NASPA Online Learning Community

1. Make your font easy to read with not too many words on each slide. 
2. Less is more. Consider the 10/20/30 rule—ten slides, presented for 20 minutes, and 30-point font. Your remaining time should be used in direct engagement with the audience and should be spread throughout the presentation.
3. If you need more text or information, link to a resource or website. 
4. If you use images, remember to use ALT text to keep the slides inclusive. 
5. Use graphs to tell a story and help attendees visualize your ideas, but make sure your graph is simple and easy to read. 
6. Don't use acronyms unless you define what they are somewhere else in your presentation.  Avoid jargon or words that are not defined by the English language.  Remember that our international members may not understand terms that are not recognizable outside of the United States. 

1. Tell a story! The best presentations are engaging around a specific story and topic that can provide examples of the work we do.
2. Think about how they can network during the session. Offer the audience the opportunity to put their place of work or their location in the chat. They can also share their LinkedIn page or other ways to connect if they feel comfortable. 
3. Think about the land acknowledgments from where you and your presenters are located. There is no pressure here, but it could show your commitment to the first Indigenous communities on your land. 
4. Flexibility is key. If you always wait until the last 15 minutes for questions, you may lose some people. Think about stopping for questions at a certain point in your presentation. This will make the audience feel a sense of belonging. 
5. Think about doing some polls or question answering with emojis. 

• Kahoot: game-based learning platform
• Jamboard: Digital whiteboarding through Google
• Microsoft Whiteboard: Digital whiteboarding through Microsoft
• Zoom Whiteboard: Whiteboard with templates including fun facts, marketing, etc. 
• Poll Everywhere: live online polling (surveys, Q&As, quizzes, word clouds, etc)
• Slido: Live online polling 

Start with the end in mind. Think about what you want individuals to learn and take away as you write your outcomes. Start by thinking about the action--- the VERB. Think about passive verbs vs. action verbs. Some verbs, such as understand, learn (unless you have an assessment to measure the learning specifically), appreciate, and handle or learning verbs, are also hard to showcase learning. Those verbs can be subjective. Use this resource to find more action verbs. The Centre for Learning, Innovation & Simulation at The Michener Institute of Education at UNH

When writing learning outcomes, thinking about how those enrolled will demonstrate the learning is essential. Will they write an essay to share their mastery of the learning outcomes? Is there a feedback survey where they can indicate if they agree or are satisfied with the learning outcomes? Here are some helpful tips to writing learning outcomes: 

1. Make sure your learning outcomes are measurable. 

2. Don't make learning outcomes too long. If they are over 300 characters, you may consider breaking that up into two learning outcomes. 

3. Learning outcomes should be specific. 

4. Learning outcomes should start with an action verb. 

5. Learning should be clear and able to be demonstrated by those completing the course or event. 

Learning outcomes help course leads

• set expectations for the course 
• explain what individuals should take away from the course
• create assessments and an easier way to retrieve feedback
• learn from and make changes to the curriculum to improve learning
• use the course learning outcomes to assess a larger program or department

Learning outcomes help those enrolled and/or participating:

• anticipate what they will gain from an educational experience
• predict assessments and how they will be assessed
• help understand the curriculum and return on their investment
• earn continuing education and certificates

In 1956, Benjamin Bloom and colleagues differentiated six levels of learning in the “cognitive” domain and proposed a list of skills that would indicate understanding at each level. In 2001, Anderson, Krathwohl, and colleagues revised the taxonomy. The lowest levels (which are most commonly tested in exams) are based on knowledge of factual information. Understanding at higher levels is indicated by more complex skills in evaluation, synthesis, or the creation of new information.

Anderson, L.W. (Ed.), Krathwohl, D.R. (Ed.), Airasian, P.W., Cruikshank, K.A., Mayer, R.E., Pintrich, P.R., Raths, J., & Wittrock, M.C. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives (Complete edition). New York: Longman.

Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. (2023). Bloom's taxonomy. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/59/Blooms-Taxonomy.pdf

Unclear, unmeasurable, or Vague

1. Participants will understand the Title IX regulations. 
2. Participants will learn about assessment.
3. Participants will understand policy development. 
4. Participants will be able to appreciate equity wellbeing programs.

Clear and measurable learning outcomes

1. Describe the new Title IX regulations to students, faculty, and staff on their campus. 
2. Design, analyze, and interpret an assessment for a student activities program. 
3.  Write policies to enhance facility and risk management for campus recreation professionals. 
4. Identify equity-centered health and well-being programs that contribute to student success. 

There is no need to write an intro such as "Participants who attend this session will be able to." The learning outcomes should begin with an action verb. 

The ABCD method of writing learning objectives is a great way to ensure you capture everyone and everything you wish to accomplish and teach in the curriculum. 

A is for AUDIENCE

Who is your audience? Knowing your audience is a great way to start thinking about objectives. Are they students? Are they student affairs professions? Maybe go even deeper; they are campus recreation or student activity professions. Ex. By attending this webinar, campus recreation professionals will.......

B is for BEHAVIOR

This is where the verb comes in. What do you expect your audience to be able to do after participation? Remember to stay away from subjective verbs such as understand or know. Use verbs such as demonstrate, identify, create. More verb options are linked in the above section. 

C is for CONDITIONS

This is the condition, or how, your audience will demonstrate their learning. Will this be through campus resources or individual assessment? Ex: By attending this webinar, campus recreation professionals will be able to create risk management policies for their departments. 

D is for DEGREE

This is the area that gets missed often when writing learning outcomes. How will their work or learning get measured or in what timeframe would they perform the learning or objective? How will they use this knowledge or apply what they learned to their current role or department? Learning outcomes should be measurable. 

Ex. By attending this webinar, campus recreation professionals will be able to create risk management policies for their departments without error. By participating in this short course, student affairs professionals will be able to demonstrate basic skills in sexual violence prevention discussion while students are in their advisor appointment (Basic Counseling Skills short course)