Outcome-Based Education- The Innovative Learning

Education in institutions of higher learning today goes beyond the traditional norms in which lectures, tests and learning and training. Therefore teaching, learning and training of students on the subject contents need not only be class-based but also can be carried out online, commonly known as e-learning. This is done due to the growing need to evaluate the teaching quality at institutions of higher learning in order to be at par with the global teaching-learning approaches, technology platforms and competitiveness.

Hence, a new learning culture emerges and a new learning model such as an outcome-based education learning approach is favored and adopted to reform and renew education policy worldwide. This new learning approach makes teaching and learning more challenging for the academician to administer. Outcome-based education has gained prominence recognition internationally to promote education reform and policy. Hence, outcome-based education has been implemented in many countries such as USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Hong Kong and Malaysia alike. Nonetheless, reactions towards outcome-based education vary between commendation by proponents and condemnation by opponents. However, the implementation of outcome-based education in the Malaysian education system is still at an infant stage and its impact is not well established.

What is Outcome-Based Education?

The main basis of OUTCOME-BASED EDUCATION is producing outputs rather than inputs. The learning process is student-centered rather than lecture-based as in the conventional approach. Based education means clearly focusing and organizing everything in an educational system around what is essential for all students to be able to do successfully at the end of their learning experiences. This means starting with a clear picture of what is important for students to be able to do, then organizing the curriculum, instruction and assessment to make sure this learning ultimately happens the premise of OUTCOME-BASED EDUCATION is what the students learn, whether students learn successfully is more important than when and how students learn.

In other words, in the process of designing programmer curriculum, the outcomes of the learning is emphasized and pre-determined, that is, what is expected from the learning after the students have graduated in order to equip them with the necessary skills and capabilities before they enter the work place, then going backward with Curriculum design, pragramme outcomes and course outcomes, the development of instructions, delivery modes and appropriate assessments methodologies. One of the ways of complementing content delivery under outcome-based education is through blended learning which can be carried out through technology support or via online. This is done to encourage active learning and discover new knowledge in the process of enhancing the understanding of the subject contents.

Outcome-based education around the world

The demand for quality and capable graduates to fulfill industry needs, leads many countries to reform their education system and structure. The other reasons for reform are due to political pressures and lobby groups that are in favor of outcome-based education. As such, outcome-based education is the best option to be implemented albeit with much criticism from opponents who are skeptical about it. These countries include USA (Harden, Crosby and Davis, 1999), New Zealand (Sundar, 1999), United Kingdom (Ross and Davies, 1999), South Africa (Botha, 2002), Western Australia (Alderson and Martin, 2007) and Hong Kong (Ewell, 2006).However, due to pressures from the people affected by the system, for example, PLATO (People lobbying against the outcomes), OUTCOME-BASED EDUCATION  failed in Western Australia and South Africa and was abandoned in 2007 and 2010 respectively (Lui and Shun, n.d; Berlach and McNaught, 2007). Nevertheless, the outcome-based education system has been successfully implemented for undergraduate engineering programmers in the member states of the Washington Accord 1989 such as Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, United Kingdom and United States, with Germany, Singapore and Malaysia admitted as provisional members (Basri, et al., 2004). Outcome-based education has also been reported successful in one university in the United Arab Emirates (UEA) and it uses learning outcomes as a basis to design its Information Technology Curriculum (Bouslama, et al., 2003).     

Clarity of focus that can enhance the coherence of what is actually taught to students. As Willis notes, it is not revolutionary to propose that we specify outcomes. It is important is to work out ways to help students achieve those outcomes and to monitor whether they do achieve them A commitment to common outcomes that can enhance equity. OBE does provoke consideration of the degree to which we succeed in addressing the needs of all students. Such consideration is appropriate for all education systems.

An accountability that respects collective professional judgment and Decision making in schools. The decision to specify outcomes need not compromise the exercise of responsibility by teachers about how to achieve outcomes. This will always remain an area where there is a need to provide for individual preferences among teachers about the need for specification.

Shared responsibility for achievement of established outcomes. The responsibility of students to engage with their studies, the responsibilities of principals to provide curriculum leadership and of teachers to examine the basis for their teaching approaches. The importance of aligning learning, teaching and assessment.

The implementation and application of OBE learning approach supporting by technology e-learning indicates better grade point average achievement in term of academic performance in comparison to the conventional teaching-learning approach. However, when tested individually by programmers and streams, its impact is significantly higher for sciences students than social sciences students.

Nevertheless, it could not be generalized conclusively that the OBE learning approach is best suited students in the sciences streams in comparison to social sciences students, Furthermore, suffice to say that, the assessment methods, the mode of delivery, and teaching-learning process are different for these two streams of students. The level of difficulty of questions during assessments and examinations also varies between different courses depending on the lecturers and the requirements of each pragramme/faculty, even though the general rule to be adhered by lecturers at all pragramme/faculty levels is to strictly follow the Bloom Taxonomy learning model as a frame of reference.

Therefore, direction for future research is recommended to include a broader perspective in terms of other possibilities to include the academic interesting to note the perceptions of the end-users of the system against and direction

of the regulators reform and policy as had been experienced Nevertheless, in this case, OBE and technology e-learning support academic performance in terms of overall grade point average achieved by students regardless of programmers and  Streams.    

and reporting system, such as both recognizing the end point of

• The use of levels as a single indicator of a student’s achievement did not provide a sufficient degree of precision for the multiple functions required of an assessment schooling and also providing a basis for tertiary selection.
• Use of levels and sublevels on their own failed to provide the required degree of differentiation between students’ performance. The use of marks that would allow more exrecise differentiation of student performance was recommended.
• The identification and description of different levels in a continuum of achievement needs to be carried out carefully to ensure that it supports valid and reliable assessment.     Assessment tasks need to be related in a coherent manner to outcomes and there needs to be reasonable comparability across learning areas.
• Analytical marking schemes and tests need to be carefully developed by experts and teachers working in collaboration. These schemes need to be valid and reliable.
• The amount of assessment required of teachers at years 11 and 12 could be reduced without compromising the technical adequacy of the assessment system.
• Professional development should be provided to officials, teachers and students on matters related to assessment, in particular on the context surrounding assessment at Year 12 and the procedures required to generate appropriate assessments.

This Article provides an overview of the key characteristics of Outcomes-

Based Education and its application in various contexts. We recommend you utilize the pages to inform school -based curriculum review and as a resource if staff are engaged in discussion about this approach. We would welcome comment on the paper, in particular any additional points that may inform the debate on Outcome-Based Education.

The author of this article is Assistant Professor Pioneer Institute of Professional Studies, Indore