Learning Objectives

Overview

Learning objectives define the desired learning outcome of the instruction by clarifying the skills and knowledge that learners are expected to acquire and be able to use at the end of the learning experience. In turn, the learning objectives guide the instructional designer in developing appropriate learning experiences and resources for your learners, and lay the foundation for learner assessment (i.e. determining whether learners have achieved or mastered the learning objectives).

In the prior design practice exercises, you thought about the learner's skill and knowledge gaps and real-world problems or tasks that were the focus of your instruction. In addition, you will contemplate the applicable College and Career Readiness Standards (CCRS) that offer learning outcome benchmarks. We will now spend time refining your focus by evaluating the learning objectives for your instruction that contemplate these "to be learned skills" and desired learning outcomes.

To help you define the learning objectives for your instruction, we'll cover the following:

  1. Guidance for writing learning objectives,
  2. Examples of written learning objectives, and
  3. Using Bloom's Taxonomy to refine your objectives.

Guidance for Writing Learning Objectives

Written learning objectives can take many forms. A brief review of writing learning objectives for Adult Education is provided on page 79 of Just Write! Guide published by the American Institutes of Research for the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education Links to an external site.. [Note: the guide is in the public domain ... yay!]. As recommended within the Just Write! Guide, when writing learning objectives for Adult Education lessons, the objectives should be "specific, outcome-based, measurable, and describe learner behavior" (p.79). The following ABCD format for writing objectives is described in the Just Write! Guide based on recommendations by Heinich, Molenda, Russell, and Smaldino (2001):

Writing Learning Objectives

Examples of Written Learning Objectives

Leecy Wise, one of our prior course facilitators, shared with us some examples of learning objectives. Leecy notes, "In an online course that I'm presently teaching, I asked students to describe an activity that has a real-life purpose, and then comment on the academic skills (not the real-life skills) that students would have to practice in order to meet that life challenge." Here are examples, used with student permissions:

1. From Sheryl Michael:

Some of my students have expressed an interest in getting a driver's license in Colorado. Two objectives for acquiring this skill are:

  • 1. To identify where to go in Colorado to get a driver's license.
  • 2. To complete a driver's license application form.

Academic skills needed to successfully accomplish these objectives: researching the right questions to ask others, online research (google searches), reading, writing, learning new vocabulary words

2. From David Henderson:

Discussion during this [David's] class focused on what is required to understand and respond to a job posting. The objectives were:

  • Define what the job is. Explain what a qualified applicant will have to able to do.
  • Compare the job requirements (full time or part time; work hours; if you need your own car; specific skills needed) to your own experience and personal life.
  • Decide if this job might be good for you to apply for. Summarize why or why not.

The academic skills necessary to satisfy these objectives are: vocabulary (learning the meanings of the words and abbreviations in the job posting); analysis and evaluation (understanding all of the requirements of the job and comparing those requirements to one’s own qualifications); reading for context (understanding what may be implied by the choice of words in the job posting).

3. From Maria Soto:

Almost all ESL students have “living expenses.” Thus, learning to talk about utility bills, due dates, and ways to save resources is an important life skill. This life skill also teaches them about responsibility and self-management, among other skills. This is why I selected the following contextualized objectives:

  • Objective 1: Identify sections in utility bills and due dates
  • Objective 2: Describe ways to save energy, which translates into money

Academic skills: Numbers (ordinal versus cardinal), (arithmetic/math), listening, speaking, writing, and reading Reference: Step Forward: Language for Everyday Life, Book 1. Author: Jane Spigarelli. Oxford University Press.

Using Bloom's Taxonomy to Refine your Objectives

One of the most widely known levels of learning classification frameworks is Bloom's taxonomy (Links to an external site.). Devised in 1956, Bloom's taxonomy was developed for test makers to classify what was intended for students to learn as a result of instruction. Bloom's taxonomy provides a basic model for categorizing the levels of learning for topics in the curriculum, and serves as a guide for designers and instructors of what you are asking your learners to do.

Blooms Taxonomy

As summarized on the Educational Psychology Interactive website, the flowing offers a description of each level with sample action verbs Links to an external site. for each level that help to define your objectives:

  • Knowledge:
    • Learner recalls or recognizes information, ideas, and principles in the approximate form in which they were learned.
    • Sample action verbs for this level: Write, List, Label, Name, State, Define
  • Comprehension:
    • Learner translates, comprehends, or interprets information based on prior learning.
    • Sample action verbs for this level: Explain, Summarize, Paraphrase, Describe, Illustrate
  • Application:
    • Learner selects, transfers, and uses data and principles to complete a problem or task with a minimum of direction.
    • Sample action verbs for this level: Use, Compute, Solve, Demonstrate, Apply, Construct
  • Analysis:
    • Learner distinguishes, classifies, and relates the assumptions, hypotheses, evidence, or structure of a statement or question
    • Sample action verbs for this level: Analyze, Categorize, Compare, Contrast, Separate
  • Synthesis:
    • Learner originates, integrates, and combines ideas into a product, plan or proposal that is new to him or her.
    • Sample action verbs for this level: Create, Design, Hypothesize, Invent, Develop
  • Evaluation:
    • Learner appraises, assesses, or critiques on a basis of specific standards and criteria.
    • Sample action verbs for this level: Judge, Recommend, Critique, Justify

Pause.png Before you move on ...

One of the hardest parts of writing learning objectives is selecting the action verb for the desired learner performance. Objectives are useless if they are vague and not measurable. One of the worst examples we see is "the learner will understand", which offers no guidance in terms of what the learner should be able to do (e.g., explain, predict, interpret, infer, summarize, convert, translate, etc.). Therefore, we have accumulated a roster of resources with lists of action verbs aligned to Bloom's Taxonomy in the Supplementary Readings & Exercises section of this course.

Design Checkbox.png Your Evaluation Decisions

For the lesson you haven chosen to evaluate, review the lesson plan and related instructional materials and reflect on the following:

  • Do the learning objectives describe skills and knowledge associated with a problem or task that has a real-life purpose?
  • To what extent are the learning objectives specific, outcome-based, and measurable? Do they describe the desired learner behavior?
  • Are the learning objectives appropriately aligned with the College and Career Readiness Standards?
  • Are the selected action verbs within the learning objectives applicable to the desired level of learning (based on Bloom's taxonomy)?

For any deficiencies you noted in the lesson's learning objectives, try your hand at drafting improved learning objectives. By the end of the lesson, the adult learner should be able to:

  • [Type a revised list of objectives for your instruction]