Definitions - Learning Objectives, Outcomes and Competences
For the purposes of the Tuning Project, the following definitions are used:
are specified by teaching staff. They describe particular items of learning related to a component of a degree programme, such as a lecture, tutorial, module or attachment.
are also set and described by teaching staff, but refer to the whole degree programme and relate to the point of graduation. They are usually specified with a hierarchy of levels, with a top level consisting of large domains of learning. Within each of these domains, subsidiary outcomes are described, with increasing levels of granularity (Harden RM, 2002).
are acquired by, and belong to, students or graduates, rather than teachers. For a graduate who has successfully completed the degree programme, their competences should be at least equivalent to the prescribed learning outcomes (although they are very likely to have developed further in particular areas of learning). In that sense, when referring to the point of graduation, specified learning outcomes can be viewed as equivalent to core graduate competences, and the same descriptors can be used. In the Tuning Project the terms are often used interchangeably.