Implementing an Outcome-Based Education (OBE) Framework in the Teaching of Industrial Psychology

Presented at the DLSU Research Congress 2015 De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines March 2-4, 2015

Implementing an Outcome-Based Education (OBE) Framework in the Teaching of Industrial Psychology 1

Dr. Jose Lloyd Espiritu1, Kiran Budhrani 2,*

Associate Professor, Psychology Department, De La Salle University-Manila 2 Instructional Design Consultant, Brady Corporation *Corresponding Author: [email protected]

Abstract: Aligning with global education trends, the main thrust of most Higher Education Institutions in the Philippines is to move towards Outcome-Based Education (OBE). OBE can be considered as a philosophy of education where there are a certain set of beliefs and assumptions about teaching and learning. The key principle of OBE states that all activities (teaching, assessment, etc) are geared towards, not what the teacher is going to teach, but what the outcome of that teaching should be, what the learner is supposed to do and at what standard. At De La Salle University – Manila (DLSU), faculty and students are in transition with OBE and the faculty are responsible for identifying competencies and learning outcomes and redesigning curriculum including learning activities and assessments in their areas of specialization. This paper explores some of the basic principles of outcomes-based education and discusses how the theory and philosophy of OBE was applied in the instructional planning, teaching and assessment of students in an undergraduate Industrial Psychology course at DLSU. A description of preliminary student experiences and feedback towards outcomes-based courses are also discussed. Key Words: outcomes-based education; OBE; Philippines; higher education; curriculum design; industrial psychology; project-based learning


INTRODUCTION

Acharya (2003) provides more guidance that OBE addresses the following key questions: 1. What do you want the students to learn? 2. Why do you want them to learn it? 3. How can you best help students learn it? 4. How will you know what they have learnt?

A teacher following the traditional philosophy in education often starts with the questions: What content do I want to teach? What teaching methods do I use? How do I assess to see if the students have learned what I have taught them? These questions are teacher-centered, where the teacher begins with content to be taught and tests how much of that content was learned. The teacher who subscribes to an outcome-based educational philosophy (OBE) has a student-centered view beginning with the questions: What type of professional do you expect your graduates to be able to do? What should my students know and be able to do after as a learning outcome? What learning activities will help them achieve these outcomes? How do I assess them to see how well they have achieved those outcomes? The focus is on the outcome or what students actually can do with the content they learned.

Furthermore, Towers (1996) listed the following that are necessary to make OBE work: 1. What the student is to learn must be clearly identified. 2. The student’s progress is based on demonstrated achievement. 3. Multiple instructional and assessment strategies need to be available to meet the needs of each student. 4. Adequate time and assistance need to be provided so that each student can reach the maximum potential.

OUTCOME-BASED EDUCATION IN PHILIPPINE HIGHER EDUCATION

William Spady, one of the lead authorities of OBE and considered the father of OBE defines outcomes as “clear demonstrations of learning”. He explains that “outcomes are not simply the things students believe, feel, remember, know, or understand; outcomes are what students actually can do with what they know and understand. Outcomes can take many forms, ranging from specific content skills to complex performances important in life (Spady, 1994). The OBE mindset therefore, is that education should be outcome-based rather than content-based, but this requires curriculum developers (who are often the teachers themselves) to take a backward design process in designing curriculum where the desired outcomes are first identified and the content, instructional strategies, learning activities, and assessments are developed after to meet the intended outcomes.

