Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

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Term2.png LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Clear statement about the outcome of a training course, which informs what the trainee will be able to do or know after the training. They are presented on the trainee’s perspective, expressing as a target the improvement of competencies, which will enhance job performance. The performance signals to the trainees what must be done or learned in very specific terms.

The learning objectives are the starting point of the development of a learning activity. They constitute an essential element in the preparation of a training course. The articulation of adequate learning objectives can be one of the most time-consuming tasks in training design. Even though they may be expressed in a single paragraph of a few lines they are the essential foundation of any training course as they relate to the overall training goal.

Characteristics:

  • They determine the behavior changes that will occur, setting the targets that are to be reached by the end of the training.
  • They provide the trainees with a clear understanding of what they will be expected to know or to do when the course is completed.
  • They must be verifiable and measurable even when the training focuses on attitudes.
  • They must always have three elements:
    • Performance: What the trainee will be able to do as a result of the training, expressed in behavioral terms with action verbs.
    • Conditions: Circumstances under which the performance occurs, which should be aligned with real-world performance (e.g. role-play, simulation, using job aids, while being observed).
    • Standards: They form the basis for trainee’s evaluation, describing how well he/she will be expected to perform each objective.
  • They directly shape content and procedural aspects of any assessment activity. For each stated objective an assessment exercise/activity has to be designed so as to evaluate the extent to which the trainees have learned what they needed to know and do.
  • They orient decision on the type of measurement to design: exams, simulations, checklists, quiz, presentation, role play, demonstrations, monitored activities, etc. The decision on the type to utilize varies according to type of learning to be acquired.


Learning objectives differ from learning goals as they specifically focus on behavioral targets to be achieved at the end of the training, whereas the goals express the general purpose of the training, describing what is covered and how it is organized. [1]



References

  1. ↑ www.depts.washington.edu(18 March 2008), www.utmem.edu(18 March 2008); Hassel-Corbiell, Ribes, Developing Training Courses: a technical writer’s guide to instructional design and development, Learning Edge Publishing, 2006; Phillips, Jack J. & Stone, Ron D., How to Measure Training Results, McGraw-Hill, 2002; Piskurich, George M., Rapid Instructional Design – Learning ID Fast and Right, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2006; Reiser, Robert A. & Dempsey, John V., Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology, Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007; Stolovitch, Harold D. & Keeps, EricaJ., Telling Ain’t Training, ASTD Press, 2002. Woolcock, Michael J.V., Constructing a Syllabus, The Harriet Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning, Brown University, 2006.
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