Learning outcomes are predefined skills or areas of knowledge that a learner should be able to demonstrate after completing associated activities. Learning outcomes provide an alternative way to evaluate proficiency in skills and mastery of concepts.
Learning outcomes can be defined by an instructor or by an overseeing body such as a university program director, a school board, a government body, or a professional association. Instructors use outcomes to ensure they cover the knowledge and skills they are expected to teach. Outcomes can be evaluated using a variety of assessment methods.
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Note: The language term used to describe learning outcomes in the user interface depends on the value set for the d2l.Languages.Terminology.LearningOutcomes configuration variable. There are currently five options for this term. The term selected applies to all instances of learning outcomes as well as to the name of the tool. For example, the Learning Outcomes tool link in Course Administration might be labeled Competencies, Expectations, Objectives, or Standards. |
Learning outcomes impacts many tools in Brightspace. Before you start setting up your course to use learning outcomes, review the introductory and setup content to understand the core concepts of learning outcomes and competencies.
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Important: Your Brightspace instance must have several configuration variables enabled and you must have several role permissions granted to successfully access and use learning outcomes.
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Understand the learning outcomes workflow
Learning outcomes support outcomes-based education methodology in your courses. The Learning Outcomes tool provides this ability by using the settings and options you can configure in other Brightspace tools, such as Rubrics, Assignments, and User Progress, to create an overarching solution. The solution uses the following workflow:
- Define an achievement scale.
- Create an Outcome Set and associated outcomes, if needed.
- Populate a course with outcomes imported from an outcome set, from the Achievement Standards Network (ASN), or manually created.
- Align outcomes to course activities and content.
- Assess student work against outcomes.
- Track learner progress against outcomes as the course progresses.
Achievement Scales
Achievement scales are the range or spectrum of achievement levels that indicate when a learner has or has not met the expectations of a learning outcome. Where the outcome provides a statement of knowledge or skills that the learner must know to meet the learning outcome requirement, the achievement scales provide a comparative measure of performance across multiple assessment activities.
For more information, refer to: Set up an Achievement Scale
Levels of achievement
Levels of achievement are the success milestones within an achievement scale that indicate progress toward meeting the expectations of a defined outcome. Levels of achievement are often mapped to levels of evaluation on rubrics or numeric score thresholds. The achievement levels describe the thresholds of mastery on the learning journey to meeting the learning outcome.
For more information, refer to: Measuring achievement using Learning Outcomes
Compare the Competencies and Learning Outcomes tools
Brightspace includes two tools for tracking skill and knowledge development: Competencies and Learning Outcomes. Both support outcome-based education, but they differ in scope, flexibility, and how they integrate with the rest of Brightspace.
Learning Outcomes is the recommended solution for defining, aligning, and measuring learner achievement against educational standards and course goals. It supports program-level outcome frameworks, achievement scales, and detailed mastery tracking across activities.
Competencies enables organizations to define skills and associate them with activities and rubrics. If your organization already uses Competencies, you can continue using it. However, D2L recommends transitioning to Learning Outcomes for a more modern, integrated experience.
Which tool should I use?
If you are setting up outcome tracking for the first time, use Learning Outcomes.
If your organization already uses Competencies, contact your D2L account team to plan your transition to Learning Outcomes.
For a detailed comparison of these tools, refer to Comparing Competencies and Learning Outcomes.
Next steps
Enable learning outcomes
Configure learning outcomes
Measure achievement