Usually considered to be a broad statement about what a university, college, program, or instructor would like students to achieve (typically over a lengthier span of time). These are often found in strategic plans or in course descriptions within university catalogs, handbooks, or websites.

Examples: 

• CMU 2025 Strategic Plan.  Give students the knowledge and skills that are increasingly important in today’s interconnected world, including interpersonal, professional, and visual communications skills; collaboration and teamwork, especially with diverse others; empathy and concern for the welfare of others; and organizational and leadership skills.[1]
 
• CMU Department of Physics website. 
  • Our goals for physics majors are: 
    • To satisfy our physics majors' basic curiosity about the nature of the universe, to inspire them to investigate and learn, and to encourage and expand their drive to understand the physics that governs nature and technology;
    • To instill in them the knowledge and skills that constitute a physicists unique approach to solving the diverse problems they will encounter in their academic and non-academic careers.[2]
• CMU Department of Physics course:  The main goal of this course is to have you engage in a process central to science:  the attempt to model a broad range of physical phenomena using a small set of powerful fundamental principles.[3]

[1] Retrieved from http://www.cmu.edu/strategic-plan/all-strategies/index.html

[2] Retrieved from http://www.cmu.edu/physics/undergraduate-program/index.html

[3] Meyer, C.A. (2012).  Matter and interactions I.  [syllabus].  Retrieved from http://www-meg.phys.cmu.edu/physics_33131/syllabus.html

Program Outcome:[4]  A statement of what the program expects graduates should be able to do after completing their program of study.  Like learning objectives (see below), these statements should be written in specific, demonstrable (measurable), and student-centered terms.

For instance, a CMU Department of Physics[5] learning outcome states that graduates should be able to solve complex and diverse problems by:

• Recognizing universal physical laws relevant to the problem,
• Applying the relevant laws to the problem,
• Applying mathematical and computational techniques,using experimental, computational, and/or theoretical methods, and 
• Evaluating the limitations of their solutions.

The Mellon College of Science recently revised their college-level program outcomes:

Upon graduation, MCS students should be able to…

• Communicate effectively via oral, visual, and written formats…
• Participate effectively in multidisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary teams…
• Use the appropriate tools and required media literacy to acquire, assess, and analyze data and information from diverse sources.

[4] Note that there are other definitions/interpretations of "outcomes" in use. The definition and examples presented for "program outcome" here are most consistent with usage among CMU programs engaged in program review, curriculum mapping, and assessment.

[5] Retrieved from http://www.cmu.edu/physics/undergraduate-program/outcomes.html

Typically refers to a course-level statement describing what the student should be able to do (or demonstrate) by the end of the course. The statement describes student performance in a specific, demonstrable (measurable), and student-centered way.

Example: Students should be able to apply basic principles of energy, momentum and angular momentum conservation to solve real-world problems on the microscopic, macroscopic and astrophysical size scales.[1]

• For more information on writing learning objectives, please see http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/design/learningobjectives.html
• For a variety of samples of learning objectives, please see http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/design/learningobjectives-samples/

[1] Retrieved from http://www.cmu.edu/strategic-plan/all-strategies/index.html