Aligning with global education trends, the Commission on Higher Education in the Philippines (CHED) has made Outcome-Based Education (OBE) the main thrust of most Higher Education Institutions with the aim of producing graduates who are more fit for the workplace. CHED has pushed for OBE in higher education institutions thru the CHED Memorandum Order (CMO) No. 46 which sets its policy-standard to enhance quality assurance (QA) system in Philippine higher education through learning competency based standards and outcomesbased system. Alday (2013) lists several reasons why OBE is given a large focus by CHED: (1) International Professional Registries require completion of a program that is accredited by an outcomes-based promoting system; (2) It is widely used in the curriculum of many universities in countries that are signatories of the Washington Accord and the Philippines is applying to be part of this; (3) Local accreditation in the Philippines is moving towards OBE and CHED requires an establishment of an OBE system; and (4) OBE promotes global mobility for professional practice. OBE is favored internationally in countries such as Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and United States. Castillo (2014) expresses that conforming to international standards is no longer an option or an aspiration; it has become an obligation. The measure of international standing of a higher education institution (HEI) is the ability of its

Teachers who believe in and support OBE will not find the shift to OBE difficult because they understand the rationale and end-goal that OBE provides. The phrase “begin with the end in mind” often helps teachers who strive to understand the OBE mindset better, but Spady, Acharya, and Towers provide excellent guiding principles. To help teachers better understand the rationale of OBE, Spady (1994) identifies three premises or assumptions: 1. All students can learn and succeed, but not on the same day in the same way. 2. Successful learning promotes even more successful learning. 3. Schools control the conditions that directly affect successful school learning.

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graduates to secure employment or to practice profession across borders.

understanding what is the target job or in what work setting will the student be in upon graduation. From here, curriculum design continues with well-defined learning outcomes, project outputs, and the selection of content which is only relevant to the achievement of outcomes and outputs. To implement OBE courses, it is recommended to apply the project-based learning approach. With this approach, students are challenged to work on real projects with real clients to address real (or close to real) needs in the workplace. This type of learning approach has been used in medicine, engineering, economics, and other disciplines, promoting learning from a real world context. For instance, medical students learn to diagnose and treat actual patients -- something they can't learn in a classroom (Boss, 2013). Project-based learning strongly exposes students to real work environments while they are still in school.

Outcomes-based higher education in the Philippines is barely on its infancy. Although the intention of CHED is to achieve higher quality education, international accreditation, and meet global standards, OBE is not easy to implement. To fully comply with CHED and implement the true philosophy of OBE, higher education administrators and teachers in the Philippines are faced with the critical process of reviewing and re-aligning their existing programs and courses offered at their colleges and universities.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY At De La Salle University – Manila (DLSU), all academic departments are transitioning to integrate an OBE curriculum. In the Psychology Department, a recent seminar entitled “OutcomeBased Education (OBE): A New Paradigm for Learning and Assessment” was held on November 2014 to train faculty of Psychology on the theory and principles of OBE. To implement OBE effectively at the course level, teachers will definitely require more than one seminar. Every responsible teacher should take initiative to learn more on OBE from reading deeper into the theory and learning from other teachers experiences of implementing OBE. Consequently, they are responsible for identifying competencies, learning outcomes and redesigning curriculum including learning activities and assessments in their areas of specialization.

Unlike traditional classroom instruction, projectlearning puts the student in charge of their own learning; teachers don't “teach” but “make students learn”, often thru practice, discovery, trial and error, and making mistakes. Students do more of the work and teachers are on the side as instructional coaches to guide students. This is the atmosphere aimed for to encourage students to become self-engaged and self-learners in the OBE classroom.

There are limited documented case studies on implementing OBE in the teaching of Psychology courses. Reported case studies on OBE are more popular in the Medical, Engineering, and Business fields locally and internationally. This study was conceived with the intention of helping teachers implement OBE at the course level. This paper presents the following: 1. Framework for designing OBE courses 2. Methodology for implementing OBE courses 3. Case study on implementing OBE in the Industrial Psychology course at DLSU

Figure 1. Framework for Designing OBE Courses

OBE courses are designed to help students develop specific skills they can apply in the workplace. So it is crucial for the teacher to start curriculum planning by thinking of the “end” -- the target jobs students will land in. This mindset entails teachers to shift to a macro view of curriculum planning, beginning with analyzing the job context of the student and thinking of content last.

