OBTL at CityU
in the Hong Kong Context
7th December 2006
Professor John Biggs
Principal Consultant OBTL Project
Outcomes-based Education (OBE)
There are three main forms of “OBE”. All focus on
educational outcomes but each is based on a different
philosophy. It’s easy to confuse them.
1. Outcome-based Education at school level. Originally
for disadvantaged children, but later used generally e.g.
Target Oriented Curriculum (TOC) for individualising
teaching.
2. Outcomes-based Education. Outcomes at institutional
level, used for benchmarking, credit-transfer.
3. Outcomes-based Teaching and Learning (OBTL).
Defining learning outcomes at course and subject level,
to enhance teaching and learning.
Institutional, Progamme and
Course Outcomes
OBE OBTL
Outcomes at the institutional level:
Graduate attributes, General competencies
for use within and across institutions.
Outcomes at the programme level:
Academic and professional expertise
and values
Outcomes at the course level:
where the teaching, learning and
assessment actually occur
What the UGC said
“The UGC’s goal in promoting outcome-based
approaches is simple and straightforward—
improvement and enhancement in student learning and
teaching quality.” (Alice Lam, May 06)
OBTL, in other words.
“We think that the curriculum revision under '3 + 3 +
4' will be a good opportunity to weave 'outcomes' into
the new curriculum.”
The UGC is providing extra funding to promote early
adoption of OBTL and a supportive Task Force.
Outcomes-based Teaching and Learning
(OBTL): Classroom Based
Teaching:
To facilitate
attaining the
ILOs
Intended Learning
Outcomes:
What the
student has
to do
Assessment:
How well has
the student
has attained
the ILOs
Implementing OBTL using
Constructive Alignment
Teaching/Learning
Activities:
Engaging the
Student to perform
verb in the ILO
ILO:
Assessment
Task:
What the student
has to learn, e.g.
'to analyse X'
How well
the student
has met the
ILO
Outcomes-based Teaching and Learning through
Constructive Alignment
There are four steps in designing such teaching:
1. describe intended learning outcomes in the form of
verbs in a context, indicating what is to be attained and
the desired quality of attainment.
2. create a learning environment likely to bring about the
intended outcomes.
3. use assessment tasks enabling you to judge if and how
well students’ performances meet the criteria.
4. transform these judgments into standard grading
criteria.
Constructive Alignment is a Framework for
Reflective Practice
Constructive alignment is not a prescriptive “method”:
each step provides teachers a focus for reflective practice.
Teachers can then design ILOs, select TLAs and assessment
and grading procedures that are the most effective and
practicable given the particular context and subject matter
of each.
Several teachers have told us that this simply sharpens what
they have been doing already.
Absolutely! Good teachers naturally think in terms of what
their students have to learn, how they might best learn it,
and how they might best confirm that students have
indeed learned what was intended.
Constructive Alignment
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
expressed as verbs students have to enact
Teaching / Learning
Activities
Designed to
elicit desired
verbs
May be:
Large class activities
Small class activities
Teacher-managed
The very best understanding that could be
reasonably expected: verbs such as
hypothesise, apply to “far” domains,
generate, relate to principle, etc.
Highly satisfactory understanding: verbs
such as explain, solve, understand main
ideas, analyze, compare, etc.
Quite satisfactory learning, with understanding at a declarative level: verbs such
as elaborate, classify, cover topics a to n,
Peer-managed
Self-managed
as best suits context
Understanding at a level that would
warrant a Pass: low level verbs, also
inadequate but salvageable higher level
attempts.
Assessment Tasks
Format such that
the target verbs are
elicited and
deployed
in context.
Criteria clearly allow
judgement as to the
quality of the
student's
performance
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
. Statements of what students are expected to be
