Bloom’s taxonomy has been one of the most prevailing frameworks for writing the Learning outcomes (LO) of any educational program. However, this taxonomy was originally created to define Cognitive Learning outcomes and that is problematic for creative programs like design. The limitations of the taxonomy inspired us to search for alternate approaches for defining learning outcomes for design education.

This paper introduces the Effort-Benefit (E-B) Framework, a novel approach to defining learning outcomes inspired by the action-oriented principles of the Mimamsa school of Indian philosophy. The E-B Framework focuses on establishing explicit connections between specific learning efforts and their associated cognitive and affective benefits. To evaluate the framework’s effectiveness, a comparative study was conducted with 24 design students and faculty members. Participants were given online forms in which they had to select their preference between two types of learning outcome statements, namely statements following Bloom’s taxonomy and those following the E-B framework.

The results reveal a significant preference towards learning outcome statements based on the proposed E-B Framework as against the statements using Bloom’s taxonomy. 78% of participants favored the E-B framework statements of learning outcomes in terms of being more meaningful to perceive, over the Bloom’s Taxonomy alternative. The findings highlight the need for better alternatives to Bloom’s taxonomy for defining learning outcomes in design education. An extension of the research will need to validate the framework across diverse disciplines and educational contexts. Its impact on learner engagement and performance is further required to be investigated.