How to Write Clear Outcomes

Writing outcomes can be more difficult than you think. Here are some tips to help you create outcomes that make it easy to track progress.

A good outcome is SMART:

• Specific. Be clear about what you want students to accomplish. Each outcome should focus on only one idea or expected behavior.
• Measurable. What metrics will you use to determine whether the outcome is met? Be objective: Students either do or do not exhibit the skill.
• Achievable. The outcome should be motivational – be sure it is attainable for students in the course or program.
• Realistic. Be sure the outcome aligns with the student or institution’s broader goals and objectives.
• Time-bound. Provide a target date or timeline so that you can track progress throughout the process.

But why not take your institution’s outcomes from good to great? As you draft your outcomes, try to make them:

• Active. Action-oriented verbs make the assessment process more dynamic and keep your team focused on forward motion.
• Future-focused. Think about what will be different after the learning experience and build that into your outcome.
• Tied to Bloom’s Taxonomy. When you write outcomes to align with the levels of knowledge-based, skills-based, or affective taxonomies, it is much easier to determine which assessment techniques are most appropriate for measurements.

Linked to your institutional mission. Outcomes should tie back to what your institution is striving to achieve – if students achieve them, everyone will be better off.

Developing & Using Rubrics

A rubric is a type of scoring guide that assesses and articulates specific components and expectations for an assignment. Rubrics can be used for a variety of assignments: research papers, group projects, portfolios, and presentations.

Rubrics help instructors:

• Assess assignments consistently from student-to-student.
• Save time in grading, both short-term and long-term.
• Give timely, effective feedback and promote student learning in a sustainable way.
• Clarify expectations and components of an assignment for both students and course teaching assistants (TAs).
• Refine teaching methods by evaluating rubric results.

Rubrics help students:

• Understand expectations and components of an assignment.
• Become more aware of their learning process and progress.
• Improve work through timely and detailed feedback.

Considerations for using rubrics 

When developing rubrics consider the following:

• Although it takes time to build a rubric, time will be saved in the long run as grading and providing feedback on student work will become more streamlined.
• A rubric can be a fillable pdf that can easily be emailed to students.
• Rubrics are most often used to grade written assignments, but they have many other uses:
  • They can be used for oral presentations.
  • They are a great tool to evaluate teamwork and individual contribution to group tasks.
  • Rubrics facilitate peer-review by setting evaluation standards. Have students use the rubric to provide peer assessment on various drafts.
  • Students can use them for self-assessment to improve personal performance and learning. Encourage students to use the rubrics to assess their own work.
  • Motivate students to improve their work by using rubric feedback to resubmit their work incorporating the feedback.

Rubric Development Made Easy, Finally!

We know building rubrics and getting instructors to use them can be challenging. But it doesn’t have to be when you use ChatGPT in Harmonize for rubric generation. The instructor is in the drivers seat as we generate success criteria for them to edit to make their own so the eventual rubric is something they want to use.

What if we told you could do a 1-click rubric generation for your online discussions!

Based on your assignment prompt, we will create both the criteria and success descriptors. The instructor has the option to stop here if they prefer not to create a complete rubric, and we will prominently display these criteria for the student as they respond to the prompt. Alternatively, if the instructor chooses, Harmonize can expand upon the rubric’s dimensions, which they can then use for grading purposes. It’s important to note that the instructor can edit all of this content before sharing it with the student. This flexibility allows the instructor to tailor the level of success descriptions to suit the specific assignment’s requirements.

Based on your assignment prompt, we will create both the criteria and success descriptors. The instructor has the option to stop here if they prefer not to create a complete rubric, and we will prominently display these criteria for the student as they respond to the prompt. Alternatively, if the instructor chooses, Harmonize can expand upon the rubric’s dimensions, which they can then use for grading purposes. It’s important to note that the instructor can edit all of this content before sharing it with the student. This flexibility allows the instructor to tailor the level of success descriptions to suit the specific assignment’s requirements.

With the power of ChatGPT and a simplified approach to using a rubric for discussions, you’re able to scale a more objective approach to evaluation and provide clear expectations for student performance, both of which reduce potential unconscious bias during grading.