View source for XO Korea/about los

[[category:learning outcome statements]]
{{:XO Korea/los}}
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About Learning Outcome Statements

LOS is somewhat different from the spirits of wikipedia or wikieducator. XO Korea hope to establish a standard learning outcomes for all educational courses, and for governments and business sectors also. The goal is;
* to set an uniform and standardized learning outcomes for children and citizens regardless of their nationalities.
* to establish an uniform and standardized web-based tests (or accreditations) for all courses, certifications (such as lawyers, doctors, and CPAs etc.), and licenses for all nations,
* to establish [[oea|Open Enterprise Architecture]] for worldwide programmers not to duplicate their coding works and to share software components and libraries, 
* to provide raw materials (or data) for programmers (or software engineers) to code [[XO Korea/Sector Automation]], which shall automate a school, government, or business sector, and
* for children and citizens to be able to participate in educational, governmental, and business sectors directly via Python programming architecture.

So, the ultimate goal of LOS written here is for children to be a ''REAL'' social members, who can collect some modules (or software components) from OEA libraries to compose a ''Really'' working governmental or business sectors which they own.

LOS is not just a guideline for children or students to follow when learning something, but a base step to particiaption in the world, and I hope that participation to be Python programming not just for playing, but for achieving some real things such as public or private social activities.
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==Writing Learning Outcomes==
''OLPC Korea (or XO Korea)'' is now establishing ''Open Learning Outcome Statements'' for every academic field from kindergarten to post-doc courses. Anyone can participate in any field, it's an open civilization.

We provide sample Learning Outcome Statements for a few subject of college education; Financial Accounting, Governmental Accounting, Advanced Accounting, Economics, Equity (or Stock) Market, Debt Market, Portfolio Management, and some others. Our samples are for college students. Please add those for kindergarten children, elementary students, and other people.

We preparing three different LOS categories.
* Learning Outcomes for academic fields, from kindergarten to graduate schools.
* Learning Outcomes for governmental fields.
*# ''XO Korea'' has classified all governmental organization in Korea into about 150,000 divisions, and all governmental services into aobut 60,000 functions.
*# Governmental employees will learn from each other and improve their services to citizens.
*# Children and citizens will learn how all kinds of governmental sectors operate.
*# Children, citizens, and governmental employees all collaborate to improve public services both online and offline.
* Learning Outcomes for business fields.
*# ''XO Korea'' has classified business sectors in Korea into about 300,000 entities, and all business services into aobut 120,000 functions.
*# Children and citizens will learn how all kinds of business sectors operate to make profit.
*# Children and citizens can establish any kind of business directly from XO Korea web site.

So, please keep in mind when writing LOS that adding value to society and oneself is the core of all learning activities.

===What are learning outcomes? ===
The basis of LOS is on the mechanism of producing values. How to add value to society (and oneself) is the key of writing all kinds of LOS, regardless of a kindergarten or a college.

Learning outcomes are statements that specify what learners will know or be able to do as a result of a learning activity. Outcomes are usually expressed as knowledge, skills, or attitudes.

Learning outcomes should flow from a needs assessment. The needs assessment should determine the gap between an existing condition and a desired condition. Learning outcomes are statements which described a desired condition – that is, the knowledge, skills, or attitudes needed to fulfill the need. They represent the solution to the identified need or issue. Learning outcomes provide direction in the planning of a learning activity. They help to:

* Focus on learner's behavior that is to be changed

* Serve as guidelines for content, instruction, and evaluation

* Identify specifically what should be learned

* Convey to learners exactly what is to be accomplished


===What is an education need?===

"An educational need is something individuals should learn for their own good, for the good of their organization or profession, or for the good of society." (Knowles, 1970) A need represents a gap between an individual's current level and some desired level of knowledge, skills, or attitudes.


What are some key questions that I should ask myself before writing learning outcomes?

Before outcome statements are written, the program planner and/or subject matter expert should answer key questions about who is affected by the need (i.e., who is the intended audience). These questions may well be addressed in a needs assessment. Regardless of how they are addressed, these questions are useful in decision making about how a presentation should be tailored to the intended audience. These questions are a useful tool for programmers in helping speakers focus their planning and instruction.

* Does the potential audience's level of awareness need to be raised?
* Do they need to understand better the context in which the problem/issue exists?
* Are there things they need to unlearn?
* What are the most essential things they need to know or be able to do?
* Do they need a strong rationale to buy into the issue?
* What specific skills or strategies do they need?
* How important is their level of confidence with this new learning?
* What are the obstacles they face in the workplace using this new learning?
* What are the most important things they need to be able to do when they finish?


===What are the characteristics of good learning outcomes?===

Learning outcomes have three distinguishing characteristics.

1. The specified action by the learners must be observable.

2. The specified action by the learners must be measurable.

3. The specified action must be done by the learners. 

The ultimate test when writing a learning outcome is whether or not the action taken by the participants can be assessed. If not, the outcome probably does net meet all three of the characteristics.

1. who is to perform;

2. what action they are to take;

3. some result that must come from their action.


===How do you fix an unclear outcome?===

Many program brochures include learning outcomes which are unclear or represent elements of curriculum rather than some action the participants will demonstrate. Note the following examples:

''Participants will understand the nine reasons for conducting a needs assessment.''

''Participants will develop an appreciation of cultural diversity in the workplace.''

If you ask a simple question ("Can it be measured?"), you see readily that these learning outcomes have shortcomings.They are not measurable.The same outcomes can be modified by changing the action verbs.

''Participants will list nine reasons for conducting a needs assessment.''

''Participants will summarize in writing their feelings about cultural diversity in the workplace.''

Learners now have a much better idea of what is expected of them.


===What is the importance of action verbs?===

Since the learner's performance should be observable and measurable, the verb chosen for each outcome statement should be an action verb which results in overt behavior that can be observed and measured.

Sample action verbs are:

''compile, create, plan, revise, analyze, design, select, utilize, apply, demonstrate, prepare, use, compute, discuss, explain, predictassess, compare, rate, critique''

Certain verbs are unclear and subject to different interpretations in terms of what action they are specifying. Such verbs call for covert behavior which cannot be observed or measured. These types of verbs should be avoided:

''know, become aware of, appreciate, learn, understand, become familiar with''

<small> some content was cited from [http://www.aallnet.org/prodev/outcomes.asp AALL].