Outcome Based Education- A Progressive Step to Enhance Quality of Education

It is said that “Education is the Panacea for all ills in the Society”. Education empowers people with knowledge, skills and disposition to enable them to improve their lives.  It is a means for socio-economic development of the society. Despite these facts, education is given the least priority. It is often subjected to political onslaughts, political parties at the helm of affairs changing focus, curriculum and evaluation system, whenever there is a change of governments thereby creating bewilderment in the minds of students and parents.  Nevertheless, many Indian students have done well both at home and abroad bringing laurels to their motherland and contributing to the development of Science and Technology and the society in general.  The classic example is the success of Chandrayan-3. 

Though sweeping changes like increased participation of private players, exponential growth in the number of educational institutions, opening up of new avenues for the spread of education caused by the convergence of communication and computer technologies, focus on skill based education, assessment and accreditation of institutions ,have been witnessed in the last three decades, the Indian education system has remained largely traditional focusing mainly on imparting information and knowledge to students.  It is teacher-centric, examination and memorisation oriented. It encourages rote learning.  Even the evaluation system, the pattern of question papers and the way the questions are framed promote rote learning and memorisation. But the silver lining to the situation is, in recent times, concerted and sincere efforts are being initiated to adopt student-centric and conceptual teaching-learning at all levels of education as envisaged in NEP 2020.  A significant reform in the direction is the implementation of Outcome Based Education (OBE) in India in higher education like Diploma and Engineering courses after Washington Accord 2014 (as of 2024, twenty three countries have signed the accord, India is a permanent signatory member of the accord). The National Board of Accreditation has made it mandatory to implement OBE in all the institutions offering engineering, pharmacy and management programmes.

The National Assessment and Accreditation Council has also made OBE mandatory in all the accredited institutions. Many countries like the US, Hong Kong, Malaysia and European Union have adopted OBE at multiple levels. It is now intended to implement OBE more seriously at undergraduate and postgraduate levels of general programs as well. At present, OBE has become a buzz word in Indian higher education system.

Outcome Based Education (OBE)

Outcome Based Education is the education in which emphasis is laid on a well-articulated notion of what students are expected to learn, know and be able to do after the completion of a particular programme, that is what knowledge and skills students need to have.  It is an educational theory that focuses on setting academic goals and working towards achieving the same in a well-structured manner.  In fact, it is regarded as a corner stone of a high quality educational system. In this system of education, the word “outcome” is the core concept and the entire educational system is reconfigured to achieve the intended learning outcomes at the end of the course and the programme.

Advantages of OBE: –

• OBE enhances quality of the educational system.
• OBE is an effective means to measure of the efficacy of the education system as it is essentially based on results instead of inputs, for instance, how much time is spent on teaching-learning. 
• As OBE is fundamentally student-centric, it is viewed as an effective method of teaching-learning.
• OBE promotes conceptual and activity-based learning. Discourages rote learning and memorisation. 
• In OBE, students do understand what is expected of them and on the part of the teachers, they know what to teach and how to teach during the course.
• OBE enhances communication and interaction among the stakeholders.
• In OBE, continuous assessment (formative) is adopted to promote better learning.  It is worth mentioning here that formative assessment is for learning and summative assessment is of learning.
• Faculty having a clear grasp of what goals to be accomplished, will be able to design and adopt their teaching method to suit the needs of the students.  Since OBE does not specify any particular method of teaching, faculty get freedom to choose their own method of teaching-learning. 
• Inter-institutional support, co-operation and co-ordination provides an opportunity for faculty to check, compare and improve the outcomes they have in common.
• As OBE emphasizes on student-centric teaching-learning and students are expected to do their own learning, it leads to an in depth understanding of concepts and the topic.  Active involvement of students in the learning process is one of the key aspects of OBE. 
• Employability of students can be enhanced by fostering effective Industry-Academia partnerships during identification of learning outcomes.

Disadvantages: –

• Sometimes, the learning outcomes may be interpreted differently by different faculty leading to discrepancies in instructions.
• Instruction becomes too specific, tailored to the achievements of learning outcomes.
• Assessment is narrowed down to achievement of stated learning outcomes.
• Assessment in regard to acquisition of social skills, human values, social responsibility etc. poses a problem as they are not measurable and there is no specific way to determine this skill.

