Attainment of Student Learning Outcomes
We have seen the contribution on OBE, SLOs and assessment tools used for attainment of SLOs that actually assist in developing appropriate employability skills in young minds and the learners then become competent graduates or practitioners. The discussion on some conceptual framework and practice data has been made in all other chapters of this book. We also have presented an overview of the scope and objective of the title of the book so that readers can have easier understanding of what has been contributed and what is the significance of OBE framework. Of course, the area of attainment and its assessment of SLOs is not widely acceptable as a research topic but still people from scientific community, education technology, education management have started realizing the need of true practice and pragmatic assessment of SLOs so that the gap analysis is made that further helps the academic organizations to be providing sustainable education for holistic development of learners, and also creating an inclusive and learner centric (Caspersen et al., 2016; Shaheen, 2019; Shute & Rahimi, 2017) ambience in the schools or universities.
Teaching is the highest task and commitment of a human being. It means translating his/her experiences in convincing seeds of knowledge. The most important point in my opinion is to make all the students comfortable and believe in their abilities regardless of past outcomes, otherwise they can think that it is impossible to go better than before. Instead, each course must represent the new opportunity. Students must understand this and believe in their abilities. When I start a new class with new students, I always try to create a situation of empathy and I incentive participation and the request for doubts. Sometimes, it happens that some students kid who asks questions and an opportunity is given to fool around and smooth things over. No one should feel embarrassed, not even when faced with a question that may appear simple, or inappropriate. One always has to dig deep and understand the reasons for the question. It has often happened to me (not to say always) that even a simple question concealed very interesting questions and doubts, able to open new horizons of investigation.
Another important point is to make students that even if studying is hard, it opens new opportunities and they must believe in this, never thinking that the time is wasted. But it is an investment for their future. The third “wisdom pill” I try to transfer is falling in love with what they are studying. It will all be easier, and time will seem to fly. Meet with other classmates to discuss a particular topic and to resolve something unresolved and then there’s always the teacher. To assess that they are developing some competences, usually a lot of exercises are there through an example, and later on in the further days, the students are asked to do the same type of exercises by themselves, in class altogether discussing and telling me the result. It may also happen that one of them is chosen to show how he/she did it. In other courses, for instance my Telecommunications Networks, since it is split in three parts, the students are asked to prepare a report for each part (usually a group of 2 students), and during the course I mix my lesson with the presentation of a report by some students to show how they can present the same topics. The attention and the discussion increase a lot when the students present their reports.
Based on analysis of necessary literature studied in other chapters and our own studies, we realize that the OBE and assessment of SLOs are discussed mostly during the accreditation process (Deng et al., 2003; Ferguson & Foley, 2017; Harmanani, 2017; Jadhav et al., 2020; Min et al., 2013; Olds, 2004; Reid & Fisher, 2012; Saeed et al., 2021; Shaheen, 2019) and not from the point of view of practicing OBE and ensuring excellent quality in teaching and research. This statement does not apply to many reputed universities and academic institutions of the world. Following are titles of the studies with their context of usage:
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Overview of OBE as guiding document and reference in most of the cases (Jadhav et al., 2020; Mathew et al., 2020; Nakkeeran et al., 2018; Rajaee et al., 2013)
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Formulation of course outcomes (COs), program outcomes (POs) which are derived from vision and mission of the institute or university in selected number of good institutes only (El-Maaddawy & Deneen, 2017; Lingard, 2007; Martin & Mahat, 2017; Olds, 2004; Shute & Rahimi, 2017; Surendran et al., 2005)
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Mapping between student learning objectives and SLOs, rarely done and most of the contents are review based (Deng et al., 2003; Sinha, 2021)
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Writing course objectives and program objectives (Aziz et al., 2012; Deng et al., 2003; Min et al., 2013; Nakkeeran et al., 2018; Sinha, 2021)
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Development of assessment tools (Deng et al., 2003; Min et al., 2013; Sinha, 2021; Soeiro & Falcão, 2013)
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Creating some novel rubrics that could be used as robust metrics for assessing attainment of SLOs (Lingard, 2007)
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Sustainable education development goal (SDG4) of sustainable development goals as envisaged in 2030 SDGs by United Nations (UN), mostly theoretical framework and discussion (Saeed et al., 2021)
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Outcome oriented targets and goals under SDG4 highlighting no significant research contributions and practical implementation (Caspersen et al., 2016; Lingard, 2007; Saeed et al., 2021)
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Flexibility in implementation of SDG and strategies
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Implementation strategies and challenges
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Preparedness for 21st century skills but limited research perspective (Shute & Rahimi, 2017)
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Scientific practice o OBE and attainment of SLOs
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Resistance to adapting to new framework despite many things and aspects are actually included while delivering TLPs
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OBE framework only considered as accreditation and assessment concept
So, in terms of pragmatic assessment of SLOs especially the level of attainment, limited studies and research are reported and thus this book has attempted to present few real time examples highlighting the use of metrics, measures, tools and rubrics for the assessment.