Measurement of Outcomes
My self- directed learning focused on these two goals (a) learn how to create a basic website using the WordPress platform, and (b) learn how to embed into this website a Google Calendar which displays events from multiple calendars in a single calendar.
This was very interesting to consider – how to measure the success of the outcomes?
I guess first it begs to be answered, what were the outcomes?
I had stated that my self- directed learning focused on these two goals (a) learn how to create a basic website using the WordPress platform, and (b) learn how to embed into this website a Google Calendar which displays events from multiple calendars in a single calendar. Well are these two goals the assignment outcomes? To clarify, I went back to the assignment to determine what were the stated learning objectives or outcomes as stated by the instructor:
You will demonstrate your competence with whatever you have chosen to learn by preparing a blog post, website, or Mahara ePortfolio collection that demonstrates both what you learned and the way you used the technology-based learning resources. Subsequent verbs and instructions contained good learning objective words of: show, achieve, critical reflection and recommendation (Power, 2020, Assignment 2: Self-Directed Learning).
and these are part of the taxonomies I will consider. Bernadette Van Hout Wolters in “Assessing Active Self-Directed Learning” tells us that it is of “paramount importance to know exactly what one regards to be ‘active self-directed learning’, and which (sub)skills one wants to assess exactly.” (2000, p. 83) Van Hout Wolters also tells us that Learning skills can also be divided into skills that are used before, during and after the execution of the learning task and presents to readers this table which describes the learning skills in terms of learning functions (p. 86):
Table 1
Learning skills in terms of learning functions to be fulfilled before, during and after learning (shortened version of the version of Van Hout Wolters, Simons & Volet, in press.) (Van Hout Wolters, 2000, p. 86)
I love this. It helped me to clarify that the goals were to ‘learn’ to produce to tangible products; a website using WordPress platform, and an integrated Google calendar; but my learning objectives were a series of learning functions that are integral to the Self-Directed Learning process. I can reflectively identify that these learning functions (derived from Van Hout Wolters’ resource above) were experienced in my unique learning process:
- Finding missing prior knowledge
- Getting an overview of knowledge, skills and attitudes to be learnt
- Building up self-confidence
- Preparing reward structures
- Orientation on learning strategies
- Selecting information
- Practicing and applying (‘show’ and ‘achieve’ from Assignment instructions)
- Maintaining curiosity
- Upholding motivation and self-confidence
- Testing progress
- Summing up new knowledge and skills (also in the Assignment instructions)
- Thinking about future use and transfer conditions (‘Recommend’ referred to in the Assignment instructions)
- Rewarding
- Attribution of outcomes
- Evaluating learning outcomes
- Reflecting (also in the Assignment instructions)
Bloom et al. in Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, tell us their method of organizing educational outcomes defines a variety of educational behaviours (learning?) as:
the taxonomy is now organized, it contains six major classes: 1.00 Knowledge 2.00 Comprehension 3.00 Application 4.00 Analysis 5.00 Synthesis 6.00 Evaluation. Although it is possible to conceive of these major classes in several different arrangements, the present one appears to us to represent something of the hierarchical order of the different classes of objectives. As we have defined them, the objectives in one class are likely to make use of and be built on the behaviors found in the preceding classes in this list. (1956, p. 18)
Thus we can see that my learning functions (as Van Hout Wolters refers to them) aligns along the range of the 6 classes of educational objectives as classified in Bloom’s hierarchical taxonomy.
HOW TO MEASURE OR ASSESS THE OUTCOMES OF THIS SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING?
The measure of my learning goals are the products evidenced here, a readable and functioning website with a Google Calendar embedded within it, but the measure of my learning objectives is the content I have populated the pages with. I can only provide the tangible products (this website, examples of pages and a sample blog post, an embedded Google Calendar), and, while self-reflective and synthesis component of the assessment is surely embedded in the ideas on these pages, the balance of the assessment rests with my instructor. As does the assessment of the demonstration of level of competence.