Choosing an online course: Learning outcomes and what they mean for you

How to assess if an online course meets your needs — and how the University of Leeds designs online learning with end goals in mind.

When you’re choosing an online course, there’s a lot to consider. The cost, both in time and money.  How you’ll fit your studies around work, family life or other commitments.  

However, the first key consideration is the course — will it help you achieve your career goals? Is it in a subject you feel passionate about? Will you feel fulfilled by the end of the course?  

One way to assess an online course to see if it meets your needs is to consider what it will deliver for you terms of enhanced knowledge and skills.  

These ‘learning outcomes’ define what you can expect to be able to do after you have successfully completed your course.  

At the University of Leeds, the design of our online courses begins with agreeing these learning outcomes.  

The learning journey across our online courses is then mapped out to ensure that you can achieve those outcomes – module by module and across the course as a whole. 

You’ll experience a carefully constructed combination of subject content to provide you with core knowledge, activities to apply what you’ve learned, and assessment to bring together and evidence your progress. 

And as you continue through the course, learning outcomes can help you understand how what you have learned will boost your professional career.  

Learn more about how online teaching works at Leeds.

Learning outcomes are not just about what you should know, but what you are then able to do as a result of your learning. 

So it’s important to reflect on how your own learning goals match up with the outcomes of an online course. 

Finding a course that matches your goals will show you how you can connect your passion for the subject and your professional development needs with what the online course can offer you. 

Connecting your course with your career 

Our online courses are designed to help you apply and demonstrate your learning and skills in your day-to-day work.  

You’ll be equipped with a broad range of knowledge and skills within your specific subject area — this may mean that not every module aligns with your own personal passions or learning goals, but how our modules interconnect, and the overall course outcomes, will have clear benefits. 

Many times myself, I have drawn upon learning from modules that when I was studying I wasn’t able to relate directly to my career. 

In later years, particularly with changes in role and needing to deploy new skills, I’ve realised the relevance of a full course, the skills I’ve developed, and the benefits of keeping an open mind, and studying a range of modules.  

It’s this approach of engaging with a designed course, with outcomes that meet your needs and interests, that will deliver immediate development — and prepare you for long-term career opportunities.