Creating Course-level Learning Objectives
When you write your course learning objectives, be sure to review your Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions for your course. These should help guide you as you create course-level learning objectives. The essential questions, for example, may help you identify a course learning objective you previously omitted.
Keep in mind, course-level learning objectives are measurable and describe what students can expect to learn as a result of successfully completing the course. They are the "essential" outcomes of the course. They are "bigger" than the unit-level outcomes, since unit outcomes should all support the course outcomes.
For example, in an English grammar course, if one of the course outcomes is:
Demonstrate mastery of rules of punctuation
The unit-level outcomes that support this course outcome may be:
Demonstrate correct use of commas, semicolons, and periods
Produce writing in which apostrophes are used only when needed
Construct written quotations in which double and single quotation marks are used properly.
WHAT MAKES A GOOD LEARNING OBJECTIVE?
Learning outcomes should be observable and measurable.
In addition to being observable and measurable, learning outcome statements have to focus on student action. They are about students showing what they have learned, not about the instructor describing how they are teaching. For example, "The students can accurately describe the process of photosynthesis" is a learning outcome while "I will show a PowerPoint presentation on photosynthesis and give the students a quiz" is not.
Avoid terms that are open to interpretation (e.g., understand, learn, or know). These terms are not measurable. An instructor cannot create an assessment to evaluate whether the student "understands" the concept. Look at the following example of learning objectives:
By the end of the course, you will ...
Understand the Civil War.
Describe the impact of the Civil War on the Southern economy.
The first example is vague and not measurable. There is no way to assess whether students understand the Civil War? In the second example, the instructor can evaluate or observe that the student is able to "describe the impact of the civil war on the Southern economy."
Notice also that we used the word "you" instead of "student" in the learning objective. Students have been shown to do better when objectives are written so as to address them personally, rather than address an unknown "student."
A measurable learning objective or competency:
Completes this sentence: Upon completion of this course/ module, students will be able to (DO SOMETHING).
Begins with an action verb. Consider Bloom's Taxonomy when choosing action verbs.
Precisely describes behavior that can be observed or evaluated (is measurable).
UTILIZING BLOOM'S TAXONOMY TO HELP WRITE LEARNING OBJECTIVES
The diagram below lists Lower Order Thinking Skills (LOTS) and Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS)
Consider Bloom's Taxonomy and Higher Order Thinking Skills when designing your learning objectives. Use verbs that encourage hands-on critical thinking at the higher levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.
By taking the time to carefully craft your learning objectives in the beginning of course development, you ensure that your course has a clear roadmap to follow. By putting more focus on higher levels of cognition such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation, you help ensure assignments and assessments focus on more than rote memorization of facts.
According to Benjamin Bloom, there are six levels of cognition, each one on a higher level than the other:
Knowledge - which involves rote memorization or recall of facts
Comprehension - understanding what the facts mean
Application - correct use of facts or ideas
Analysis - breaking information down into its component parts
Synthesis - combination of facts, ideas or information to make a new whole
Evaluation - judging or forming an opinion on information or a situation
Ideally, your course should contain learning objectives that touch upon each level of cognition, with special emphasis given to the higher levels.
Try not to over-rely on the lower levels of cognition when creating learning objectives. Avoid overusing words like: memorize, recall, or understand. Instead try to use words such as: determine, modify, analyze, outline, etc.
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