able to do as a result of studying a course or
programme.
. Expressed in the form of learning verbs needed to
achieve the outcome. The teaching/learning activities
and assessment tasks also address these verbs.
The Verbs in the ILOs
Generic high level verbs include: reflect, hypothesise, solve unseen
complex problems, generate new alternatives.
Lower level verbs include: describe, identify, memorize. Often the
these lower level ILOs can be subsumed under higher level.
Some ILOs will contain ‘large’ verbs like ‘write’ with focus on a
particular task (write a lab report with specifications X, Y, Z …)
The SOLO Taxonomy with
sample verbs indicating levels of understanding
Competence
Identify
Name
Follow simple
procedure
Combine
Describe
Enumerate
Perform serial skills
List
Analyze
Apply
Argue
Compare/
contrast
Criticize
Explain causes
Relate
Justify
Create
Formulate
Generate
Hypothesize
Reflect
Theorize
....
Fail
Incompetent
Misses point
Incompetence
aspect
Prestructural
one relevant
several relevant
integrated into
generalized to
independent aspects a structure
new domain
Unistructural
Multistructural
Relational
Extended Abstract
Distinguish the kind of knowledge you want
Declarative knowledge:
. Knowing about things
. Knowledge we can declare to someone in
writing or telling
e.g. ‘Distinguish between OBE and OBTL’
Functioning knowledge:
. Knowledge we put to work in solving a
physics problem, analysing a case study,
designing a building, making an argument
e.g. ‘Write an ILO for a subject you are
currently teaching’
Designing Teaching/Learning Activities to
Align with Intended Learning Outcomes
Having designed the ILOs, we now need
to activate the verbs or learning activities
embedded in the ILOs by designing
suitable Teaching/Learning Activities that
will facilitate students achieving the ILOs.
Typical ILO
Describe
Explain
Integrate
Apply
Solve problem
Design, create
Hypothesise
Reflect
Possible TLAs
set reading, lecture, field trip
tutorial, written essay
project, assignment
project, case study
PBL, case study
project, creative writing
experiment, project
reflective diary
The point is not how you are going to teach but how and what you
want your students to learn.
NOTE! Many of these TLAs can be assessments tasks as well. Then
you have excellent alignment.
Four common teaching situations and associated
teaching and learning activities
Situation
Teaching activities
Learning activities
LECTURE
talk, explain, clarify listen, take notes, accept, query,
discuss with peers, one-minute
paper
TUTORIAL
set/answer questions pre-read, prepare questions,
provide feedback
learn from peers, critique,
analyse
PROJECT
set brief, ongoing
feedback
apply, create, self-monitor
communicate, teamwork
PBL
set problems
set learning goals, design, apply,
accessing desired
content, skills
integrate, solve problems
What teaching /learning activities will best facilitate your ILOs?
Designing Assessment Tasks (ATs)
Steps:
1. Selecting a practicable task that embodies the target
ILO verb. (Try the TLA first).
2. Making a judgment on how well the ILO has been
met by the students' performance on the ATs –
developing grading criteria.
Common ILOs
Possible Assessment Tasks
Describe
Explain
assignment, essay question exam
assignment, essay question exam,
oral, letter-to-a-friend
project, assignment
case study, assignment
project, case study, experiment
case study, project, experiment
project, experiment
reflective diary, portfolio,
self-assessment
a range of oral, writing or
listening tasks addressing the
ILOs, e.g. presentation, debate,
role play, reporting, assignment,
precis, paraphasing, answering
questions etc.
Integrate
Analyse
Apply
Solve problem
Design, create
Reflect
Communicate
Examination is a very commonly used assessment
task especially for large classes. We need to
consider if
1. examinations involving answering essay type of
questions under invigilated conditions is able to assess
students' performance in some high level ILOs, e.g.
apply, reflect, create etc.
2. there are other alternative assessments tasks which
will more appropriately addess those high level ILOs.
Assessments Tasks for Large Classes
Task-format
Useful for

