Writing effective learning objectives toolkit

Effective

Learning objectives

How to write and review learning objectives that work BLCC Academy Teacher Toolkit January 2024

Overview

Click on an image to go to the relevant section.

Introduction

SMART

ABCD

Examples

Contact

Quiz

What are learning objectives?

What are learning objective? Learning objectives are brief statements that describe what your trainees will be expected to learn by the end of a specific period (e.g. course or class). Why do you need learning objectives? Defining learning objectives helps you:

• set your trainees' (and your!) expectations;
• guide your trainees' learning processes;
• help your trainees focus their efforts (and their learning time).

Reviewing objectives Learning objectives are not set in stone. Don't forget to review them regularly and fine-tune them as you go through your course.

Writing learning objectives

There is no one way to formulate learning objectives. There are many frameworks that you can use for writing clear learning objectives. We'll focus here on two methods that are used frequently. We recommend you stick to 1 method for writing learning objectives for your courses and classes. We'll be using the SMART method in our examples.

SMART objectives

SMART principles: Specific Measurable Attainable (also: Ambitious) Relevant (also: Realistic) Time-based (also: Time-bound)

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Example learning objective

Here is how we can formulate the learning objective of a workshop based on this presentation: By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to write clear learning objectives using the SMART method, so they're able to use the method in their own classroom. Success will be measured by peer assessment of their learning objectives.

+ SMART

SMART OBJECTIVES

Questions to answer for each letter

What should be achieved and by who?

pecific

How will success be measured?

easurable

Can result be achieved within the given timeframe and with the available resources?

ttainable

How is the objective tied to the learner's context?

elevant

When will this objective be achieved? What's the time frame?

ime-based

Five

ABCD objectives

ABCD principles: Audience Behavior Conditions Degree

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Example 2: course

Look at this scenario and an example learning objective based on it. Scenario You're teaching a group of account managers from a medium-sized IT firm that was recently taken over by a big international company. As a result, the official language in the company is now the language you are teaching. All participants work closely together and struggle to follow in meetings with native speaker colleagues from the head office.

Learning objective By the end of the course, participants will be able to have spoken interactions in the target language that mirror their work tasks. They would have practiced those in role plays and activities that simulate meetings. Success will be measured by peer assessment in scenario-based spoken activities.

Example 3: course

Look at this scenario and an example learning objective based on it. Scenario You're teaching a group of 6 participants who come from different work contexts but are all high A2 to low B1 levels. They're all looking to improve their general fluency and confidence in their respective fields over the course of 15 hours with you. Participants are also expected to spend at least 5 hours on the e-learning platform.

Learning objective By the end of the course, participants will demonstrate improved ability to communicate in a professional setting, talk about their work with peers, and apply their new language skills to their respective fields. They will have practiced that in guided peer-to-peer intreactions that mirror their professional context, and individually on the e-learning platform. Assessment will be based on e-learning course completion, peer assessment in scenario-based spoken activities and feedback from trainer.

Example 4: class

Look at this scenario and an example learning objective based on it. Scenario It's your first 2 hour online class with a group of A2 participants from logistics company X, who all have different roles within the organisation. They don't all work closely together and have varying tasks and language backgrounds.

Learning objective By the end of the class, participants will be able to intorduce themselves, their role, department and teams and will be able to ask questions about their colleagues' professional context. They will practice relevant vocabulary and key sentences in communication-focused activities in breakout rooms. Assessment will be based on peer-to-peer introductions, completion of e-learning module and a Kahoot quiz.

Words to use

Action verbs When writing learning objectives, use action verbs to describe what your trainees will have to (be able) to do. Examples of good action verbs are: say / write apply produce name paraphrase There are of course many more.

Words to avoid ... When formulating learning objectives, try and avoid using vague verbs to describe what learners will need to do or achieve. Avoid verbs such as ...

• understand
• feel (confident)
• be(come) aware of
• improve
• learn
• know

It is important that you'll be able to measure success and it's very hard to quantify that with verbs like these.

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Well done!

You are quite the learning objectives champion! 🏆 Come back to this presentation regularly to review how to write learning objectives that work in practice.

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Any questions?

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