A FRAMEWORK FOR DESIGNING OBE COURSES Figure 1 shows the components that are involved in OBE course design. Effective design of competency based education programs starts with

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they are complex in nature, even messy, and cannot be solved by one "right" or easy-to-find answer (Boss, 2013). A well-defined projects requires students to develop and apply multiple skills such as researching, writing, interviewing, investigating, and collaborating before can be “finished successfully”. This is why projects take time to plan, do and revise, requiring students to work in milestones with support and guidance from the teacher.

The Job Context The Job Context refers to the target job or work setting where students will be able apply the skills acquired in a course. The quickest way to determine this is to understand the student better – looking into the degree program they are in (e.g. AB Psychology), the profession or jobs they can possibly land after graduation, or the professional interests they have. If teachers grasp this, they will be able to visualize how students will apply their course in the real world.

Outcomes are those innate competencies students develop so they can perform a task or job when called for. Being competencies, they are skills-oriented, requiring a demonstration or performance before they can be measured. Spady (1994) explains that clear outcomes statements begin with demonstration verbs that translate into tangible action such as create – explain – design – develop – write. Nondemonstration verbs like know – think – reflect – understand – believe – appreciate – feel – remember do not reflect what students can do, but only the mental process students goes thru.

The Job Context can greatly affect the way a curriculum is planned. For example purposes, consider the course on Statistics. This is a general course often required for all students at the college level, whether in the Business, Medicine, Psychology, Computer Science, Engineering, Math, Science, Law, or Liberal Arts program. The applications of Statistics for a business student will be in the areas of finance, forecasting or marketing. On the other hand, applications of Statistics for a medical student lie in conducting clinical trials or testing, which are very different context from the business student. So establishing a clear job context guides the teacher to design a more relevant course for the student and provide answers to most common question all students have -- “Why do I need to learn this?” It also avoids a generic or one-size-fits-all course design.

The outcome-based approach emphasizes the use of non-demonstration words and this sets higher expectations from students and increases the standard of acceptable performance. Students must always apply what they know. They have to go thru several cycles of mental processing and skills practice before they can actually reach a “finished or successful output”. In the process, students gain competencies from continuous practice or repetition and improve from early mistakes with correction and guidance from the teacher.

Outputs vs. Outcomes Teachers who design OBE courses must clearly define their outcomes and outputs; they must have a clear picture of the learning they want students to exhibit. It is necessary to distinguish between outcomes and outputs. Outcomes are what students actually can do with what they know and understand. While outputs are tangible, concrete products from students that are evidence of the expected outcomes. In effect, outputs are a means to assess outcomes and in OBE, outputs are produced as a result of student projects.

Project-Based Learning vs. Project-Oriented Learning Teachers using projects must make distinction between “project-oriented learning” and “project-based learning” (see Table 1). Major differences lie in the period or duration of the project, the place where the project is worked on, the procedure of doing the project, and the purpose of the project and the pedagogy behind the project. In Schwartz (2013), Humanities teacher Azul Terronez explains that “when an educator teaches a unit of study, then assigns a project after, this is not projectbased learning but project-oriented learning because the discovery didn’t arise from the project itself.” In project-based learning, projects are a means for students to learn; it is in the discovery that students find out new information, make sense and apply what they learn. Project-oriented learning, however, has been the traditional view of project assignments where projects are given as take-home assessments and often students treat this as just another homework to finish.

For projects to be real, it has to be partnered with a client (i.e. a person, company, organization) who will benefit from the project. This makes the project authentic. Espiritu and Budhrani (2013) explain that authentic projects must have a real world context where the project is arranged with a partner organization; where targets and timelines are illdefined at the onset so that they are discovered and set by students; and where students will have to work in mixed venues such as school, home, online, and in the field or office. More often, projects are defined by the teacher at the start of the course but

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more content is covered. More so, the amount of content covered within the a unit of study determines the scope of the tests, activities, or assignments students are given.