Final exam

Multiple choice
Ordered outcome
Poster
Concept maps,
Flow charts
Three minute essay
Gobbets
Short answer
Letter to a friend
Ensuring work is student’s own, overview of whole
course
Recognition, strategy, coverage
Hierarchies of understanding
integration, application, creativity
Coverage, relationships







Different levels of understanding, sense of relevance
Interpret significant detail, explain
Recall units of information, coverage
Integration, application, reflection
Assessment Issues
1. Assess the ILO or the Assessment Task itself?
2. Assess the task quantitatively (marking) or qualitatively
(holistically)?
3. How to combine AT performances to obtain a final
grade: quantitatively or holistically?
The most important thing is that the assessment task is
aligned to the ILO. The methods of assessing the task
and of combining results into a final grade grading are
important but secondary issues.
Example of Grading Criteria for an ILO
Grade
point/unit
Marginal Pass
D
1.00
Satisfactory
CC C+
1.70 2.00 2.30
Good
B- B B+
2.70 3.00 3.30
Excellent
A- A A+
3.70 4.00 4.30
ILO Reflect
Able to use available
Able to use available
Able to use available As in “Good”. Able
information to selfinformation to selfinformation to selfto generalize selfevaluate and identify
evaluate and identify
evaluate and identify evaluation to beyond
limited aspects of own
more aspects of own
the full range of owm existing context.
strengths and weaknesses
strengths and weaknesses
strengthes and weak- Suggest ways of
in a general sense. No
in a general sense. Little
nesses. Self-evaluation improving performevidence of suggestions
application of theory in
is based on theory.
ance to real-life
of ways to improve
self-evaluation and limited Increasingly able to
professional
performance. No evidence
suggestions of ways to
suggest ways to
contest.
of theory being used in
improve performance.
improve performance
self-evaluation.
in a specific context.
Grading the AT
In other courses it may be more relevant to grade
the task, which is in effect an ILO.
For example, in language courses the ILO is that
students can write an effective argument in
English/Chinese, or in Science, that they can write a
lab report.
Assessing quantitatively
For:
.
.
.
Used to it.
Seems to be the logical way to assess in certain courses.
Logistically easy.
Against:
.
.
Defines quality in terms of accumulating small quantities.
Measurement error also accumulates, thus invalidating fine
discriminations. E.g. there is no valid difference between
74 and 75, yet to the student it can make a BIG difference an A or a B! Or worse, the difference between pass or fail.
. Sends undesirable messages to students (backwash).
Assessing qualitatively
For:
•
•
•
Student’s performance is appropriately assessed against
what they are intended to learn – criterion-referenced.
Backwash is positive.
The final grade tells students what they have achieved and
what they need for a better grade.
Against:
•
•
Requires a different mind set for some teachers.
Initially more work in designing ILOs and suitable
assessment tasks, but once established is not extra work.
Qualitative assessment involves making
judgments against criteria (rubrics), not
by counting ‘marks’
If ILOs are to reflect workplace or ‘real
world’ standards it is more appropriate
to assess them qualitatively.
‘Real world’ outcomes are not stated in
terms of marks obtained.
An example of a holistic way of deriving final grade
Curriculum and Instruction: A subject in a course for Ed. Psychlsts.
ILOs:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Apply the principles of good teaching and assessment to chosen contexts.
Relate selected aspects of curriculum design and management to the
educational system in Hong Kong.
Apply the content and experiences in this subject to enhance your
effectiveness as an educational psychologist.
Show examples of your reflective decision-making as an educational
psychologist.
Final grade:
A
B
C
F
Awarded if you have clearly met all the ILOs, provide evidence of
original and creative thinking, perhaps going beyond established practice.
Awarded when all ILOs have been met very well and effectively.
Awarded when the ILOs have been addressed satisfactorily, or where the
evidence is strong in some ILOs, weaker but acceptable in others.
Less than C, work plagiarised, not submitted.
Assessment: Curriculum and Instruction
Show evidence that you have learned according to the criteria in
the ILOs.
Keep a reflective journal to record useful insights as a data base.

A paper explaining how you would like to see the Hong Kong
educational system implement a major educational reform.
You should have ILO (2) in mind.

A report specifically addressing ILOs (3) and (4), a review of
those aspects of the course that you think will probably
enhance your work as an EP.

Your own rationale of your group presentation. You should
have ILO (1) in mind.

A self-evaluation showing how you have addressed each of
the ILOs.
Place in a portfolio of about 5,000 words.
Use of OBTL in Hong Kong based on the
Constructive Alignment Model
At City U, 240 degree courses are committed and on the
way:
Faculty of Business:
Faculty of Humanities and Soc Sci
Faculty of Science and Engineering
School of Creative Media
School of Law
Dept. Building Science and Technology
28
86
105
14
4
3
At PolyU, well on the way
Baptist U starting
Hong Kong U, 4 faculties in PBL (a form of constructive
alignment) and now moving more generally
Matching OBE and OBTL
It's important that the taxonomy used at the
institutional level is not only compatible with
that used in the classroom but can actually
guide the design of programmes and courses.
Too many fragmented knowledge/ skill/ value/
societal outcomes make aligning TLAs and ATs
to those outcomes difficult if not impossible.
A Suggested Taxonomy
for Institutional level outcomes
Declarative Outcomes:
e.g. content knowledge expert.
Functioning Outcomes:
e.g. creative/innovative professional, life-long learner, professional
expert, good communicator, team-worker.
Value outcomes:
e.g. ethical professional.
Graduate outcomes need to be stated at an appropriate level
(extended abstract in SOLO terms): e.g. ‘able to solve unseen
problems‘.
These graduate outcomes need to be teachable and assessable,
usually in the Programme/Course ILOs.
Institutional, Progamme and
Course Outcomes
OBE OBTL
Outcomes at the institutional level:
Declarative, Functioning, Value
Outcomes at the programme level:
Above as appropriate to the programme.
Outcomes at the course level:
Programme ILOs embedded where
appropriate as Course ILOs, to which
TLAs and ATs aligned.
Reference
Biggs, J.B. Teaching for Quality Learning at
University. Buckingham: Open
University Press/McGraw Hill,
2003.
New edition by Biggs and Tang explicitly
addressing OBTL is in process, due late
2007.