Why It Matters

When designing instruction, you should start by creating clearly-defined, measurable learning objectives that:

Provide clarity of purpose and goals to learners, instructors, designers, and all stakeholders
Identify what will be measured in the assessment
Drive all design decisions, including the amount and type of content to convey, the amount of practice and application, multimedia approaches, and testing strategies.

Our Recommendation

Ensure that your learning objectives include three key components:

Task: What task must the learner perform?
Condition: How will the task be performed? Under what circumstances will the task be performed?
Standard: How well should the task be performed? What are the criteria for success?

Sample Revision Process

You might already have a list of topics in mind that you'd like to cover. How do you turn those topics into a list of learning objectives? The following table illustrates a revision process that you might undertake.

Moving from general topics to specific learning objectives

First draft: Lewis Structures, VSEPR Theory, Valence Bond Theory

Tip: These are topics the learner should know, but we're interested in tasks the learner needs to do.

Revision: Know about Lewis Dot Structures.

Tip: Choose a more specific verb. "Know" is difficult to measure. Try using this list of action verbs as a guide.

Revision: Draw and interpret a Lewis Dot Structure.

Tip: This is actually two objectives (i.e. "Draw and interpret"). Focus on one at a time.

Revision: Draw a Lewis Dot Structure.

Tip: Under what condition should this task be performed? In this case, what information is the student given?

Revision: Given a molecule, draw a Lewis Dot Structure.

Tip: Are there any standards that must be met? What is the criteria for success?

Revision: Given a molecule, draw a Lewis Dot Structure that best represents the arrangement of bonds and valence electrons.