Project-based learning promotes working on the same project throughout the trimester, building it up in milestones, in consultation with the teacher and the client, ensuring each task is completed well. The client is part of the assessment and feedback process. Students are primarily engaged in continuous improvement and revision until the project is “acceptable” and has met the expected standards set by the client and the teacher. Understanding that projects can have different pedagogy, implementations and purpose, teachers must pay attention to how they plan and integrate projects in their courses.

OBE entails teachers to shift to a macro view of scoping, where the project and outcomes guide the selection of content. The teacher picks and chooses only the content relevant for the students. Textbooks or any other document sources are used only as references and no longer prescribe the topics for the course. This forces teachers to examine what is truly essential for their students to accomplish in the limited amount of time allotted for a course. The teacher keeps the “need to know” topics, replacing or eliminating “nice to know” topics, and re-sequencing topics to ensure students learn progressively, simpleto-complex topics.

Table 1. Project-Based Learning vs. Project-Oriented Learning in OBE Criteria Period

Place of Work

Procedure

Purpose Pedagogy

Project-Based Learning

Project-Oriented Learning

Flexible Timeline, Distributed in Milestones, Long-Term

Rigid Timeline, Short-Term

Mixed Venues -Home, School, Office or Workplace

Home

Complex, Ill Structured Tasks

Well-Defined Tasks

Procedure is discovered by the Student

Procedure is taught by teacher

Real World / Client-Oriented

Teacher-Oriented

For the Student as means to Learn

For the Teacher as means to Assess

METHODOLOGY FOR IMPLEMENTING OBE COURSES Define a Single Output with Multiple Outcomes Planning outcomes and outputs often happens concurrently. Outcomes are best represented as the large tasks students need to do to “successfully complete” the project. Tasks must be designed as interrelated tasks and represented as project milestones for the student. This structure helps the students know what they need to do, remain focused, and see the relevance of why they have to do the task. Because tasks are interrelated, students cannot choose to skip any task; one task leads to next.

Content Selection The instructional content is associated to scope or coverage in the curriculum. Traditional course content is designed with a mirco view where the teacher starts with a list of topics from a textbook, or a prescribed curricular document (i.e. International standards, program guides) and try to determine learning activities that fit each topic. This content-based philosophy considers the amount of content included as the main factor. More content is considered more complex (because it requires more information to remember) while less content is considered simpler (because it has less to remember). Teachers try to include more content in a course with the assumption that more learning will take place if

Figure 2. Single Output with Multiple Outcomes Model

Set Project Milestones The project becomes the single activity that anchors the entire teaching-learning process in the course. The project is assigned on the first week of class broken into milestones distributed across the trimester and students are aware of this. Students must understand the entire project scope at the beginning of the course and have a clear idea of the expected output and outcomes they need to attain.

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Mistakes are allowed and considered “inevitable” as these are considered opportunities for learning than permanent dents to the student's record. As not all students learn in the same pace or the same way, slow learners are given time to catch up with a more flexible class schedule. Ultimately, the goal for any student is to complete the project and demonstrate successful outcomes even if it takes some longer than others. Even so, students are not allowed to skip a project step or settle for low quality outputs / performance. Expectations from the teacher are always high, but teachers scaffold learning activities towards performance improvement by working thru project drafts, frequent practice, trial and error, experimentation, and training. Spady promotes that students can feel and become successful in OBE, and this is possible if the teacher is able to implement formative assessment.

Apply a Flexi-Time Schedule The most familiar way of operating schools is time-based. Virtually, all components of the current school system are defined, structured, and operated with time as the key determining factor (Spady, 1994). At the university, the calendar defines the length of a course; the schedule or instructional plan indicated in the syllabus is fixed along 3-hour worth learning material per week; and the classroom clock is often fixed to 1.5-hours as the time stuednts spend with the teacher in the classroom. The issue here is that 'time' begins to control both the teacher and student. Average to fast learners are usually able to keep up with the planned curriculum, but slow learners fall behind, needing “more time” to catch up. In OBE, it is recognized that students do not learn at the same pace or time. Outcomes and the project start to take precedence over time and restructures the way teachers plan their course calendars, schedules and clocks. With projects as the primary focus, being flexible with time is key and teachers should manipulate time to the advantage of the learners. This means allowing flexible deadlines if students are not ready, allowing second / third chances if outputs were not up to standard, or allowing more time to work or practice. This doesn't imply that calendars, schedules and clocks are removed, but rather that teachers alter timelines according to student needs, rather than being a rigid with a class schedule. Flexible teachers also allow themselves to work with students beyond class hours, having multiple consultation sessions or online communication sessions thru email, chat, Facebook, or even video conferencing like Skype.

