What Is The Difference Between Learning Outcomes And Performance Objectives? What Are Their Roles In Assessment?

The difference in a nutshell...

Learning Outcomes = Knowing and Doing Something  

&  

    Performance Objectives = Doing the Knowing in a 

way that can be observed or measured

The words knowing and doing are very general terms. In the following paragraphs I will attempt to describe each one further and give more depth to their meaning in this particular context.

First of all, I believe the term 'learning outcomes' might be better understood when switching the two words around. So, therefore, what is the outcome of the learning supposed to be? Or, more specifically, what do I expect my eLearners to know and be able to do after the content is presented and practiced during the lesson. Beginning with the end you have in mind usually helps and there are basically three categories of learning outcomes that I will describe next.

1. Declarative knowledge is when you express or recall, usually verbally, what you have learned such as definitions, factual information, explanations and procedures.  
2. Procedural knowledge is usually taking declarative knowledge one step further in that it involves doing something with the knowledge learned such as applying rules, making discriminations or analyzing a concept. 
3. Problem solving necessitates the use of taking existing declarative knowledge and/or procedural knowledge and using that knowledge in solving a new existing problem.  

A Learning Outcome = expressing, recalling, applying, discriminating or analyzing the something learned based on a situation. 

Now for the Performance Objectives. When you 'perform' you are showing that you can do something learned in an observable way. Therefore, if the learning outcome is being able to apply the rules of Spanish pronunciation to a group of Spanish words relating to weather,  how can that be "observed" is the performance objective. An example of a performance objective would be: By the end of the lesson the eLearner will be able to orally read, with 90% accuracy, a provided list of Spanish words related to the weather by creating an audio podcast. Performance objectives can also include a specific situation or other special conditions that can help clarify an objective. For example, as a special condition, I added that the eStudent would have to have 90% accuracy to pass the assessment. 

So, what roles do learning outcomes and performance objectives play in assessment? 

Actually, whether or not eLearners meet the learning outcomes and are able to execute the performance objectives effectively is the assessment. In other words, not only do they play a role in assessment, but rather, it can be the assessment. Learning outcomes and performance objectives are usually conceptualized and developed in the initial planning stages of a lesson and then referred to often throughout the lesson in order to continually determine or measure whether or not eLearners are meeting their learning outcomes and performance objectives successfully. It could be said that this procedure takes the learning process full circle. That is, the learning outcomes and performance objectives are created. The eLearner then participates in a learning activity and then the learning outcomes and performance objectives are assessed and measured.