Educational publishers need to leverage learning management systems to deliver unique content and services for the fast-growing outcome-based education market.

1. • Cognizant 20-20 Insights
Helping Publishers (and Educators)
Master Outcome-Based Education
Executive Summary OBE’s Effect on K-12 Education
Educational publishing has changed profoundly In the U.S., Europe and Australia, the effect of
during the past 20 years, primarily in response to national, state and local (district-level) estab-
an educational reform movement known collec- lishment of standards for education have had a
tively as “outcome-based education.”1 profound effect on educational publishing.
While many separate calls for change have been The explosion of standards for K-12 education in
combined under the outcome-based education the U.S. , especially those defined at the state or
(OBE) umbrella — for example, increased edu- local school district levels, emerged in the 1990s
cational funding, metrics-based evaluation of and is reflected by initiatives such as:
educators, and requirements for better graduation
rates — the core of this emerging model is a focus
• The Texas Assessment of Academic Skills
is a standardized test used from 1991 through
on empirically measuring student performance
2002 (and replaced by the Texas Assessment
against standards established for each discipline.
of Knowledge and Skills in 2003) to assess
This student-centered learning philosophy, with its students’ proficiency in reading, writing and
emphasis on performance, or outcomes, contrasts math, for grades 3 through 11. (Passing the
with traditional educational models which focus grade 11 exam is required for graduation.)
on the resources available to the student — the • The Washington Assessment of Student
educators, textbooks or other learning materials Learning is the primary educational assess-
and assessment tools that have traditionally ment system for the state of Washington from
served as inputs for the student. 1997 through 2009. (It is now replaced by the
High School Proficiency Exam for high school
This white paper discusses the impact OBE has students and the Measurements of Student
had on the entire educational publishing market, Progress for grades 3-8.)
including K-12, secondary and post-graduate
education. It also offers our perspective on how • The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assess-
ment System was developed in 1993 in
educational publishers should leverage learning
response to the state’s Education Reform Act
management systems to craft and deliver unique
mandating standards-based assessment in
content and services for this nascent, but fast-
English, mathematics, science and technology/
growing, market. Finally, we recommend changes
engineering in grades 3 through 10.
to educational processes themselves to overcome
the challenges of implementing truly outcome- The best-known and most far-reaching standards-
based education. based education law in the U.S., the No Child Left
cognizant 20-20 insights | november 2011

2. Behind Act of 2001,2 requires states to develop Although higher educational institutions (univer-
standards in basic skills, and assessments of sities, community colleges, graduate schools, etc.)
those skills, to be applied to all students in certain are not often faced with state-defined mandates
grades, if those states are to receive federal to match pedagogic methods to standards, uni-
funding for schools. versities do face pressures for standardization of
educational methods for other reasons:
In addition to state or national OBE initiatives,
local school districts in the ‘90s began mandating • The current lack of widely accepted
courseware specific to their geographic areas. standards, and their adoption, hinders
For example, school districts could specify that the effective implementation of learning
elementary school history instruction reflect technologies. New Web-based methods for
landmarks or events that are part of the history offering educational materials and courseware
of their local area. Districts in Texas and Missouri are hampered by the lack of agreed-upon
have decreed that creationism be taught along standards; breakthroughs in digital delivery of
with evolution in biology classes. higher education courses suffer from the lack
of agreement on how educational outcomes
However, the effect of the OBE movement is are to be delivered through such methods.
certainly not limited to the U.S.:
• Collaboration between institutions on how
• The Australian government in Canberra courses of learning should be established
(Western Australia) has mandated the use of for specific disciplines is retarded due to
some form of OBE for grades kindergarten the lack of standardization. Even in such
through 10 for several years, and is currently standard-driven disciplines as law, medicine,
extending the concept of outcomes, and testing accounting and engineering, differences in
to verify those outcomes, for grades 11 and 12. how these standards should be applied make
sharing of content, and sharing of pedagogi-
• OBE was introduced in South Africa in the late
cal approach, difficult. (And, in an increas-
1990s by the post-apartheid government as
ingly virtual world, where students expect the
part of its Curriculum 2005 program.
