning outcomes work at course level. Teachers choose or add learning outcomes for their course and link them to its activities. Use them to check that the activities in a course support what the course sets out to teach, and to show students what each activity is for.
• Competencies are set up by the institution in competency frameworks and can be used across many courses. Each student's progress is tracked in learning plans. Use them to track and certify a student's skills over time, across several courses or a whole program.

To decide which to use: if the statement describes what a single course teaches, use a learning outcome. If it describes a skill a student builds across several courses, or one the institution certifies, use a competency.

Enabling learning outcomes

To enable learning outcomes to be used in any course on the site:

1. Go to Site administration > Advanced features
2. Tick the Enable learning outcomes checkbox
3. Save changes

Learning outcomes page

New feature
in Moodle 5.3!

The Learning outcomes page lists every learning outcome enabled for the course, both scaled and scale-less, in one place. To open it, go to the course and select More > Learning outcomes.

Each learning outcome is shown as a collapsible section that lists the activities linked to it. Students can see what they are working towards and how each activity contributes. Teachers can check how well their activities cover each outcome, and select Manage learning outcomes to add or edit course learning outcomes.

Adding course-level learning outcomes

To add a course-level learning outcome:

1. From Course navigation > More, select Learning outcomes from the dropdown.

   

   Learning outcomes link in the course More menu

2. Click the Manage learning outcomes button and on the next screen, the Add a new learning outcome button.

   

   Manage learning outcomes page listing course learning outcomes with and without a scale

3. Complete the form then click the 'Save changes' button.

Adding site-wide learning outcomes

An administrator can add site-wide learning outcomes, which are available in every course, in Site administration > Grades > Manage learning outcomes. Multiple site-wide learning outcomes can be added at once using the import learning outcomes functionality (see below).

Using learning outcomes

1. Choose or define some learning outcomes for your course (as described above).
2. In each activity's settings, open the Learning outcomes section and tick the learning outcomes that apply.
3. When grading the activity, grade each student against the scale for each scaled learning outcome. You can also edit these grades in the Grader report (useful for activities without built-in grading).
4. Use the learning outcomes as part of the assessment for students, or look at the Learning outcomes report for some useful feedback on how students in the class in general are performing.

Scale-less learning outcomes appear on the Learning outcomes page with their linked activities, without any grading.

Optional scales for learning outcomes

New feature
in Moodle 5.3!

Learning outcomes no longer require a scale to be created. When adding a learning outcome, the Scale field is set to None by default. Leave it as None to create a scale-less learning outcome, or choose a scale to create a scaled one.

• Learning outcomes can be scaled, as before, or scale-less, for describing a skill or piece of knowledge without grading it.
• Existing scaled learning outcomes and their setups are unaffected.
• Scale-less learning outcomes can still be selected on an activity. They do not appear in the marking Learning outcomes column, the Grade panel, the Grader report, Gradebook setup, or the Learning outcomes report, since there is nothing to grade them against. Their main purpose is to appear on the new Learning outcomes page (see above), alongside scaled learning outcomes, without needing a gradebook presence.

Optional scale for learning outcomes

How do I remove a learning outcome from a course?

Previously selected learning outcomes are greyed out on the update activity page. To remove a learning outcome:

1. Go to Course navigation > Grades and from the dropdown, click Learning outcomes.
2. Select the learning outcome, then the Remove button.

How do I remove a learning outcome from an activity?

If the learning outcome has not been used, untick it in the Learning outcomes section of the activity's settings. If it has been used, for example an assignment has been graded with it, it cannot be removed.

How do I change the scale associated with a learning outcome?

The scale associated with a learning outcome can only be changed if the learning outcome is not selected for use with an activity.

1. Go to Course navigation > More > Learning outcomes, then select Manage learning outcomes.
2. Check that the learning outcome has zero in the Items column, meaning it is not used in any activity. If it is used, go to Course navigation > Grades > Gradebook setup and delete all instances of the learning outcome.
3. Return to Manage learning outcomes and select the edit icon next to the learning outcome.
4. Change the scale.
5. Select Save changes.

Learning outcomes report

The Learning outcomes report (Course navigation > Grades, then select Learning outcomes report from the dropdown) helps teachers monitor their students' progress using learning outcomes. It lists site-wide learning outcomes and course learning outcomes used in the current course, their overall average (each outcome can be measured through many grade items). It will show the name, course and site wide average, the activity, the average values and the number of "grades" given.

Note: Only scaled learning outcomes appear in this report.

The Learning outcomes report is a table with 6 columns:

• Short name - the short name of the outcome used in this course.
• Course average - shows two values representing the average scores given to students for each outcome used in this course.
• Site-wide - Whether the outcome is a site-wide outcome or not.
• Activities - This lists the activities that use this outcome in this course. A new row is created for each activity, and the activity name is linked to the activity's page.
• Average - the average score for each activity using the outcome in this course.
• Number of grades - The number of grades given to students for each activity using the outcome.

Learning outcomes used in course

Learning outcomes may be set at site and/or course level. To choose learning outcomes for use in your course:

1. Go to Course navigation > Grades, then select Learning outcomes from the dropdown.
2. Select learning outcomes from the Available site-wide learning outcomes list, then use the arrow button to move them to the Learning outcomes assigned to this course list. To select several at once, hold down the Cmd (Mac) or Ctrl key while clicking.

Exporting learning outcomes

To export learning outcomes (and their scales, if they have one), select Export on the Manage learning outcomes page. This downloads a .csv file that can be opened in any spreadsheet application or text editor.

Importing learning outcomes

Learning outcomes (and their scales, if they have one) can be imported from a .csv file. The format should be as follows:

Field name	Description	Required	Format
outcome_name	The full name of the outcome	Yes	String
outcome_shortname	The short name of the outcome	Yes	String
outcome_description	The description of the outcome	No	String
scale_name	The name of the scale used	Yes	String
scale_items	A comma-separated list of scale items	Yes	String
scale_description	The description of the scale	No	String

The scale_name and scale_items columns must be included, but both can be left empty to import a scale-less learning outcome. If one of them is filled in, the other must be too.

Here is an example:

outcome_name;outcome_shortname;outcome_description;scale_name;scale_items;scale_description
Participation;participation;;Participation scale;"Little or no participation, Satisfactory participation, Full participation";
Critical thinking;criticalthinking;;;;

To import learning outcomes:

1. On the Manage learning outcomes page, select Import.
2. Choose Import as course learning outcomes or Import as site-wide learning outcomes as required.
3. Upload the .csv file.

Note that while importing:

• If a learning outcome with the same short name already exists, the one in the file is skipped. Existing learning outcomes are not overwritten.
• If a matching scale already exists, it is reused. Otherwise, a new scale is created.
• Creating a new scale needs permission to manage scales. Without it, learning outcomes that need a new scale are skipped.
• The import stops if the file contains invalid data.

Backup/restore and import/export for scale-less learning outcomes

New feature
in Moodle 5.3!

Scale-less learning outcomes and their activity links are included when a course is backed up and restored. They can also be exported and imported with the same CSV files used for scaled learning outcomes (see Importing learning outcomes above). Courses with a mix of scaled and scale-less learning outcomes keep all their learning outcome data through backup, restore, import and export.

Learning outcomes capabilities

• View learning outcomes report
• Manage grade outcomes

See also

• The section 'Learning outcome items' in Grade items
• Competencies
• Differentiator local plugin - A tool to efficiently formulate and save learning goals based on the Differentiator by Ian Byrd. Learning goals are saved for every user in your Moodle installation.