Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs)

CLO statements describe the knowledge, skills, abilities and attitudes students learn as a result of taking a class AND what students can DO with what they have learned. CLOs focus on the Big Picture to describe the broadest "over-arching" goals for the course.

The main focus is on the student, not the activity. To be measurable, (identifiable vs. countable), outcomes use action verbs. Bloom’s Taxonomy is a useful tool for choosing action verbs that accurately describe a desired level of student learning.

Keep in mind three types of outcomes when writing CLOs:

• Cognitive - knowledge related to a discipline
  • Example: Students will be able to identify major muscles groups
• Skills and abilities - physical and intellectual skills related to a discipline
  • Example: Students will be able to solve calculation problems involving integers without a calculator.
• Affective - attitudes, behaviors and values related to a discipline
  • Example: Students will apply effective language learning strategies.