The ALOA model is based on the book A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: a revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives (Anderson, L.W., D.R. Krathwohl, and B.S.T.o.e.o. Complete ed. 2001, New York ; London: Longman. xxix, 352 p). This book provides information on how to write clear Learning Outcomes.

The main structure of a learning outcome is a verb and an object. The verb is related with the cognitive process that the students will have to achieve and demonstrate. The noun is generally related with the knowledge students are expected to acquire or construct or use.

Writing a good Learning Outcome means writing a clear Learning Outcome.  The Learning Outcomes should help the teacher define what they will teach and how they will structure the pedagogic activities, including assessment. But, the Learning Outcomes should also be clear to students and for the institutions.

One fundamental part of writing a clear Learning Outcome is that it should be focused on the student and what he/she should be able to do after a learning event, instead of the content that he/she should know.

Another important feature of a good Learning Outcome is that the verb it uses should be specific and measurable. Verbs like Understand or Apply can be too general for learning Outcomes. Instead, using verbs like comparing or explaining make the teaching and learning process more transparent. Using clear and measurable verbs is very important when defining learning outcomes at the level of the lesson or module.

You can find more ideas on how to write Learning outcomes in the following links:

• A MODEL OF LEARNING OBJECTIVES based on A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives
  • http://www.celt.iastate.edu/teaching-resources/effective-practice/revised-blooms-taxonomy/
• Writing and Using Learning Outcomes: a Practical Guide, Declan Kennedy, Áine Hyland, Norma Ryan
  • http://www.tcd.ie/teaching-learning/academic-development/assets/pdf/Kennedy_Writing_and_Using_Learning_Outcomes.pdf
• A Guide to Developing Measurable Student Learning Outcomes
  • https://www.canadacollege.edu/inside/research/slos/documents/STUDENT%20SERVICES%20SLO%20GUIDE%20BOOK.pdf
• Teaching for Quality Learning at University, John Biggs
  • http://docencia.etsit.urjc.es/moodle/pluginfile.php/18073/mod_resource/content/0/49657968-Teaching-for-Quality-Learning-at-University.pdf

Cognitive processes (adapted from Anderson et al)

Remember category

Categories and cognitive processes	Alternative names	Definition
1. Remember		Retrieve relevant knowledge from long-term memory
1.1 Recognizing	Identifying	Locating knowledge in long-term memory that is consistent with presented material
1.2 Recalling	Retrieving	Retrieving relevant knowledge from long-term memory

 Understand category

Categories and cognitive processes	Alternative names	Definition
2. Understand		Construct meaning from instructional messages, including oral, written, and graphic communication
2.1 Interpreting	Clarifying, paraphrasing, representing, translating	Changing from one form of representation to another
2.2 Exemplifying	Illustrating, instantiating	Finding a specific example or illustration of a concept or principle
2.3 Classifying	Categorizing, subsuming	Determining that something belongs to a category
2.4 Summarizing	Abstracting, generalizing	Abstracting a general theme or a major point
2.5 Inferring	Concluding, extrapolating, interpolating, predicting	Drawing a logical conclusion from presented information
2.6 Comparing	Contrasting, mapping, matching	Detecting correspondences between two ideas, objects an the like
2.7 Explaining	Constructing models	Constructing a cause-and-effect model of a system

Apply category

Categories and cognitive processes	Alternative names	Definition
3. Apply		Carry out or use a procedure in a given situation
3.1 Executing	Carrying out	Applying a procedure to a familiar task
3.2 Implementing	Using	Applying a procedure to an unamiliar task

Analyse category

Categories and cognitive processes	Alternative names	Definition
4. Analyse		Break material into its constituent parts and determine how the parts relate to one another and to an overall structure
4.1 Differentiating	Discriminating, distinguishing, focusing, selecting	Distinguishing relevant from irrelevant parts or important from unimportant parts of presented material
4.2 Organizing	Finding coherence, integrating, outlining, parsing, structuring	Determining how elements fit or function within a structure
4.3 Attributing	Deconstructing	Determining a point of view, bias, values, or intent underlying presented material

Evaluate category

Categories and cognitive processes	Alternative names	Definition
5. Evaluate		Make judgments based on criteria and standards
5.1 Checking	Coordinating, detecting, monitoring, testing	Detecting inconsistencies or fallacies within a process or product; determining whether a process or product has internal consistency; detecting the effectiveness of a procedure as it is being implemented
5.2 Critiquing	Judging	Detecting inconsistencies between a product and external criteria, determining whether a product has external consistency; detecting the appropriateness of a procedure for a given problem

Create category

Categories and cognitive processes	Alternative names	Definition
6. Create		Put elements together to form a coherent or functional whole; reorganize elements into a new pattern or structure.
6.1 Generating	Hypothesizing	Coming up with an alternative hypothesis based on criteria
6.2 Planning	Designing	Devising a procedure for accomplishing some task
6.3 Producing	Constructing	Inventing a product