ability to start their course of learning at one
The effect of each state, or local school district, institution and continue it at another, the lack
mandating unique (and often conflicting) of standardization makes it difficult for institu-
subject-specific teaching standards (and for tions to even agree on where a student is in
how students should be assessed against the their course of study and what outcomes they
mandated outcomes for each subject) has placed have actually achieved.)
a tremendous strain on publishers of K-12 educa- • Integration, sharing and reuse of educational
tional materials. content, and enablement of functions such
as federated search across content reposi-
No longer can educational publishers depend on
tories, is made more difficult if institutions
a go-to-market strategy based on creating one
are mandating content creation according to
set of materials per subject, per grade, saleable
different standards.
across an entire country. Now each state or
region, or even each local school district, has its • Assessment and evaluation tools, and their
own specific requirements for textbooks based on critical place in establishing and achieving
its own idiosyncratic standards. outcomes in education, are obstructed within
a discipline if agreement is not reached on the
The manual customization of educational specific outcomes these tools are meant to
materials is labor-intensive, time-consuming and evaluate.
expensive. Publishers often have to turn down
requests for customized educational materials
• Finally, economic pressures brought to
bear on students because of the current
because they cannot recoup the costs of producing
economic malaise have made them more
these materials.
critical “shoppers” for educational value. A
higher education environment where institu-
OBE’s Effects on Higher Education
tions cannot agree on standardized outcomes
The demand for an outcome-based approach for a course of education makes it difficult to
to education is not limited to K-12 educational students to compare one university’s course
publishers. set to another’s.
cognizant 20-20 insights 2

3. Custom Publishing and OBE create notes, download exercise files, bookmark
key sections, highlight text and build customized
In reaction to the market’s demand for customized
RSS feeds. And, to meet the demands of a mar-
educational materials, educational publishers
ketplace where mobile devices have become
have endeavored to create systems where instruc-
ubiquitous, Safari Books Online offers the ability
tors can select content from existing textbooks,
to search and read directly
sequence those content objects into whatever
order they dictate, define custom cover material
from cell phones and tablets. Safari Books Online
including title text and images specified by the Subscription plans to Safari allows users to jump
instructor, and then render the custom product
into print or e-book formats.
Books Online may include to related content
access to a limited amount
of content each month,
across several
The goal of instructors in using these custom
publishing platform is to match the instructional
or unlimited access to all books, create notes,
content used in the teaching of the course to the
materials in the digital library. download exercise
outcomes, defined either by national, state or local McGraw-Hill Create files, bookmark key
school districts (in the instance of K-12 education),
or by standards bodies serving specific academic
Originally brought to market sections, highlight
disciplines in the case of higher education, that
under the name Primus, text and build
McGraw-Hill Create allows
students are intended to achieve. What follows
educators to build custom edu-
customized
are examples of how publishers are responding to
the OBE movement.
cational materials by selecting RSS feeds.
desired content from multiple
Safari Books Online sources, arrange or sequence the content to fit
the teacher’s syllabus, and include the teacher’s
The first successful custom publishing engine was
own, original content to the mix, if desired.
Safari Books Online, founded in 2001 as SafariU.
Safari Books Online is a digital library created as Users first find content by searching across a
a joint venture of O’Reilly Media and the Pearson repository of thousands of McGraw-Hill textbooks
Technology Group. and third-party content. Once the desired content
is found, teachers can select the chapters they
Safari is a subscription-based digital library,
wish to include in the custom textbook, and, if
containing content from books, videos, short-form
they like, include section dividers or add their own
content (“Short Cuts”) such as white papers
content — originally authored material, a course
or treatises and rough-cut content (“Rough
syllabus or teaching notes — to the book.
Cuts”) from O’Reilly Media and other publishers,
including Addison-Wesley, Prentice Hall, Peachpit, Users may then define a custom cover for the
John Wiley & Sons, Microsoft Press, Adobe Press, customized textbook, adding their name, the
Cisco Press, Manning Publications, Packt, SAS course name, the school name and course infor-
Publishing, IBM Press, FT Press and Focal Press. mation to the cover using graphical templates.
Finally, users can render the custom product in a
As an online, searchable repository of primarily
number of e-book formats; or choose to create a
technical content, Safari Books Online allows
print book, in color or black-and-white, and either
users to execute keyword searches across the
contract with a local printer to print the book or
full content of thousands of books, pre-publica-
arrange with McGraw-Hill to print the book using
tion manuscripts, short documents, articles and
print-on-demand technology.
training videos, and consume that content online.
