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Creating Learning Objectives
Explore resources to help you create effective learning objectives for your online course.
Who is this page for?
The resources on this page are for Educators and Course Designers looking for support with identifying and creating effective learning objectives.
Learning Objectives
Describe the qualities of accessible and effective learning objectives.
Create accessible and effective learning objectives for your online course.
What are learning objectives and how can I make them effective?
2U's collection of research-based principles; the Learning Experience Framework (LXF) explains that learning objectives describe the knowledge students should gain, or skills they should have mastered at the end of a course. Objectives serve as targets, guiding the learner toward what to aim for by the end of the course, and perspective for tracking their progress along the way.
In doing so, objectives also provide us with a way to evaluate the effectiveness of our course designs and determine whether the learning experiences we’ve created are serving their intended purpose. To enable this, learning objectives need to be measurable. They must clearly identify the specific skill or behavior as well as the criteria used to measure success or failure.
And they should be student centered—constructed as statements of “what the learner will be able to perform as a result of some learning experience” (Mager, 1997). Finally, learning objectives ideally describe applicable skills, knowledge, or behavior as they might be used in a professional setting rather than simply stating a contextless task.
For example, saying “students will be able to explain neuroanatomical structures and their functions to a client” is preferable to “students will be able to define neuroanatomical structures and their functions.” Framing objectives as such exposes the relevance and value of learning to students, increasing internalized motivation (Merriam, 2018).
Foundational Context
Foundational Context
Click on each resource below to review introductory content about learning objectives.
Writing Impactful Learning Objectives.pdf[Read]Writing Impactful Learning Objectives: Quick Tips
[Read]Writing Impactful Learning Objectives: Quick Tips
Review this infographic for a quick visual of the most commonly used content types.
Bloom's Revised Taxonomy.pdf[Read]Blooms Revised Taxonomy Learning Outcome Verbs: Visual
[Read]Blooms Revised Taxonomy Learning Outcome Verbs: Visual
Bloom's (revised) taxonomy is a learning framework that was created to categorize expected and varying levels of learning. View the infographic to see a visual of the 6 categories of learning outlined in the revised framework as well as a list of appropriate learning outcome verbs for each level. You can use the learning outcome verb list to craft effective learning objectives for your course.
Practice and Apply
Practice and Apply
Click each resource below to practice and apply learning objective foundational skills to your online course.
Resource Note: This standalone lesson is one part of an accessibility short course. While this lesson covers accessible learning objectives specifically if you are looking to learn more about making your course accessible you can access the entire course here.
[Apply]Learning Objectives Worksheet
[Apply]Learning Objectives Worksheet
This activity walks you through writing course learning objectives that are both effective and accessible. Make a copy of the worksheet to begin.
Additional Resources
Additional Resources
Continue iterating and reviewing your course learning objectives with the resources below.
This activity will help Course Leads begin the process of reviewing their courses and determining what updates they would like to make before the next term.
[Learn]Schedule a 1:1 Consultation
[Learn]Schedule a 1:1 Consultation
Our Instructional Consultants are here to help by providing technical and andragogical support, guiding you to use Digital Campus tools to share your expertise and create effective and engaging live sessions. Schedule a 1:1 consultation here.
Review this interaction to learn about learning sequence categories and the types of activities in each category.
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