Currently, the only way that I know of to add an outcome to an assignment is to add a rubric that has an outcome to that assignment. This can be quite time consuming and sometimes, unnecessary. An assignment does not always need a rubric.
It would be ideal to have a +Outcome button next to the +Rubric button once an assignment has been created. This will track mastery of outcomes very easily and teachers can use that information when they are doing standards reporting and data analysis.
I completely agree. I think rubrics need to be separate from outcomes. Outcomes do not function like rubric criterion and should not fall to the same requirements as them. I think the outcomes could be at the top of the assignment, or listed in a different location than the rubric even. This also would serve to eliminate the problem that when you unclick "use criterion for scoring" and then use free form comments on the rubric, the outcome you have added it useless. In this case, all you can add are comments to the outcome, but then in Learning Mastery, the student sees nothing but an ungraded outcome rubric. Not only is this unintuitive, it's confusing for the instructors and students. I hope this idea gains traction!