However, the innovation that Safari brought to Pearson Learning Solutions
publishing is allowing users to select components
Pearson Learning Solutions, a division of Pearson
of published works — say, Chapter 4 from Book
Education, is a custom publishing platform based
A, Chapter 7 from Book B, Chapter 11 from Book
on the content produced by such Pearson imprints
C, etc. — arrange those components into the
as Prentice-Hall, Allyn & Bacon, Longman, Addison
desired sequence, place a custom cover onto the
& Wesley, Benjamin Cummings, Financial Times,
customized e-book, and output that custom book
Penguin, QUE and SAMS.
in a number of digital formats.
Pearson Learning Solutions takes a more col-
In addition, Safari Books Online allows users to
laborative approach to custom educational
jump to related content across several books,
cognizant 20-20 insights 3

4. publishing. Educators work with a “local custom Instructors can search for content across an
field editor” to define course content that coor- extensive collection of Wiley higher education
dinates with course curricula and assessment course materials, and select content they wish
(testing) materials. This content may come to include in a customized textbook — selecting
from Pearson’s extensive textbook-content not just at the chapter level, but all the way down
repository; may include content developed to individual pages of textbook content. If the
by the educator; may include other custom- selected content is in XML format (and about half
developed course materials of the content available through Custom Select is
already created by educators in this format), users may edit the content to meet
Pearson’s from other institutions; or their specific needs, and contribute their own
CourseConnect may include course content content not just as separate components within
specifically developed for the the textbook but mixed in with the Wiley content.
program allows custom product by Pearson (Such editing may affect the price charged for
educators to not just content developers. the customized content, reflecting changes in the
customize course These custom learning solu-
royalty payments made to textbook authors. Also,
as allowing users to add content to Wiley content
content, but develop tions may be output as may mean that users add material produced by
entire online courses custom textbooks; as digital other educational publishers, Wiley will contact
or online products; or used as
designed to manage part of a complete e-learning
other publishers and pay royalties to those
publishers if this condition exists.)
the achievement of experience through incorpo-
specific outcomes. ration in an online Learning Instructors can then customize and personalize
Management System (LMS). the format, choosing print or e-book, black-and-
white or color printing, soft or hard cover binding
Pearson’s CourseConnect program allows edu- and individualized title page and cover copy. They
cators to not just customize course content, then can preview and submit the fully assembled
but develop entire online book content, review an instant price quote and
The ability to courses designed to manage
the achievement of specific
submit the order. If the instructor chooses print
books, copies will arrive at the college bookstore
customize courseware outcomes. Courses may be within a few weeks; if an e-book format is selected,
takes educators modularizedintosmallertopics a Wiley digital edition of the book will be available
only partially that each follow a consistent
learning model, sequenc-
sooner.
down the road to ing instruction through an From Custom Publishing to
outcome-based introduction, presentation, Outcome-Based Publishing
publishing. Arguably, practice section and review.
Assessment components are
The aforementioned examples illustrate the value
of custom publishing models for educational
for courseware created to match the custom- publishing for both K-12 and higher education.
customized to meet ized course content, including Administrators and educators can develop
state or local school supplemental assignments for
students who need additional
courseware that includes only the subject matter
they want or need to teach. Users can often
district standards for help with a subject, revised combine publisher-produced content with their
K-12 education, discussion questions, and quiz own content, or content from other publishers.
the real outcome is itemsstudents achieve subject
help
specific to lessons that
Specific formats for books, be they print books
or digital versions, can be chosen to match the
for the educator, not mastery. These custom instructor’s preferred pedagogical methods. And,
the student. courses are designed to work as customized textbooks typically include only a
with any LMS.
subset of the content included in base textbook
Wiley Custom Select editions, pricing for customized textbooks usually
is lower than that for the base edition.
A service of the Higher Education division of John
Wiley & Sons, Wiley Custom Select (introduced However, the ability to customize courseware takes
in 2009) is designed to allow educators to build educators only partially down the road to out-
customized higher education materials that fit come-based publishing. Arguably, for courseware
their specific pedagogical needs. customized to meet state or local school district
cognizant 20-20 insights 4

5. standards for K-12 education, the real outcome is • Support standards that define the desired
for the educator, not the student. outcomes of students, a characteristic critical
to OBE.
