The Purpose of Outcome-based Education in Creating the Leaders of Tomorrow
Education is crucial to human development and plays a significant role in shaping individuals into responsible, accountable, and well-rounded members of society. The focus on the quality of education has never been more than what it is today. With the pandemic causing severe disruptions in learning models and delivery cycles, the need to transform the way learning is imparted has been increasingly
acknowledged by academic leaders, companies, and institutions alike. Considering this, the concept of Outcome-based Education has come to the fore and many experts have realized the importance of an outcome-based strategy to enhance learning and development.
Outcome-based education, or OBE in short, is a modern, student-centric approach to education that emphasizes on the importance of measuring the performance students, with the idea of producing outcomes that are credible and meaningful. With the ever-evolving demands of today’s industry, there has been a conscious shift toward an outcome-based approach to education
In this blog post, we will explore the purpose of OBE in education and how it can be leveraged to improve the learning experience for both teachers and students
What is Outcome-Based Education?
Outcome-based education is an approach to learning that is essentially focused on producing meaningful and commensurate outcomes to the efforts of both teachers and students. Its main objective is to provide a rich framework that will enable and empower students to acquire the necessary skills and knowledge they need to succeed in whatever career they wish to pursue. As such, concept of OBE is fundamentally built on the principle that learning is a journey and not a destination. In an Outcome-based education ecosystem, students are encouraged to embrace the learning process, set specific career-oriented goals, and work diligently towards achieving their goals.
Purpose of OBE in Education – Measure and Map CO, PO, PEO, PSO:
The purpose of an Outcome-based education model is to help students discover their full potential through immersive and collaborative learning experiences. OBE is primarily designed to offer a holistic learning experience that focuses on developing one’s cognitive, practical, and social skills. By periodically measuring and mapping student journeys and corresponding outcomes, teachers can customize and tailor their teaching tactics to meet individual requirements of students. In an OBE ecosystem, there are a few elements that can be used to map learning outcomes of students.
These elements include –
- Course Outcomes (CO): Course outcomes are specific objectives that are set for each course. They involve collating data on student performance and specific challenges faced. The best way to achieve this is by integrating a great assessments platform that carefully assess student performance. This will help teachers and trainers create customized learning journeys.
- Program Outcomes (PO): Program outcomes essentially refer to the overarching objectives of a specific program. They specify the end-result of learning journeys and experiences.
- Program Educational Objectives (PEO): Program educational objectives include the main objectives for each program. They describe what students can achieve after completing the program and entering the workforce.
- Program Specific Outcomes (PSO): Program specific outcomes include specific knowledge and skills required to pursue and be successful in a particular career path.
What is CO-PO Mapping and How Does Outcome-Based Education Help with That?
CO-PO Mapping essentially refers to mapping course outcomes with program outcomes to evolve a holistic and thorough learning experienc
CO-Po mapping is an essential tool that improves the accountability of each course, track student performance, and accordingly adjust future learning delivery models to offer the best learning outcomes for students.
CO-PO mapping is a great tool for teachers to understand student learning processes better, figure out what’s working for specific student classes, and personalize learning experiences to derive excellent outcomes for students.
The result is a cohesive learning experience that is designed to empower students to be better equipped to land great opportunities in careers of their choice
Pooling Student Data and Managing It on a Central Platform
An important element of outcome-based education is collecting, managing, and effectively leveraging student data to optimize learning experiences for both teachers and students. Typically, in an OBE setup, student data is analysed to understand how learning experiences can be customized to individual needs of students.
By Integrating a central platform that enables data to be pooled and categorically analysed, teachers can create personalized learning experiences for each student. Typical data that can be stored and analysed through a central platform includes student performance, individual learning preferences, specific challenges faced, and areas for improvement.
Optimizing Outcome-Based Learning Through Cogent and Powerful Resource Frameworks
To create a full-fledged Outcome-Based Education setup, it is key to integrate strong frameworks into the learning ecosystem.
Here are a few ways by which they can be achieved-
Integrating Virtual Cloud Labs into Learning Experiences
Providing students with sufficient practical experiences is often seen as a challenge in an Outcomebased educational setup. The best way to solve this is by integrating Virtual labs (Make My Labs), a comprehensive solution to ensuring every student gets the practical experience needed to succeed in high-demand tech roles.
Make My Labs provides a secure virtual, cloud-based environment where students can practice and refine their technical skills. The interesting thing about Make My Labs, which is specifically designed for tech domains, is that it allows students to refine their practical skills in over 90+ technologies and roles. They also offer a flexible learning experience that can be tailored to the individual needs of each student. This type of practical learning can be effectively leveraged to support classroom teaching or as a standalone learning tool to help students gain much-needed practical experience to succeed in today’s highly competitive technical roles.
Leveraging Assessments to Help Track Student Performance:
It pretty much goes without saying that assessments play a critical role in outcome-based education. Assessments are the best way to measure student performance, track progress, understand areas where they’re lacking, and understanding strengths and learning preferences.
Yaksha is a comprehensive tech assessments platform that can work extremely well in an OBE setup, simply because it offers an exhaustive set of assessments across 90+ in-demand technologies.
By leveraging Yaksha, teachers can gain a deeper understanding of areas where students are being challenged, and areas where students don’t need too much attention. This information can then be used to create personalized learning experiences, provide valuable feedback to students, and help them identify their strengths and weaknesses.
Integrating the Ideal Learning Development Platform to Create a Strong Learning Ecosystem
An ideal learning development platform is by far one of the most important components of an Outcome-based approach to education. It provides a centralized platform to manage data, deliver resources, provide practical experience, and effectively measure student performance. The idea is to integrate a flexible platform that can help teachers deeply understand student experiences and thereby accommodate a variety of learning styles.
As such, you’re learning, and development platform should be customizable as well as scalable and must be able to adapt to the changing needs of learning environments. It should also provide a range of resources and tools to optimally support the learning journey, and should most definitely including virtual labs, assessments, and more.
Outcome-based education is a great way to offer a modern touch to education. A model that focuses on optimizing learning journeys of students, OBE systems can yield incredible results by way of helping students unlock their true potential and become successful in their tech careers.
Techademy Campus – The future of Outcome-based learning and development
For educational institutions looking to create the perfect mix of integrated, outcome-based learning, Techademy Campus offers a unique, one-stop solution through comprehensive Learning Management Systems and highly qualified mentors who are committed to helping students learn and develop
For institutions that wish to adopt a thoroughly outcome-based approach to learning, Techademy Campus is the perfect solution that offers a completely outcome-based approach to higher education.
To learn more, visit https://www.techademycampus.com