METHODOLOGY Industrial Psychology in the Workplace Industrial Psychology is about studying human behavior in work settings. They improve the performance, satisfaction, safety, health and wellbeing of employees.Professional Industrial Psychologists conduct research to better understand behavior at work. They also help select employees and train them. They are involved in a number of programs designed to enhance work performance and the work environment. They also assist organizations to change and innovate. Often, they are employed as consultants to organizations, or are hired in-house in a variety of jobs, specifically in the areas of Human Resources, Employee Development, Organization Development. They could also be the Quality Performance Manager, Staff Industrial Psychologist, Testing Specialist for the organization.

Use Formative Assessment Applying the OBE Framework (Figure 1), students are expected to address the needs of the client through a project and in the process, develop multiple outcomes, content knowledge and skills. OBE requires teachers to use formative assessment procedures such as using rubrics to evaluate performance, giving qualitative feedback rather than grades or scores, correcting mistakes, and insisting on performance improvement. Teachers are “instructional coaches” constantly monitoring learning at an individual level, providing on-going feedback, helping students recognize their positive and negative points. Students are not being compared among each other nor in competition of high scores on a test because in the OBE classroom, testing is not recommended.

Industrial Psychology is a 3-unit required course for all students in the AB/BS Psychology program at DLSU. Like every course at the university, it runs for one trimester (about 14 weeks). Each week, the students spend two 1.5-hour classroom sessions (Mon-Wed or Tue-Thu) face-to-face with the teacher. A case study applying the OBE framework was conducted on three Industrial Psychology classes at DLSU, totaling to 86 students as participants. Class A had 16 students, most enrolled in AB Psychology; Class B had 38 students, most enrolled in BS Psychology; and Class C had 32 students, a mixed group from AB/BS Psychology. All three classes were

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assigned to Dr. Jose Lloyd Espiritu, one of the proponents in this paper. He reports his observations on students performance from his class interactions and informal discussions with students. The students were given an online questionnaire with two questions to provide feedback on their OBE course experience.

Target Clients Students were asked to group themselves, with 4 or 5 members in each group. Once student groupings were finalized, each group was tasked to select a company to work with as their “client”. Class A selected to work with funeral home as their clients, an area they were unfamiliar with. Class B selected salons as their clients and Class C selected Bistros as their clients.

OBE COURSE DESIGN Learning Outcomes

RESULTS

When conceptualizing outcomes and outputs for the Industrial Psychology course, two questions guided the thinking process: What should an Industrial Psychologist be able to do? and What should an Industrial Psychologist be able to create or produce? One technique to narrow down outcomes and outputs was to anticipate the performance level expected of the students in the course, specifically whether they should be performing at a beginners, intermediate or advanced level. For an introductory course, it was assumed that students must be able to know and do tasks expected of a beginning Industrial Psychologist. With this in mind, the following course outcomes were identified (Table 2).

Feedback from Students Table 3. Responses of Students on OBE Courses

LO2: LO3: LO4: LO5:

Class A

Class B

Class C

Ave

1. Did you like the project based / OBE approach?

8.00

6.60

7.60

7.40

2. How much did you learn?

8.06

7.10

7.20

7.45

Students in all classes were asked to rate themselves on two questions, from a scale of 1-9 (1 being the lowest; and 9 being the highest). Table 3 shows the average rating of each class and the average rating of the 3 classes per question. Based on average student responses, students have a positive view of the project-based / OBE approach and perceive they have high-level of learning achieved in the course.

