To What End? by Devorah Lieberman, Ph.D., Vice Provost and Assistant to the President, Portland State University

Across the country, institutions of higher education are encouraging their faculty to integrate technology into traditional courses as well as offer courses that either can be partially or entirely accessed via the Internet. As administrators who support the uses of technology in our educational environs, as faculty developers who provide support for faculty who agree to teach using technology, and as faculty who are embarking on teaching students to learn in a technologically supported environment, we must each answer the question "To What End?"

This article presents ways that using the phrase "To What End?" can be used as a tool to design a class that effectively integrates technology; design a course that is delivered partially or completely via technology; and assess student learning in relation to technology used in the learning process.

There are common elements that run through the design of every course. Those common elements are: Course Objectives, Student Learning Outcomes, Teaching Strategies, and Assessment of Student Learning. Figure 1 diagrams these elements. Though the diagram appears linear, when designing a course, the professor can begin the design anywhere in the process.

Course Objectives (Figure 1- Box A) are the broad elements that the professor wants each student to achieve. Educators have addressed these as the overarching, non-specific, goals of the course. Benjamin Bloom (Bloom, Engelhart, Furst, Hill & Krathwohl, 1956) uses the following terms for the course objectives: Analysis, Synthesis, and Understanding. Student Learning Outcomes (Figure 1-Box B) are the specific outcomes that the student is expected to achieve by the end of a particular module or a course. Student learning outcomes tend to fall into three categories: process outcomes, content/knowledge outcomes, or attitudinal outcomes. Each of these outcomes should be nested under one of the course objectives. For example, if a course outcome is... "The students will explore the relationship between x & y", then the student learning outcomes might be "As a result of completing this course the student will be able to describe the relationship between x & y." Teaching Strategies (Figure 1-Box C) are the various ways that the instructor believes the students will best achieve the identified student learning outcomes and course objectives.

It is at this juncture that professors often make assumptions about student learning and then act upon those assumptions without testing them. Each time a professor teaches something, he/she makes a hypothesis that this is the best way for the students to learn a content or process (student learning outcome) and achieve a course objective. Too often, when technology is integrated into a course, the professor hypothesizes that student learning will follow. Here is where the "To what end?" tool should be applied.

Whenever the teacher chooses a technology (or any teaching strategy for that matter), if he/she follows it with the question, "To what end am I using this technology at this point in this course," he/she will see if there is a link between the teaching strategy, the student learning outcome and the course objective. "To what end" questions are actually litmus tests for (1) organization of the course, and (2) effectiveness of the course. At Portland State University, when a faculty member signs up for a workshop to learn a particular technology to integrate into their course, we ask "To what end are you applying this technology in your course?" The answer to this question addresses student learning outcomes, course objectives, and begins to address the hypothesis that the professor is making about how students learn.

Assessing student learning (Figure 1-Box D) has two purposes. The first purpose is for grading purposes. We must measure how closely students achieved the identified student learning outcome (Figure 1-Box B). This is usually accomplished through examinations, group projects, term papers, etc. However, the "To What End?" question is addressed through assessing the teaching strategy in relation to student learning. This is classroom research and can be employed to identify the teaching strategies that most enhance student learning. When the professor assumes that a particular teaching strategy is the most appropriate method for all students to achieve a student learning outcome, the professor is not asking "To What End." Of course, answering the question, "To What End," may take more time and deliberation by the professor; however, it is the most systematic and scientific approach to designing a course that integrates technology wisely into the student learning process.

Internet-based course delivery is becoming commonplace across the higher education landscape. The question is not whether Internet-based course delivery should or should not exist, but rather, how best to deliver these courses. For purposes of this article, "best course delivery" means that optimal student learning is the goal.

Figure 1 also depicts the necessary elements in Internet based course delivery. As a faculty developer, assisting faculty as they enter the world of delivering courses entirely or partially on the Internet, I am struck with even how much more important it is to examine each element in Figure 1 when designing the course. When faculty begin to construct a course for Internet delivery, Figure 1-Box C, becomes critical. Faculty are often dismayed by how many face-to-face strategies are no longer available to them; however, once they begin to learn the variety of teaching/learning strategies available when teaching via the Internet, they begin to experiment with a number of them. When this occurs, it is crucial, when designing the course, that faculty continually ask themselves, "I am employing a particular strategy. To what end am I employing this strategy?" Common examples of Internet based teaching/learning strategies are: unrestricted chat rooms, visual lectures, on-line quizzes, Internet searches, threaded discussions, and visual simulations. In answer to the question, the professor, should be expecting the "end" to be directly related to the student learning outcomes and the course objectives.

In this new Internet-based learning environment, professors are entering with hypotheses about student learning that heretofore have not been tested. It is important that we take the time and effort to test our hypotheses about student learning in relation to each of the teaching strategies we employ. And, as we learn which strategies seem most related to effective learning, it is imperative that we disseminate this information in a public way so that others who venture into the internet based teaching arena have data that answers their question "To what end?"

References

Bloom, B.S., Engelhart, M.D., Furst, E.J., Hill, W.H., & Krathwohl, D. (Eds.). (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals. Handbook I, Cognitive Domain. New York: David McKay.

© The TLT Group, 2000

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About the Author:

Devorah Lieberman is a professor in the Department of Speech Communication and is also Director of Teaching and Learning for Portland State University. She is responsible for developing, promoting and delivering activities to faculty at Portland State University all of which are intended to enhance teaching and improve student learning. In these efforts she works with faculty on integrating technology into their teaching with the goal of enhancing the student learning environment.

Her research has been in intercultural communication (the area in which she completed her graduate work). Since joining the Center for Academic Excellence, her research has focused on pedagogical issues and faculty development. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Humboldt State University, her Master of Arts degree from San Diego State University and her Ph.D. from the University of Florida.

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