Learning Objectives, Performance Tasks

and Rubrics:
Demonstrating Understanding and
Defining What Good Is

Brenda Lyseng
Minnesota State Colleges
and Universities
Center for Teaching
and Learning
Goals

 Review how the assessment cycle matches

what you do in your class
 Move from Learning Outcomes to Learning
Objectives to Assessment
 Build Performance Tasks
 Write Rubrics
Activity

 Make a concept map to Assessment of student

show the relationship Course
between these words Faculty
 As you discuss, think Learning activities
about Learning objectives
– Who? Learning outcomes
– What? Program
– How? Student
– When? University
– Why?
The Big Picture

Student: What do I know?

Faculty: Assessment
Course: Learning objectives
Program: Learning objectives
University: Learning outcomes
From Learning Outcomes to Learning
Objectives to Assessment

 What are learning objectives at the course

level?
 What are characteristics of learning
objectives?
 What impact should learning objectives have
on how you teach?
 What is the importance of assessment of
learning objectives?
Learning objectives

What do we expect students to be able to do

after instruction or learning activity?
 Focuses on student, not teacher
 Establishes direction
 If well-stated, makes it clear what type of
assessment would be appropriate
 Continuum from highly specific objectives or very
broad learning goals – need intermediate to get at
higher-level skills that are specific enough to be
assessed
Educational Objectives and Verbs for
Stating Specific Learning Outcomes

Major categories in the cognitive domain

(Bloom, 1956)
– Knowledge
– Comprehension
– Application
– Analysis
– Synthesis
– Evaluation
Educational Objectives and Verbs for
Stating Specific Learning Outcomes

Major categories in the affective domain

(Krathwohl, 1964)
– Receiving stimuli
– Responding
– Valuing
– Organization
– Characterization by a Value or Value Complex
Educational Objectives and Verbs for
Stating Specific Learning Outcomes

Major categories in the psychomotor domain

(Simpson, 1972)
– Perception
– Set (Mental, physical, emotional readiness)
– Guided Response
– Mechanism
– Complex Overt Response
– Adaptation
– Origination
Checking objectives:

 Are they complete?

 Are they appropriate?
 Are they sound?
 Are they feasible?
Critique Time!

How could you improve the following

learning objectives?
 Teach students key concepts.
 Student will be able to communicate.
 To learn about joint structure
 Student will identify a concept and apply
concept.
From Learning Outcomes to Learning Objectives to Assessment
Planning Worksheet

Learning Graduates will demonstrate effective verbal,

non-verbal, and written communication skills in
Outcome
a wide variety of contexts, including
Broad skill, collaborative activities.
intended
outcome
Learning Learning Assessment
Objectives Activities
What supporting
knowledge and
skills will students
achieve?
From Learning Outcomes to Learning Objectives to Assessment
Planning Worksheet

Learning Graduates will demonstrate effective verbal,

non-verbal, and written communication skills in a
Outcome
wide variety of contexts, including collaborative
Broad skill, intended activities.
outcome
Learning Learning Activities Assessment
Objectives What will students do
that will lead them to
the learning
objectives?
From Learning Outcomes to Learning Objectives to Assessment
Planning Worksheet

Learning Graduates will demonstrate effective verbal,

non-verbal, and written communication skills in a
Outcome
wide variety of contexts, including collaborative
Broad skill, intended activities.
outcome
Learning Learning Activities Assessment
Objectives How do students
demonstrate mastery?
Performance Tasks

 Emphasis is on doing – not merely knowing; on

process as well as product
 Goal is to be as authentic as possible
 Used to measure learning outcomes and learning
objectives that cannot be measured well by objective
tests
 Suited for less structured problems, creation of a
product or a performance
 Can be narrow in definition or more broad and open
Examples of Tasks

 Prepare and deliver a speech to persuade

people to take actions to protect the
environment.
 Write a computer program in BASIC that will
sort a list of words alphabetically.
Examples of Tasks

 Design and carry out an investigation to estimate the

acceleration of a falling object. Describe the
procedure used, present the data collected and
analyzed, and state your conclusions.
 You are approaching the age of menopause and
need to make a decision about HRT. Explain the
criteria that are important to you in your decision.
Present in decision in the form of a dialogue with
your health care provider.
How to build a performance task

 Identify the specific content and/or skills students will

learn.
 Build the task that the students will do while
identifying the criteria or standards that you will
assess. These can be a mix of content standards
and lifelong learning skills standards.
 What type of activities will reinforce and deepen
students’ understanding of the content and skills?
Build a performance task

Learning Objectives Which one do you want to

assess?

Task What is the core task you want

students to perform?
Build a performance task

What content standards do you What knowledge will students

want students to demonstrate? demonstrate?
What performance standards do What skills will students
you want students to demonstrate?
demonstrate?
What will be their sources of Interviews, primary sources,
information? secondary, textbook
What type of product do you Written report, oral report,
want? recommendation, graph
How will students work? Individual, partner, team
Standards or Criteria

 Content Standards
 Lifelong Learning (Skill or Performance)
Standards
Write Rubrics

Scoring tool that describes evaluation criteria

based on the expected outcomes and
performances of students. Each rubric
consists of a set of scoring criteria and point
values.
Why use rubrics?

 Improve reliability of grading assignments

 To convey goals and expectations of students in an
unambiguous way
 To convey grading standards and relate to classroom
goals
 To engage students in critical evaluation of their own
performance – self-assessment
 To aid in intradepartmental discussion about
standards and criteria
 To form the basis for departmental and institutional
assessment
Considerations when
constructing a rubric

 What elements must be present to ensure

high quality?
 How many levels do I want?
 What is a clear description of each
achievement level?
 Rubrics are for you and the students!
 Ask students for feedback on the rubrics
Getting started…

 Consider a 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 scale where a “3”

means that the student has completed the
project in a satisfactory manner (generally a
low B or high C)
 Write the “4” description first
 Don’t try to cover too many different skills or
content areas within one rubric
Activity

 At your table, write a

rubric for a great
semester break
Rubric for a
Productive Session

4 – Faculty member met with other faculty

members for a work session. Faculty began
in various stages but all brought ideas to
work on. Faculty learned from each other,
gave suggestions, and modified their work.
Faculty designed performance tasks for their
own courses. Faculty gained experience in
the use and writing of rubrics.
Rubric for a
Productive Session

3 – Faculty member met with other faculty and

discussed teaching and learning issues.
Ideas were exchanged with promises of
talking more about teaching and sending
each other assignments, etc.
Rubric for a
Productive Session

2 – Faculty member worked on course material

in isolation from others. Materials may or
may not show growth.
Rubric for a
Productive Session

1 – “Assessment Session? What’s

assessment have to do with me?”