CASE STUDY
Strengthening Learning Outcomes with Connected Curriculum Management
Learn how colleges and universities use CourseLeaf to manage learning outcomes, support assessment, strengthen accreditation, and help students better understand what they will learn before they enroll.
Overview
Learning outcomes help students understand the knowledge and skills they are expected to gain from a course or academic program. They also provide faculty with a framework for curriculum development, support institutional assessment efforts, and demonstrate educational quality during accreditation.
As more institutions publish learning outcomes through their academic catalogs, they are creating greater transparency for students while making it easier to maintain accurate, consistent curriculum information across campus.
At Central Oregon Community College, Wayne State University, and Azusa Pacific University, CourseLeaf helps institutions manage learning outcomes through connected curriculum workflows that improve collaboration, support assessment, and reduce administrative effort.
Helping Students Make Informed Decisions
For today's students, learning outcomes provide valuable insight before they ever register for a course. By making learning outcomes available through the academic catalog, institutions help students better understand course expectations, academic pathways, and the skills they will develop.
At Central Oregon Community College (COCC), learning outcomes are an important part of helping students make informed enrollment decisions.
"By providing learning outcomes in our digital catalog, we're telling students what skills they will have if they successfully complete the course," said Franklin Clark, Director of Assessment and Curriculum. "Clear learning outcomes serve as a sort of contract between the school and the student."
Publishing learning outcomes online has also produced an unexpected benefit.
"Marketing wasn't on our mind when we moved our catalog and learning outcomes online," said Erika Carman, Instructional Systems Specialist at COCC. "But our programs are easier to find than ever."
Connecting Learning Outcomes Across the Curriculum
Learning outcomes also help institutions understand how individual courses contribute to broader program goals.
At Wayne State University, learning outcomes are used to connect course objectives with program outcomes and support continuous curriculum improvement.
"Course outcomes, or learning outcomes, feed into the program outcomes by showing the knowledge that students gain throughout the program," said David McGrann, Catalog and Course Records Office. "A curriculum map is used to ensure that course learning outcomes effectively support program learning outcomes."
Those connections help academic leaders evaluate curriculum effectiveness while identifying opportunities for improvement.
Wayne State partnered with CourseLeaf in 2017 to better manage learning outcomes through its curriculum management and academic catalog systems. The university continues expanding its use of learning outcomes to strengthen curriculum planning and program assessment.
"I'm definitely going to bring it back up, and I'm already looking for departments that want to serve as beta testers," said McGrann.
Improving Collaboration and Transparency
At Azusa Pacific University (APU), learning outcomes have become an important part of maintaining consistent academic information across campus.
Before implementing CourseLeaf, updates to program learning outcomes were difficult to communicate across departments.
"There was a feeling that program learning outcomes and changes made to them weren't being shared the way they needed to be shared," said Jeff Tirrell, Director of Curricular Effectiveness. "Now everyone is in the loop: the assessment office, faculty governance, marketing, and the Registrar's Office."
By connecting curriculum management with learning outcomes, APU ensures faculty and staff always have access to the most current information.
"With CourseLeaf, everything is more efficient and accurate, and people on campus appreciate that; they see how it saves them time," said Tirrell. "When learning outcomes are up-to-date, an academic advisor can simply pull up the digital catalog and take a look. Students have instant information about a class, what they will learn, and how their progress will be measured."
Supporting Assessment and Accreditation
For many institutions, learning outcomes also play an important role in demonstrating educational quality during accreditation.
At Wayne State University, CourseLeaf helps administrators maintain accurate records while documenting continuous improvement efforts.
"Our use of CourseLeaf to review outcomes has been reported to accreditors as evidence of our continued improvement, as well as an example of our standards in learning," said McGrann. "CourseLeaf makes it easy to show our accreditors that we are serious about assessment."
Giving Faculty More Time
Managing learning outcomes manually can require significant time and coordination. By centralizing learning outcomes within connected curriculum workflows, institutions reduce administrative effort while allowing faculty to focus on improving teaching and learning.
At COCC, Clark estimates that many learning outcomes require refinement before they can be effectively assessed.
"Upwards of 80 percent of learning outcomes have measurability issues, which means that they are written in such a way that they were impossible to measure," said Clark. "CourseLeaf keeps track of learning outcomes and frees me up, so I have more time to work with professors and assess learning outcomes."
That efficiency extends across campus.
"I think everyone on campus, from the Registrar's Office to the Dean's Office, sees how useful CourseLeaf is," said Tirrell. "Everyone recognizes that it makes our lives easier."