Where do you communicate outcomes?

Most likely course outcomes are in your syllabus. Outcomes often include short 1-2 sentence statements that represent a complex body of knowledge and skills. The challenge with outcomes is they identify the final learning destination, but don't clarify the specific knowledge or skills students need to develop to achieve the outcome . Outcomes are like the 'X' on a treasure map, marking the desired destination, but don't describe how to get there!

We have to deconstruct or 'unpack' an outcome to clarify the learning pathway. Doing so will reveal the scaffolding needed to support learners through each cognitive level.

Unpacking supports Alignment by:

Clarifying the content needed to teach the skills, and knowledge nested in the outcome
Defining the incremental 'cognitive steps' to scaffold the learning process
Chunking complex outcomes into short-term Learning Objectives to measure progress toward achieving the outcome

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LOTS and HOTS
Cognition
Bloom's Taxonomy
Bloom's Wheel
Example

Scaffolding?

You'll see the term 'scaffolding' used a lot in this Lab. You may think of the support structure placed around a building under construction. The scaffolding provides a structure the workers can use to access the structure they are creating. Learning isn't any different. If the building under construction is your 'course outcome', the scaffolding is the multiple content items, activities, and interactions you provide to support students in achieving the full rigor of the outcome. Scaffolding learning means designing a pathway that moves students from lower to higher order thinking.

The image includes an arrow with points at both ends. It shows the continuum from Lower Order Thinking Skills to Higher Order Thinking Skills. The Continuum begins with Lower order and ends at Higher Order. From Lower to Higher Order the levels are as follows: Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, Creating.

What does it take to support students in making the leap from Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) to applying Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS). Think of LOTS and HOTS like a staircase. To get to the top we start on the first step and progress to the next. When we consider a learning outcome, it represents the top of the stairs. To support students in reaching the top, we think about the incremental steps we need to help students take in their journey to the top. If we don't break our outcomes down into steps, then reaching the top can feel a bit like climbing up a slide, stronger students can muscle their way through, but for others, reaching the top becomes inaccessible, and they might just quit trying.

Image Text for LOTs to HOTs Graphic: Bloom's Taxonomy Levels are listed from Lower Order Thinking Skills or 'lots' to Higher Order Thinking Skills or 'hots'. The order is as follows: Remembering, Understanding, Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, Creating.

Cognition

The three stacked phases of Bloom's cognitive domain: memorize, apply, create.

Ensuring our students' learning is guided by what we know about the way the human brain operates makes sense, right? I think so too! Let's start with a brief consideration of the concept of cognition.

Cognition is a term used in neuroscience to refer to the process in which the human brain performs different types of tasks to acquire knowledge. Bloom's taxonomy is a framework that is often used in higher education to understand how the cognitive domain of learning works. Bloom's taxonomy is valuable to educators because our goal is to support our students towards the development of critical thinking skills, which are the highest form of cognition and represent the top of Bloom's pyramid

Critical (or higher order) thinking skills, however, cannot be mastered until lower order cognitive skills are developed first. It is critical for us, as teachers, to understand that higher order thinking skills build upon lower order thinking skills. As such, before being able to create something new (which requires higher order, critical thinking skills), students must first memorize and then apply that knowledge to different contexts.

Levels of Cognition

Before you begin to 'unpack' first determine the 'depth of knowledge' or Higher Order Thinking Level you want to see demonstrated by students. For Depth of Knowledge, we typically look to Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy. Take a moment and explore one or both of the resources below about Bloom's levels of Cognition.

Read

Bloom's Taxonomy from Vanderbilt University's Center for Teaching

Watch

This 9 Minute Video goes over each level of Bloom's Taxonomy and specifically how to apply Bloom's in online course design.

Explore the resources below

(optional) Extra!

Bloom's Taxonomy Handouts Referenced in the video

Image text: The image on this page is a triangle with six levels. The list below describes what is written in each level beginning at the bottom of the triangle and ending at the top.

Remember: Recall facts and basic concepts: Define, duplicate, list, memorize, repeat state.
Understand: Explain ideas or concepts: Classify, describe, discuss, explain, identify, locate, recognize, report, select, translate
Apply: Use information in new situations: Execute, implement, solve, use, demonstrate, interpret, operate, schedule, sketch
Analyze: Draw connections among ideas: differentiate, organize, relate, compare, contrast, distinguish, examine, experiment, question, test
Evaluate: Justify a stand or decision: Appraise, argue, defend, judge, select, support, value, critique, weigh
Create: Produce a new or original work: Design, assemble, construct, conjecture, develop, formulate, author, investigate

Image Credit: Bloom's Wheel CC-BY-NC-SA Teach Online ASU

Bloom's Wheel

For instructors, looking at Bloom's Taxonomy as a Wheel, helps us determine 'What' we need to teach to engage students in meaningful content and activities that provide the scaffolding. At the center of the wheel are the six cognitive levels, LOTS and HOTS. The second level are verbs related to each cognitive level. The verbs help identify the 'type' of thinking or 'behavior' required at a specific cognitive level. The outermost layer is a list of some, but not all of the ways in which students can demonstrate cognition. We'll dig into Online Activities and in Topic 2. So stay tuned!

Do the Activity

Take a few moments and explore Bloom's Wheel. Or, read a a description of Bloom's Wheel. You may want to download or bookmark Bloom's Wheel. You'll want it for a later activity in this Lab.

Bloom's Wheel is an excellent tool for:

Determining the level of cognition (center sections) your course outcome requires
Determining the levels of cognition needed to support students in climbing the ladder to meet the highest demand of your outcome
Identifies keywords (middle section section) or verbs to describe how students can illustrate or demonstrate a specific level of cognition
Identifies Suggested Activities or Conditions (outermost section) by which students can practice and apply a specific level of cognition

Let's take a look at how Bloom's Wheel can help an instructor breakdown or 'unpack' an outcome to determine:

The level of cognitive rigor (HOTS or LOTS) defined by the outcome
The levels of cognition needed to scaffold the learning toward reaching the outcome
Possible activities, assignments, and eventually assessment students can 'do' to practice, apply, and eventually demonstrate the complete rigor of the outcome.

(Optional): This 6 minute video demonstrates how mind mapping (creating a tree chart) is one way to 'unpack' or brainstorm and organize all the topics, concepts, knowledge and skills nested in a learning outcome. This can be useful when rethinking your instructional approach (i.e. changing from face-to-face to online). Beginning back with learning outcomes is a way to think about your course with 'new eyes' since how you organize your course, present the needed information, and support community interaction will need to be different from 'how' you'd do this face-to-face.

Below is linked the interactive tree diagram of the unpacked outcome discussed in the video you just watched. Click on the arrows to 'unpack' the outcome. If you want to create your own, create your own free account at https://bubbl.us/.

NOTE: The diagram opens very small! But you can zoom in by using the magnifying glass in the upper left of the screen. Then you can click and drag on the main page to adjust the positioning of the diagram elements.

Interactive Outcome Diagram

After reading each tab, move to the Next page.