The ultimate driver for standards-based education,
at least in the U.S., is for school districts to receive Increasingly, educational publishers are moving
state or federal funding, based on the perfor- beyond their traditional focus of creating educa-
mance of students on standardized tests. Custom tional materials such as textbooks, and creating
courseware may be developed to teach “to” these assessment tools such as software that quizzes
tests; and assessments to evaluate progress or tests students on concepts taught in classes.
on the understanding of content on which the They are doing this by working with leading
students will be tested can be developed to match LMS providers, or by creating their own LMS
the customized content. But this model does platforms.
not directly address the desired outcome of the
ultimate end user, the student: to pass the course For example, in July 2011 McGraw-Hill Education
and, ultimately, receive his or her desired degree. announced a partnership with Blackboard, an
LMS vendor, to enable the delivery of content and
To enable the desired outcomes for the student, other educational tools from its Create custom
customized content and assessment materials publishing platform that plugs directly into the
must be part of a LMS that can deliver, not just Blackboard Learn online LMS system. This part-
content specific to the course, but assessment nership enables educators not only to customize
tools to evaluate the student’s progress at every educational content, but to use that content as
step of the course. Students also need remedial the basis for an educational experience that
learning materials to aid in developing mastery guides students toward the desired outcome of
of concepts the individual student is struggling course completion.
with; and workflow-oriented tools to direct the
student in accomplishing granular tasks that lead WileyPLUS
ultimately to his/her desired outcome: subject- Another leading union of educational content with
matter expertise, and the subsequent passing of online courseware that leads students not just to
the course. consume the content, but to achieve educational
outcomes based on that content, is WileyPLUS.
Outcomes and Learning Management Unveiled in 2005 by John Wiley & Sons, the
Systems WileyPLUS marketing tagline is “Leveraging
An LMS is a software application that enables Blended Learning for More Effective Course
the administration, documentation, tracking and Management and Enhanced Student Outcomes.”
reporting of educational programs, classroom
WileyPLUS was developed partially in response to
and online events, e-learning programs and the
a U.S. Department of Education study of research
content and assessment tools necessary for
literature4 on online learning which identified
students to develop mastery of subject matter.
99 studies that objectively measured student
Ryann Ellis, in a paper titled “A Field Guide to
outcomes. The study focused on the following
Learning Management Systems”3 sponsored by
four questions:
the American Society for Training and Develop-
ment, noted that to be robust an LMS must:
• How does the effectiveness of online learning
• Centralize and automate the administration of compare with that of face-to-face instruction?
an educational course or program.
• Does supplementing face-to-face instruction
• Enable student self-service and self-guided with online instruction enhance learning?
services for consumption of content and
assessments.
• What practices are associated with more
effective online learning?
• Assemble and deliver learning content rapidly,
• What conditions influence the effectiveness of
and in an “on-demand” model. online learning?
• Consolidate learning initiatives through the
The study’s key findings:
use of a scalable, Web-based platform.
• Enable the personalization of content specific • Students using online learning resources spent
to the desired outcome of the student, and more time on task than those in face-to-face
enable knowledge reuse. learning conditions.
cognizant 20-20 insights 5

6. • It’s not simply the inclusion of more online and tagged to enable reuse at a granular level.
media that exerts a positive impact on student (Currently, Custom Solutions allows content
outcomes, but the ability of learners to control definition and reuse at the chapter level; future
their interactions with the online resources. versions may allow content reuse at the lesson or
sub-lesson level.) Users can define custom book
• Prompting students to be more reflective
covers for textbooks, and sequence the content
and to self-assess via online resources shows
in the order they choose. Custom Solutions
promise for improving learning outcomes.
employs proprietary software for sequencing
For students, the biggest benefits of WileyPLUS and rendering content, to enable the reflowing of
are that course content can be accessed multiple content into print or e-book formats.
times (and often through multiple content
However, the differentiating aspect of Custom
formats), supporting the learning preferences
Solutions is the correlation, or linking, of content
of individual students. Also, textbook material
to the state of local school district standards the
is linked directly to problems, for easy access to
content satisfies. Users may search for content
course material while doing
across grade level and/or subject matter, select
homework or practice
Custom Solutions exercises; and there is content objects to be used in their custom
textbook, and then see which local standards are
employs proprietary access to guided online met by the selected content. Conversely, users
software for tutorials to break problems
into steps, providing hints
may search on the local educational standards
sequencing and for students along the way. themselves, see the content that satisfies those
standards, and then select the content objects
rendering content, to they want to include.
