What are learning objectives, and are they necessary?

Learning objectives (or sometimes called outcomes or goals) describe what you want your learners to be able to reliably demonstrate upon finishing the learning experience. They should focus on the learner, focus on measurable behaviour, and break down the skill into parts and levels. 

In a learning experience, there may be different objectives for the learners versus the instructor or course developer. The teaching objectives will focus more on the content being taught and how it’s being taught. Instructors and developers use these to inform their learning plan and order of instruction. Those will be different than what the learner should be able to demonstrate. This series focuses on the student learning objectives.

Regardless of whether you want to include the learning objectives in your curriculum or course, it’s important to have solid statements written to guide the development of the experience. Much like any goal, learning objectives help you to stay focused. Ensuring you map back all the content and assessments to those objectives will ensure there is alignment in what you are presenting, what you are assessing, and what end result you want to see from your learner.

Learning objectives are sometimes helpful for the learner, especially if they are opting in to the learning experience and want to be sure it suits their needs. The statements can help the learner select an appropriate level of learning and understand what they will be able to gain from the opportunity. They also help the learner to manage the expectations the instructor, manager, or certification assessor will have of them to meet the needs.

Without these statements, it can be easy to get sidetracked with content that is related, but possibly out of scope and/or expectations. Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are often really passionate about their content and want to share everything they know with the learners. While the passion is great, learners can’t adequately absorb all that information in a limited learning experience. This is why there are often multiple levels of courses; it allows for scaffolding the content.

So, yes, learning objectives are necessary. They are a helpful guide for the SME, developer, instructor, learner, and anyone else associated with the experience.

Come back soon for part 2 in the series where we’ll talk about writing good learning objectives.