How to use learning outcomes when studying

Learning outcomes can guide your decisions about what to focus on, what to take notes on, and which study resources to seek out – both during class and when you're working independently.  Sometimes it can be challenging to know what information is really important and what is just ‘additional’ information that further develops or exemplifies a point. While this additional content can be helpful and make the content more ‘real’, ultimately it exists mainly to make an important idea clearer.

The unit content, enacted through classes and weekly required and recommended reading, serves to aid you in developing the skills and knowledge that you are assessed on. The following examples provide detailed explanation about the connection between learning outcomes, weekly learning topics and assessment tasks of two units.

Consider using NotebookLM to assist you

NotebookLM is built specifically as a reliable, source-driven tool for studying and research. It excels at the kind of task you need to do while completing a unit of study: filtering large amounts of text through a specific lens. You could consider the following:

  • Create a notebook and upload two things: your required readings (PDFs, textbook chapters, or copy-pasted text) and the unit learning outcomes (as a Google Doc or text file). Make sure not to use tools that use open web and training data from other sources. As NotebookLM is a closed-source, source-grounded tool, when you upload a textbook chapter, reading list, or unit guide, it only answers using those specific documents.
  • The "Key Info" Filter: You can use the chat configuration or explicit prompts to tell the AI: "Using ONLY the provided learning outcomes as a guide, extract the key concepts from Chapter 3 that I must know to learn, and to succeed on assessment task X. Separate these from the extra background detail".
  • Why use it: NotebookLM strictly anchors its answers to the uploaded documents and provides inline citations. Students can hover over an answer to see exactly where in the textbook the "must-know" info came from, entirely eliminating the AI "hallucination" problem.
  • Bonus Study Tools: Once the key info is separated, NotebookLM can auto-generate targeted flashcards, study guides, or a custom Audio Overview (a podcast-style debate between two AI hosts discussing the core learning outcomes).

There are five learning outcomes, three assessment tasks (noted in the handbook) and eleven weekly topics (noted in the weekly schedule on Moodle) to be covered in this unit. The links among learning outcomes, weekly topics and two major assessment tasks (AT1 and AT2) are explained in the table below.  Assessment task 3, a peer evaluation of each member’s contribution to weekly group work, is not noted in the table because it is an ongoing assessment task testing knowledge of each weekly topic.

There are four learning outcomes, two assessment tasks (continuous assessment tasks, value of 40%, and the final exam, value of 60%) and twelve weekly topics (including fundamental mathematical techniques from linear algebra, multi-variable calculus and ordinary differential equations) to be covered in this unit. Further information about the links between learning outcomes, weekly topics and assessment tasks are briefly noted in the table below.