OUTCOMES-

BASED
EDUCATION

OBE
MA. THELMA B. EBIAS
Ph.D. – E.M. Student
Competency “a combination
of skills, abilities, and
knowledge needed to perform
a specific task,” which is tied to
a specific goal or standard.
In this era of federally mandated educational
reform and concurrent state and local resistance to
top-down government directives (e.g., the No Child
Left Behind Act of 2002, the Common Core State
Standards), a surprising consensus has arisen among
state, local, and even federal education agencies in
support of “competency-based” initiatives.
Competency-based education (CBE) supports
students’ progression through their academic work
toward proficiency and mastery—regardless of time,
method, place, or pace of learning .
Competency may be defined as “a combination of
skills, abilities, and knowledge needed to perform a
specific task,” which is tied to a specific goal or
standard. As noted by Redding (2014b), competency
entails a “general and evolving accumulation of
related capabilities that facilitate learning and other
forms of goal attainment” (p. 8); thus competency-
based education stresses acquisition and
demonstration of targeted knowledge and skills.
Perhaps CBE garners advocates from all sides of the
education debate because it fosters individualization
and personalization (see Redding, 2014a, 2014c)
while still requiring evidence of learning and
accountability.
Competency-based education
(sometimes referred to as “proficiency-
based,” “performance based,” or
“mastery-based,” or other terms)
encompasses many useful components,
making it both appealing and complex.
Basic tenets of a robust CBE model include:
• student advancement based upon demonstration
of mastery, regardless of time spent in instruction or
place in the academic calendar mastery of
competencies that reflect explicit, measurable,
transferable learning objectives that have shared
relevance
• learning outcomes that emphasize competencies,
including the application and creation of
knowledge, along with the development of
important skills and dispositions
• meaningful assessment, often
embedded throughout teaching and
learning and used to inform progress
and instruction
• differentiated individual support
based upon student learning needs and
interests
• technology used to make efforts
feasible, scalable, actionable, and
transparent
The predominant difference between CBE and most
traditional education programs concerns how instructional
time is viewed. Traditionally, time spent in learning is held
constant (e.g., the 180-day school calendar or a year of
Algebra I) and results in varied learning across students
(e.g., letter grades A–F or other ratings). CBE inverts that
traditional model, with “learning held constant, while time
varies” (originally coined by Barr & Tagg, 1995, p. 19).
Inherent in CBE is the notion that each learner
demonstrates competency, regardless of the amount of
time demonstration of that competency may take.
Adaption. Recycling until mastery does not mean
doing the same thing over and over again. In fact, CBE
promises to end the practice of repeatedly failing and
retaining students. Instruction that rapidly adapts
based on successes and early failures is instruction
that is perfectly honed to individual learning.
Difficulties or errors in learning are not
embarrassments, but instead “learning opportunities”
or the opportunity to gain new knowledge or skill in
different ways. Coupling this instructional mindset
with personalization based on individual student
interests and goals gives CBE great potential to
transform education.
Technology. Undergirding the promising potential of
practically every component of competency-based
education is technology. Educators at every level are
recognizing that hardware, software, and digital
instructional technologies are powerful tools to personalize
instruction and amplify learning. Digital, connected,
educational technology can be key when implementing
personalized learning and emphasizing competencies,
especially in larger systems (e.g., whole class, whole school,
whole district, whole state). It increases anywhere, anytime
access, and can simultaneously differentiate instruction in
real time across numerous students, enhance
communication and accountability, and support multiple
methods of credit earning, assessment, and demonstrating
competency.