As mentioned earlier, Outcome Based Education is based on the achievement of learning outcomes at various levels.  There are six levels at which learning outcomes are stated and adopted.

1. Graduate Attributes (GA): –

These are the exemplars expected of a graduate after completing a programme such as knowledge, skills and abilities.  The graduate attributes are framed in such way that they are measured beyond disciplinary knowledge.  GAs are essential for employability and for enhancing students’ academic and technical competencies.

• Programme Educational Objectives (PEOs) are the statements which describe the expected achievements of graduates in their career and what the graduates are expected to achieve in the first few years after graduation. PEOs refers to career and professional accomplishment and should be evolved through feedback from alumni, students and employers.

• Programme Outcomes (POs) are the statements which describe what the students are expected to know and be able to do after completing a certain degree or programme (here, programme means degree like BA, B. Sc or B. Com).

• Programme Specific Outcomes (PSOs) are the statements which describe what the students are expected to know and be able to do at the time of graduation with reference to a specific discipline.

• Course or Subject Outcomes(Cos)  are the statements which describe what the students have learnt, achieved and can be demonstrated at the end of a course or subject (here, course refers to a subject).

• Learning Outcomes refer to the measurable knowledge, skills and abilities that are reliably demonstrated at the end of a topic or lesson.  Defining learning outcomes for each topic helps the faculty to decide on what to teach and how to teach a particular topic.

Characteristics of Learning Outcomes: –

Learning outcomes specify the quantifiable skills, knowledge, abilities and values that students should be able to decisively demonstrate after passing out of a course.  The outcomes are based on student-centred education rather than teacher-centered education.  Because, they reflect on what the students know and will do, not on what the teacher will teach.

The learning outcomes are not independent and standalone statements made.  They must be related to each other and the title of the chapter.  Identifying and articulating learning outcomes is a vital component of good teaching under OBE.  Before identifying and articulating the learning outcomes for each unit, teachers need to have an in-depth knowledge of the content of the chapter, its objective, how to teach, what to teach and reorient their teaching method to facilitate achievements of the learning outcomes and decide on the method of assessment as well.  Further, students have to be made aware of the learning outcomes.  The students’ level of comprehension needs to be tested after each unit through assignments and verify whether the learning outcomes are achieved.

            Learning Outcomes need to be: –

• Specific, clear and unambiguously defined.
• Measurable or quantifiable.
• Realistic or reasonable.
• Achievable in a specific time frame.
• Each learning outcome should be defined in the form of a statement comprising an identified action verb and specific knowledge or skill.

Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy Frame Work to Enhance Teaching-Learning and Evaluation: – (Benjamin Bloom was an American Educational Psychologist) Bloom’s Taxonomy which is a hierarchical and globally adopted model ,categorizes the learning objectives from basic knowledge to advanced learning and evaluation.  Bloom’s Taxonomy provides different levels of learning outcomes, only after mastering one level, the student can move to next level.  It is adopted worldwide not only to design curriculum and teaching methodologies but also to state learning outcomes and design appropriate questions belonging to various levels of cognitive levels.

As per the Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy Frame Work, learning outcomes must consider the following six cognitive processes pertaining to knowledge retention and transfer.

Remembering: – Should be able to retrieve relevant knowledge from memory.
Understanding: – Understanding the concepts well.
Applying: – Should be able to apply the knowledge to solve a problem or use it in a given
practical situation.
Analysing: – Breaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationships.
Evaluating: – Justifying a decision or course of action / Make judgments based on criteria
and standards.
Creating: – Generalising new ideas, new ways of looking at things or reorganise
elements into a new structure.

Over a span of time, educators have come up with taxonomy of measurable verbs* corresponding to each of the Bloom’s cognitive levels. They also help to frame examination or assignment questions appropriate to the learning level for assessment.

In conclusion, adoption of Out Come Based Education Frame Work and renewed focus on higher order learning can potentially lead to engaging and sweeping reforms in terms of content (what to teach), knowledge delivery (how to teach) and student learning (how to assess).  Educational institutions have to play a major role in achieving the desired goals of enhancing quality of education by adhering to academic standards of highest order and ethical administration.

The essence of student-centric education is captured in the following quote by Chinese Philosopher Confucius

                                                        I hear and I forget.

                                                        I see and I remember.

                                                        I do and I understand. 

   (*) refer to AICTE manual.