Teaching and Learning Activities (TLAs)

Here is an example of a TLA with its relevant ILO ILO: Identify and explain the causes of severe weather events in Sri Lanka (flooding, tsunamis, thunderstorms, droughts). TLA: Independent web search: Independent web-search to identify and explain the characteristics that distinguish weather from climate.

A TLA is any activity which stimulates, encourages or facilitates learning of one or more intended learning outcomes. The emphasis is on the word activity and it is important to ensure that the TLA is appropriate for the intended learning outcome and any subsequent assessment tasks-see Constructive Alignment section. Therefore, TLAs should be specifically aimed at activating the action verbs used in the ILOs. They can be as diverse as lectures, field trips, role play, internships, exchanges, discussions etc. The only limits are your imagination and creativity! There are many TLAs that can be easily implemented in the classroom, lecture theater, or set for fast feedback on progress, and these are outlined in the page on Active Learning.

The relationship between ILOs and TLAs
So to give a brief illustration of the relationship between ILOs and TLAs, below is a set of ILO action verbs on the left and possible TLAs on the right. The example TLAs are possible ways of fulfilling the intended learning outcomes and the verbs that are specified in them. As you can see, the verbs used are taken from the SOLO taxonomy, though you can be flexible in the use of synonymous verbs for creating ILOs.

So some very commonly used TLAs can be a project, an essay, or a case study. They may be used to serve several parts or verbs of an intended learning outcome. There are also many mini-TLAs that can be given in lectures and tutorials, as described in the active learning page.