Technology has already shown how it can increase personalization in
practically all aspects of our lives. When used well, it has been shown to
increase access and engagement by educators and learners (Swan,
Hooft, Kratcoski, & Unger, 2005). Several digital learning technologies
support automated, real-time instructional adaptation, or serve as a
conduit for teachers to more easily do the same. Integrating educational
data (both learner specific and in the aggregate) with systematic,
precise, research based, decision-making algorithms sets the stage for
maximizing learning and improving educational outcomes. On an
individual level, adaptive instructional programs not only ensure that
each learner immediately receives what he or she needs (both
instructionally and geared to his or her particular interest), but also
provide a wealth of valuable information about how to design better
programs (including what techniques work better for which students, in
what contexts, and for what material), and provide both general and
specific measures of effectiveness and accountability. Individualized,
adaptive instruction becomes truly possible, finally on a large scale, with
intelligent software technologies (Magoulas, Papanikolaou, &
Grigoriadou, 2003).
Summary
Competency-based education is a personalized learning
approach that respects individual student differences and
supports students in the mastery of standards and aligned
competencies . As states, districts, or schools evolve toward
competency-based education, they will necessarily make
significant and systemic changes in operations, educational
philosophy, instructional methods, standards and
assessment, grading, reporting, promotion and graduation,
and perhaps most of all, in culture. During the
transformation, they will have to navigate the road of
incremental steps to a full redesign, avoiding roadblocks,
potholes, and other hazards along the way. How states,
districts, schools, and even individual classrooms will make
optimal use of CBE remains to be seen.
OUTCOMES-
BASED
EDUCATION
(OBE)
 Outcome-based education is a model of
education that rejects the traditional focus on
what the school provides to students, in favor
of making students demonstrate that they
"know and are able to do" whatever the
required outcomes are (Kto12 Academics).
Outcome based education (OBE) is a
process that involves the restructuring of
curriculum, assessment and reporting practices
in education to reflect the achievement of
high order learning and mastery rather than
the accumulation of course credits (Tucker,
2004).
An OBE curriculum 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 (Spady, 1994).
 Clarity of Focus
 Designing Down
 High Expectation
 Expanded opportunities
 Defining Curriculum Objectives and Intended
Learning Outcomes
 Designing Assessment Tasks
 Selecting Teaching and Learning Activities
 Tips: Reviewing your Program-level Outcomes
 Tips: Writing Intended Learning Outcomes
 Tips: Choosing an Appropriate Outcome-based
Assessment Tool and Method
 Example: An Outcome-based Assessment
Marking Scheme
A learning outcome is what a student CAN DO
as a result of a learning experience. It
describes a specific task that he/she is able
to perform at a given level of competence
under a certain situation. The three broad
types of learning outcomes are:
 Disciplinary knowledge and skills
 Generic skills
 Attitudes and values
 Outcome-based assessment (OBA) asks us
to first identify what it is we expect students
to be able to do once they have completed a
course or program. It then asks us to provide
evidence that they are able to do so. In other
words, how will each learning outcome be
assessed? What evidence of student learning is
most relevant for each learning outcome and
what standard or criteria will be used to
evaluate that evidence? Assessment is
therefore a key part of outcome-based
education and used to determine whether or
not a qualification has been achieved.
 Selecting teaching and learning activities aims to help
students to attain the intended learning outcomes
and engage them in these learning activities through
the teaching process.
 A student-centered approach is the emphasis in OBE
as its success is largely dependent on the extent to
which students take responsibility for their own
learning and whether or not co-operative learning is
used; this is because one of the long-term outcomes
of OBE is usually related to generic skills and
attitudes such as teamwork and co-operation.
 Number of outcomes
 Check for overlap
 Check for clarity
 Check for representativeness
 Check for alignment
Intended learning outcomes need to be written
at both program and course levels. Both of
them need two essential elements:
 A statement of what content are the student
is expected to be able to do at the end of
learning experience;
 The levels of understanding or performance in
those content areas.
 design assessment methods that are aligned with the
overall aim of the program
 ensure that have accounted for any requirements set by
professional bodies
 see that your assessment tasks are aligned with the
stated learning outcomes
 use assessment methods that best measure achievement
of the stated learning outcomes
 be fair in how much you ask of your students and how
much value you assign to each task
 A variety of assessment methods is employed so that the
limitations of particular methods are minimized and take
account of the diversity of students
 There is provision for student choice in assessment tasks
and weighting at certain times