C-OBE study guide
C-OBE · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The C-OBE credential is a professional certification in outcome-based education - the practice of designing programs, courses, and assessments around what learners should demonstrably be able to do, rather than around content coverage or seat time. It is aimed at faculty members, instructional designers, curriculum developers, program heads, and quality-assurance or accreditation officers in higher education and post-secondary training settings who are responsible for writing learning outcomes, aligning instruction and assessment to those outcomes, and evidencing improvement to reviewers. The C-OBE study guide has 6 sections and about 1,981 words.
01Outcome-Based Education: Foundations and Principles
Outcome-Based Education organises every element of a programme - curriculum, delivery, assessment and certification - around what learners can demonstrably do at the end, rather than around content to be covered or time spent in class. Spady's four principles are examinable by name: clarity of focus (the exit outcomes are known and stated to everyone), design down (start from exit outcomes and build backwards to programme, course and lesson levels), high expectations (the standard is held high for all learners, with support rather than a lowered bar), and expanded opportunity (time, method and pathway vary while the standard stays fixed).
340 words, about 2 min02Designing Programme and Course Outcomes
Outcomes exist at three linked levels. Programme educational objectives (PEOs) describe what graduates should be doing a few years after graduation in their professional lives; they are broad and are informed by alumni and employer input.
331 words, about 2 min03Constructive Alignment of Outcomes, Activities and Assessment
Biggs's constructive alignment means the learning activities and the assessment tasks are deliberately built so that a student must enact the verb of the intended outcome in order to pass. "Constructive" refers to learners building meaning through what they do; "alignment" refers to the task, the activity and the stated outcome demanding the same performance.
371 words, about 2 min04Assessment, Measurement and Evaluation of Learning Outcomes
Assessment is the process of gathering evidence of learning. Measurement is assigning numbers or categories to that evidence.
313 words, about 2 min05Curriculum Mapping, Delivery and Learner Support
A curriculum map is a matrix of courses against programme learning outcomes, usually annotated I, D, A - Introduced, Developed, Assessed - to show where each outcome is taught at what depth and where it is actually assessed. The map reveals gaps (a PLO with no course, or with no assessment), excessive duplication, and sequencing problems such as assessing an outcome before it has been developed.
321 words, about 2 min06Quality Assurance, Continuous Improvement and Accreditation
Quality assurance in OBE runs on a plan-do-check-act (or plan-do-study-act) cycle: set outcomes and standards, deliver, gather evidence of attainment, interpret it, act, and re-measure. Internal QA is the institution's own review machinery; external QA is accreditation or regulatory review against published standards.
305 words, about 2 min