For instructors, WileyPLUS
enable the reflowing offers a variety of course
Users also can see assessment materials aligned
of content into print or management tools that
to the selected content, and related standards,
make it easy to create and
e-book formats. select those materials most appropriate to their
grade assignments. Online
goals, and choose where in the custom textbook
gradebooks allow instruc-
those assessment materials should be included.
tors to trace the progress of individual students
to quickly determine learning gaps. Automatic Currently, Custom Solutions requires an HMH
grading makes it easy to manage even large class sales representative to work directly with local
sizes. users in defining custom textbook materials.
Future versions may allow local users to create
For both students and instructors, however, the
custom textbooks on their own.
biggest benefit of WileyPLUS is that instructors
can design and execute courseware that aligns
Extending Content to Enable Outcomes:
content and assessment tools to the achieve-
ment of institutionally defined outcomes — from
The Path Forward for Publishers
granular outcomes such as the mastery of the While custom publishing can certainly make
sub-section of a course, to the overall outcome it easier for educational publishers to deliver
of the student mastering all course content and customized content that conforms to federal,
passing the course itself. state or local educational standards, the path
to outcome-based education is only partially
HMH Custom Solutions achieved through custom publishing models.
In response to the increasing demand from state
And, while integrating custom content and
and local school districts for custom educational
assessment materials with learning management
materials that conform to educational standards
systems may help in leading students through
established at the local level, Houghton Mifflin
a workflow-driven path to mastery of subject
Harcourt in 2010 unveiled its Custom Solutions
matter, current LMS systems do not incorporate
platform.
data on student behavior, the appropriateness
For content reuse, Custom Solutions follows the of the content itself to different learning styles,
model already used by other custom publishing and the direct correlation of content to educa-
platforms: content is stored in XML format, tional standards to truly enable outcome-based
education for a broad population of students.
cognizant 20-20 insights 6

7. To truly enable outcome-based education, can record data that reveals which content,
custom publishing and LMS models should be assessment tools, or even entire courses, are
augmented to: most effective in leading a user to a specified
outcome. Such functionality would make it
1. Incorporate student demographic and much easier for educators to
behavioral data. Systems that can record, or modify and improve courseware
at least store and manage, data that defines As the LMS is
for subsequent users.
a user profile, including the student’s demo- used by more and
3. Relate content to the stan-
graphic profile and a record of how the student
dards and outcomes desired more students, the
has interacted with courseware objects during
the course of study, can make the educational
by the student. Earlier, this system can record
experience enabled by the LMS truly custom-
paper discussed attempts by data that reveals
educational publishing to link
ized to the student. For example, the system
content to standards defined which content,
itself can learn what sorts of content the
user finds most useful in learning — say, user
by state and local school dis- assessment tools,
A’s test scores trend low when he consumes
tricts. Such functionality can or even entire
satisfy the desired outcomes
textual content, but he more easily grasps
for K-12 administrators — in courses, are
concepts when using video-based materials. In
gathering data on a wider population of users
the instance of the No Child most effective in
over time, the system can learn what content,
Left Behind Act, to continue to leading a user to a
receive federal funding through
assessments, and learning designs are most
students passing standardized specified outcome.
appropriate to different types of learners.
tests. But this model makes it
2. Incorporate data that ranks the effective- difficult to define standards for achieving edu-
ness of learning materials. As the LMS is cational outcomes when no formal standards
used by more and more students, the system body exists, or when those standards are based
Learning Management Systems Progression
Publisher’s
Content Library
Third-Party
Educator Standards
Accreditation
Course Materials
User-Generated/ Student 1
Other Publisher’s
Content
Syllabus/
Custom Text Course Website Workflow
Student 2
Relationship Metadata
Assessments
Student Content Material
CRM Relationship Rankings Student 3
Map
Social Scoring
To truly enable desired outcomes for students, future Learning Management Systems must incorporate CRM data
defining the student’s demographic profile and how that student has interacted with courseware. Over time, the
LMS can record data defining the effectiveness of learning materials for the entire population of students taking
the course. The LMS must allow educators, or those who define measures for disciplines, to link content to the stan-
dards it satisfies. Finally, social media may be used to create feedback loops, improving courseware and augmenting
demographic data used to define effective educational programs.