Table 2. Course outcomes for Industrial Psychology LO1:

Question

Conduct interviews, observations and surveys on employees in an organization Document an organization's work tasks, procedures, and standards Write job descriptions and job specifications Develop salary scales, performance standards, and performance appraisal criteria Design job advertisements

Observations from the Professor Project Output

From weekly interactions and informal discussions with the students, it is observed that: 1. Students were happy with the idea of not having exams for the course.

For beginning industrial psychology students, it was identified that they should be able to produce an “Employer's Handbook” by the end of the trimester. Students were oriented on course outcomes and the handbook (the output) they needed to produce by the end of the course. The handbook would need to be anchored on a real client and students had to analyze, research, do comparison and benchmarking studies to write out the company's job descriptions, selection and hiring guide, performance appraisal criteria, and benefits and salary scales in the handbook. Three complete handbooks were produced at the end of the term by the three classes.

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2.

The relevance of the project and type of client students work with impacts their interest to work on the project.

3.

If students are unfamiliar with the nature of the client's business or service (e.g. funeral home), they are able to extract more accurate, in-depth information during research / data-gathering activities compared to students who are familiar with their client/ organization.

4.

Students who are very familiar with their client's business (e.g. Salons, bistros) have


higher tendency to fill their research / data gathered with their own knowledge or opinion. 5.

Smaller class sizes have more students who are “riders”, those who depend on groupmates too much and have little contribution to the group.

6.

Maintaining a flexible schedule and multiple modes of communication with students (email, sms, Edmodo, class time) increases the capacity of the teacher to monitor student work, compared to traditional limited 3-hour class time with students.

Alday, R. (2013). Facts About OBE – Outcomes Based Education. [Powerpoint] Castillo, R. (2014). A Paradigm Shift to OutcomesBased Higher Education: Policies, Principles and Preparations. International Journal of Sciences: Basic and Applied Research (IJSBAR) (2014) Volume 14, No 1, pp 174186 Espiritu, J.L., & Budhrani, K. (2013). REEL TIME: A Case Study on Transformative Learning with Authentic Projects. De La Salle University Research Congress Proceedings. March 6, 2014

CONCLUSION

Spady, W. (1994). Outcome-Based Education: Critical Issues and Answers. American Association of School Administrators, Arlington, Va.

Higher education administrators and teachers in the Philippines are faced with the critical process of reviewing and re-aligning their existing programs and courses offered at their colleges and universities. The OBE teacher takes a very different approach to teaching and assessment because the focus is not on learning content, but developing outcomes. OBE courses are designed to help students develop specific skills they can apply in the workplace. So it is crucial for the teacher to start curriculum planning by thinking of with the “end in mind” -- or the target jobs students will land in.

Towers, J.M. (1996). An Elementary School Principal’s Experience with Implementing an Outcome-based Curriculum. Catalyst for Change. Winter 1996, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 1923. Boss, S. (2011). Project-Based Learning: A Short History. Edutopia. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/project-basedlearning-history Shwartz, K. (2013). What Project-Based Learning Is — and What It Isn’t. Mind Shift. Retrieved from http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/ 01/what-project-based-learning-is-and-isnt/

The framework presented in this paper guides teachers who are in the process of redesigning their course curriculum, specifically on how to define highlevel outcomes, real-world project outputs, and content. This paper also explained the methodology of how to apply project-based learning in a course effectively with setting project milestones, a flexitime schedules, and using formative assessment. Results from the case study show that students have a positive view of the OBE course design and perceive they learn much from the project-based experience. However, this is limited to this study. If more teachers apply this framework, further comparative studies can be made on students views and perceptions.

REFERENCES Acharya, C. (2003). Outcome-based Education (OBE): A New Paradigm for Learning. Triannual Newsletter produced by the Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning. November 2003, Vol. 7, No. 3.

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Implementing an Outcome-Based Education (OBE) Framework in the Teaching of Industrial Psychology

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