UW Home > Discover UW > Strategies and Initiatives

Geography Learning Objectives & Outcomes Project (G-LOOP)

Arts & Sciences, Geography Department

G-LOOP is a uniquely faculty-driven ethnographic attempt to produce rich narratives of our course learning objectives and outcomes. The process of student-centered critical inquiry is at the heart of this assessment project. We attempt to construct course narratives which connect course material or information (what students learn) with methods and approaches (how they learn) and rationale (why they learn this particular material in this particular manner). Thus we attempt to construct a curricular rhetoric or grammar, and fit that into larger rhetorics and epistemologies: those of the subfields within the discipline, those of the discipline itself, those of related disciplines, those driven by issues and problems rather than narrow disciplinary boundaries, and those of the workplace and the community.

Contact:	Richard Roth Assistant to the Chair, Department of Geography rroth@u.washington.edu
Allocation:	$37,000
Date Funded:	March 2000

Progress Report, July 17, 2001

Geography is pleased to report that we successfully accomplished the bulk of the goals we set for ourselves in order to complete Phase I of the Geography Learning Objectives and Outcomes Project (G-LOOP), as described in our April, 2000 Tools For Transformation proposal. We are very grateful for the opportunities created by these funds. These accomplishments included:

Adding 9 new profiles of course learning objectives and outcomes. Course learning profiles are available at the website .

Coordinating with faculty to draft learning goals and objectives for each of the five concentrations within the major. This task included synthesizing learning outcomes of individual courses offered within each of the concentrations; constructing integrated and representative learning narratives for each concentration, and working with faculty on various iterations of these overview narratives.

Creating a project website .

Conducting a faculty learning retreat. All of the faculty attended this all-day retreat, held in early January. Five subjects emerged as uppermost in faculty concerns:

Curricular coherence, cohesion, and integration: Ways to connect the learning goals of the five concentrations thematically and epistemologically in terms of complementary but diverse types of inquiry, and developing more of an issues-driven curriculum in which students are given the opportunity to integrate skills and perspectives learned in each of the concentrations.

Relationships among all the program elements, beyond just curriculum: How do we connect introduction to geographic research with library skills, the honors program, capstone courses, Research Link courses, The Tutorial For Majors (Geog 397), etc. A general sense of frustration over program fragmentation was voiced. One suggestion was that "we find better ways to connect their identity with particular intellectual goals." Another was to "better enable students to develop their own learning goals and monitor their progress toward those goals

Enhancing student learning: How to develop more effective ways to enhance student learning using G-LOOP course profiles as a benchmark and starting point. Discussion topics included: ways to incorporate various methods of active learning into classroom practice, the importance of repetition of material in various forms to produce heterogeneous learning (e.g.; collaborative group projects and brainstorming, worksheets, computer simulations, spreadsheets, diverse texts and reference materials, novel forms of instructor intervention into learning progress to monitor assumptions, interpretations, preconceptions, etc); the need to convince students that they can learn, and the use of formative assessment techniques during the course to ensure that learning objectives are being achieved.

Application and transfer of learning, as assessed in terms of learning outcomes: Ways to better develop our students' research and writing skills, in specific ways delineated in our learning objectives, so they can integrate them into sustained pieces of analysis in capstone courses, as well as apply them to such extracurricular learning experiences as internships and service learning.

How our Honors Program relates to our overall program learning objectives: What do we want our Honors students to be able to do and what will it take to get them to that point?

In addition, we were quite pleased by two additional, unanticipated spin-offs from this project:

We used the idea of articulating learning outcomes to create a pilot "exit course," which we offered as Geog 495, "Intellectual and Professional Development in Geography." This course, which enrolled 20 graduating senior majors, asked students to construct learning (or accomplishment) portfolios, which centered around the articulation and demonstration of learning outcomes. Students prepared resumes, held career development conversations with 10 alumni on two different panels, consulted with graduate students about graduate school opportunities, conducted a personal skills assessment, and created a portfolio in either an electronic (hypertext) version or a print (binder) version. We have concluded that, while we wish to continue to offer this course in the future, it would not be prudent to require it for all majors. (For more information, consult the course website .

Several faculty incorporating their G-LOOP course profiles of learning objectives and outcomes into pedagogy and course assessment. Faculty took various approaches to this utilization, including:
- Having students review the course learning objectives and outcomes at the beginning of the last week and using them to write their own exam questions (the success of which was seen by the instructor as itself being a learning outcomes);
- Using learning objectives as a formative assessment tool during the term to gather student evaluation and feedback in order to make mid-quarter adjustments in lecture material, and pace, as well as heterogeneous approaches to presenting the same material, etc;
- Having students review the learning objectives and outcomes on the final day as a review and a springboard for summing up the course;
- Having the class evaluate the learning objectives and outcomes on the last day as to how successfully these benchmarks were met, how the students determined whether they had been met, and, also, what serendipitous and unanticipated outcomes emerged.
- Several faculty also simply used the G-LOOP course profile as a reminder to students of what had been covered in the course (or what the instructor had intended to cover) just prior to distributing course evaluation forms, or used them as the basis for evaluative questions on the supplemental evaluation form, or the "yellow sheet" open-ended qualitative form.

Unrealized ambitions:

Assess linkages between content, skills, and methods reflected in the portfolios and the previously stated learning outcomes, and develop a grid system to graphically represent these linkages

Adjust curriculum, or outcome criteria as appropriate. Would include re-assessing concentrations and certificate programs.

Revise undergraduate major requirements. Majors would be responsible for either electronic portfolios, notebook or web site, with learning outcomes linked to learning objectives and grading criteria; (self-documentation process) OR capstone exam --grading criteria mapped to individual course and cluster learning outcomes. Senior seminars, capstone courses, senior essays would still be required, but would be an intermediate step

Support for the writing of learning objectives and outcomes for the introductory interdisciplinary social science course, as well as for follow-on assistance in course assessment, linked to original learning objectives and outcomes. Roth would act in this capacity under the direction of Project Coordinator Betty Schmitz.

Tools for Transformation Funded Proposals