17 Outcomes & Objectives

Set a Clear Path for Learning.

“The power of design comes from leading students to a meaningful destination. This end shapes the instructional goals, objectives, outcomes, and ultimately the whole focus of a course and generates more relevant means.” (Nilson, Goodson, 2017 (Links to an external site.))

Here, we will begin your course design process by creating or reviewing your goals for learning.

In this program, we will generally use the terms course-level learning outcomes and module-level learning objectives, similar to what is shown in the graphic to the right.

After you have identified course learning outcomes, you can then move on to identifying those smaller objectives that will describe the more discrete knowledge, skills, and abilities that students will need in order to achieve the learning outcomes.

Step 1
Write effective learning outcomes (long-term goals)

It may be that your course has department- or university-approved learning outcomes that stipulate what students should be able to ‘do’ or ‘know’ by the completion of your course. Alternatively, you may be responsible for writing these learning outcomes yourself. In either case, these outcomes represent endpoints or milestones by which we measure student learning. In turn, your course-level outcomes will help you determine the more specific module-level objectives and assessments needed to support your course-level outcomes.

Step 2
Write effective learning objectives (shorter-term goals)

Articulating module-level learning objectives is an effective way to sustain student effort and persistence. While course outcomes establish long-term goals, developing module-level objectives set short-term goals for each week. However, just having a goal is not enough.

One common challenge in online learning is learner self-regulation and motivation. Given the student autonomy in asynchronous environments, it is easy for students to get distracted, lose focus, and motivation. In addition to academic skills, student success requires skills for self-regulation such as time management, organization, and self-motivation (Shea and Bidjerano, 2010) (Links to an external site.); Johnson and Galy, 2013 (Links to an external site.); Broadbent and Poon, 2015 (Links to an external site.)).

One potential solution is to create learning objectives that explicitly communicate “why” to students. (See more in UDL Principle: Multiple Means of Engagement (Links to an external site.)

We do this through:

• Developing and communicating measurable objectives
• Developing assessment specific to these objectives before selecting content
• Presenting content that clearly relates to the objectives
• Developing activities and assignments that clearly support students in meeting the objectives
• Making sure objectives and assessments align with content and assignments

Before we can establish assessment, content, and activities, we have to develop measurable learning objectives.

Up next

In the next sections, we will practice writing learning outcomes and supporting learning objectives.