Figure 1
cognizant 20-20 insights 7

8. on an amalgam of multiple standards for a spe- standards for those outcomes. Collaboration
cific discipline. Content relationship mapping between institutions on improving the course of
tools should allow instructors to incorporate study for specific disciplines suffers because of
their own standards for achieving educational lack of standardization. Students find it difficult to
outcomes, to link those standards to content transfer from one university to another, because
and assessment tools that direct students evaluation of where a student is in achieving
toward those outcomes, and even to create desired outcomes in a discipline differs from one
relationships between content objects where university to another. Sharing of educational
one piece of content does not satisfy the stan- content across institutions, and assessment and
dard but a combination of content does. evaluation tools that weigh progress against
desired outcomes, is made difficult if those insti-
4. Incorporate feedback loops for student
tutions disagree on the outcomes to be enabled.
input. Formal evaluations by students on
the effectiveness of courseware in achieving In response to these challenges in establish-
specific outcomes can be enabled either ing outcome-based education, the European
through survey functionality, or through Community arm of the European Union estab-
such social networking tools as Facebook and lished the ICOPER5 initiative in 2008, under the
Twitter. Such feedback can not only directly
umbrella of the eContentplus program. ICOPER
improve courseware materials, but the design
has the mission to collect, and further develop,
of courses and course programs; and this
best practices for higher education. It does so
data can be used to create course effective-
by examining issues such as learning design and
ness scoring that links various users and user
teaching methods, authoring content to enable
types together, creating “social scoring” that
reuse, transferring knowledge in an outcome-ori-
augments demographic data used to define
ented way, and evaluating all learning activities
effective educational programs.
that lead to the accomplishment of outcomes in
education.
True OBE: The Path Forward
for Educators The members of ICOPER see the benefits of
There are many challenges in developing a an outcome-based approach to education to
framework for education that establishes include:
standards-based outcomes for learners.
• Outcome orientation helps to ensure
Where government-based mandates for edu- consistency of course delivery within
cational standards exist — as is now the case study programs.
across the U.S. in K-12 education because of such • Outcome orientation highlights the depen-
mandates as No Child Left Behind — disagree- dencies between teaching, learning and
ments between states (or even between local assessing.
school districts) on what is to be taught, and how • Learning outcomes cascade from study
that subject matter is to be taught, invites wide program level to module and course levels,
disparities between outcomes from locality to ensuring subject consistency and helping to
locality. identify overlaps.
In such politically charged disciplines as biology • Outcome orientation empowers students
and history, mandates for what is to be taught can to make more informed choices on study
mean that students from different locations can programs and learning paths.
finish their K-12 educations with widely different • Outcome orientation increases transparency
understandings of these subjects. These discrep- for different groups of stakeholders.
ancies can ultimately harm individual academic • Outcome orientation provides a better linkage
disciplines, and can make it difficult for schools to between employment, vocational training and
implement new technologies for learning, causing higher education.
their students to lag behind the “cutting edge.”
To realize the benefits noted by ICOPER, and
In higher education, the adoption of technology other industry bodies working to enable appropri-
enhanced learning (commonly referred to as ate outcomes for all students, educational insti-
TEL), the digital delivery of courseware that can tutions must undergo profound changes in the
most easily delivery standard-define outcomes processes used to educate and assess students,
for students, is hindered by the lack of defined and the content they use to do so. Here are nine
cognizant 20-20 insights 8

9. initiatives educators must undertake to create a analysis into action at the institutional and
system of education that truly delivers outcomes faculty level, developing curricula that ensure
for learners, the most important actor in the edu- relevant learning resources, instructional
cational ecosphere. models and learning outcomes.
