A Report on the Implementation of the Blooming Biology Tool: Aligning Course Learning Outcomes with Assessments and Promoting Consistency in a Large Multi-Section First-Year Biology Course

The objectives of this study were to investigate the alignment of exam questions with course learning outcomes in a first year biology majors course, to examine gaps and overlaps in assessment of content amongst the sections of the course, and to use this information to provide feedback to the teaching team to further improve the course. Our ultimate goal was to provide students with learning outcomes that would clearly indicate the content and the level at which they would be expected to learn the content for this course, regardless of the section in which they were registered. We took an evidence-based approach to course evaluation and employed the Blooming Biology Tool to compare the learning outcomes and the exam questions of the course, investigating whether the cognitive skill level of each learning outcome as written matched the level at which it was assessed. We identified misalignments and recommended revising the learning outcomes to better reflect the intended level of learning for the course. We also investigated student performance on exam questions of different cognitive levels and found that students scored statistically significantly higher (p < .05) on questions in which learning outcomes were tested at the stated cognitive skill level compared to at a higher level.Les objectifs de cette e tude e taient (1) d’examiner la correspondance entre les questions d’examen et les re sultats en matie re d’apprentissage pour un cours de premie re anne e d’une majeure en biologie, (2) d’e tudier les e carts et les chevauchements en matie re d’e valuation du contenu des sections du cours et (3) d’utiliser ces informations pour fournir de la re troaction a l’e quipe des enseignants afin d’ame liorer le cours. Notre but ultime e tait de faire en sorte que les re sultats de l’apprentissage des e tudiants indiquent clairement le contenu a apprendre et le niveau cognitif qu’ils devraient avoir atteint, peu importe la section a laquelle ils s’e taient inscrits. Nous avons utilise une approche base e sur les donne es probantes pour e valuer le cours ainsi que l’outil de taxonomie de Bloom applique a biologie pour comparer les re sultats d’apprentissage et les questions d’examen du cours. Nous souhaitions ainsi ve rifier si le niveau de compe tences cognitives tel qu’il est e crit pour chaque re sultat d’apprentissage correspondait au niveau auquel il e tait e value . Nous avons de couvert des correspondances inade quates et avons recommande de re viser les re sultats d’apprentissage pour mieux refle ter le niveau d’apprentissage souhaite dans le co