6. Define instructional modeling processes
1. Create a methodology and reference model
that instructors use to define the learning and
for competence-driven education that puts the
assessment activities to be used in the devel-
concept of “shareable educational resource”
opment of a specific course, or program of
at the center of outcome-based education.
courses, for a specific discipline. These models
This model must support the development
demonstrate and improve the alignment of an
of interoperable systems and solutions; the
educational program’s outcome profile with the
reuse of processes, learning content and
actual outcomes addressed through courses,
assessment tools; and the implementation of
and facilitate the sharing of best practices via
a service-oriented architecture that enables
instructional models.
content interoperability across systems and
applications. 7. Create processes for reusable learning
content, through content creation and
2. Create a conceptual model for outcome-
management processes that promote its
oriented education that represents both
creation. To be truly reusable, content must
dynamic phenomena — educational activity
be searchable (discoverable through search
— and static phenomena (i.e., educational
engines), accessible (metadata must enable
content). This conceptual model helps analysts
indexing and content retrieval), available
in standardization bodies to understand the
(licensing restrictions can’t prevent content
education domain; supports communication
reuse), addressable (content can be accessed
between developers of educational technolo-
through a recognized URL), interoper-
gies and domain experts; and provides input
able (usable across different hardware and
into the design of data models, services and
software), and durable (hardware or software
IT-supported processes.
changes can’t make content obsolete).
3. Develop user scenarios and use cases that
8. Create assessment processes that lead
reflect the usage of existing standards for
learners to outcomes. This is important both
learning outcomes, designs and teaching
to learners, who use assessment to appraise,
methods in the development of outcome-
qualify and certify personal achievement,
based applications.
and to educators, who not only define what
4. Define processes for OBE for all actors: the the outcomes are but execute assessment to
learner, involved in the planning of his/her certify the outcome. Assessment processes
education and the development of profile and must use formative feedback to help learners
personal data such as an achievement profile, become aware of gaps that exist between
as well the learning itself; the learning facilita- desired goals and their current knowledge,
tor, who prepares and executes learning and and guide them through actions necessary to
assessment programs; and educational insti- achieve the goal.
tution managers, tasked with the strategic
9. Create evaluation processes appropriate to
analysis, planning and administration of the
outcome-based education, to enable quality
institution.
assurance in educational institutions. Such
5. Define learning needs and learning oppor- processes should support evaluation from an
tunities. A learning needs analysis analyses instructional modeling perspective, evaluating
the needs of current or prospective students, the teaching methods employed in courses
and sets institutional strategy and goal and programs, to support the alignment of
setting based on those needs. Planning and intended learning outcomes with teaching and
management of learning opportunities turns assessment methods.
strategies gained through learning needs
cognizant 20-20 insights 9

10. Footnotes
1
For an introduction to outcome-based education, and some of the issues this model addresses, see the
article “Outcome-Based Education: Critical Issues and Answers,” written by William G. Spady for the
American Association of School Administrators at http://eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED380910.pdf.
2
http://www2.edu.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/107-110.pdf
3
http://www.astd.org/NR/rdonlyres/12ECDB99-3B91-403E-9B15-7E597444645D/23395/LMS_
fieldguide_20091.pdf
4
“Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis
and Review of Online Learning Studies,” U.S. Department of Education, at
http://www2.ed.gov/rschstat/eval/tech/evidence-based-practices/finalreport.pdf
5
http://www.icoper.org
About the Author
Charles Olson is a Senior Consulting Manager within Cognizant Business Consulting’s Information,
Media and Entertainment Practice. With 30-plus years of media industry experience, the last five and
a half years at Cognizant, Charles is a recognized leader in designing workflows and the supporting
taxonomic and metadata structures to move content from the analog world to the digital world. He
has spoken at numerous industry events, including the Seybold Seminars, Nexpo, Content World and
Internet World, and was a key member of the first work group developing the PRISM XML metadata
standard for magazines. Charles began his career at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, where he was systems
manager for newsroom technology and later held the same position at The Washington Post. He has
also worked with Time Inc., Foreign Affairs, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Simon & Schuster, John Wiley
& Sons and WGBH in Boston. Charles has a BA degree from St. Olaf College. He can be reached at
Charles.Olson@cognizant.com.
About Cognizant
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and business process expertise, and a global, collaborative workforce that embodies the future of work. With over 50
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