Learning Objectives

Course learning objectives are specific outcomes — ascertainable competencies, knowledge, and even attitudes or values that you hope your students will have after taking your course.

CTL video on aligning course with learning objectives

For instructors, articulating the course learning objectives can help clarify your expectations for the course and guide you as you develop the course. Referring to your course learning objectives as you create lectures, assignments, and assessments helps to keep all of these teaching components conceptually aligned.

For students, learning objectives describe exactly what they can expect from your course and they provide a rationale for the work you’ll ask them to do.

Bloom’s Taxonomy as a Framework for Writing Learning Objectives

The revised version of Bloom’s Taxonomy (Bloom et al., 1956) provides a good framework for starting to write your learning objectives. The verbs listed below show a hierarchy of increasing complexity from left to right.

↓ What is Bloom's Taxonomy?

In brief, in the 1940s a group of educators began to develop a classification system for educational learning objectives for three domains: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. The work on the cognitive domain resulted in a book titled a Taxonomy of educational objectives; the classification of educational goals, by a committee of college and university examiners (B. Bloom et al, 1956). This work is now commonly referred to as Bloom’s Taxonomy.

These taxonomic models present a hierarchical classification of learning objectives that, reading from left to right, successively become more complex and specific.

Originally, the cognitive domain was ordered as follows:

In 2001, Anderson and Krathwohl et al published a revised version of Bloom’s Taxonomy, A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives (2001), that reflects new research and presents the taxonomy shown below.

Remember	Understand	Apply	Analyze	Evaluate	Create
Choose Describe Define Label List Locate Match Memorize Name Omit Recite Select State Count Draw Outline Point Quote Recall Recognize Repeat Reproduce	Classify Defend Demonstrate Distinguish Explain Express Extend Give Examples Illustrate Indicate Interrelate Interpret Infer Match Paraphrase Represent Restate Rewrite Select Show Summarize Tell Translate Associate Compute Convert Discuss Estimate Extrapolate Generalize Predict	Choose Dramatize Explain Generalize Judge Organize Paint Prepare Produce Select Show Sketch Solve Use Add Calculate Change Classify Complete Compute Discover Divide Examine Graph Interpolate Manipulate Modify Operate Subtract	Categorize Classify Compare Differentiate Distinguish Identify Infer Point out Select Subdivide Survey Arrange Breakdown Combine Detect Diagram Discriminate Illustrate Outline Point out Separate	Appraise Judge Criticize Defend Compare Assess Conclude Contrast Critique Determine Grade Justify Measure Rank Rate Support Test	Combine Compose Construct Design Develop Formulate Hypothesize Invent Make Originate Organize Plan Produce Role Play Drive Devise Generate Integrate Prescribe Propose Reconstruct Revise Rewrite Transform

To begin writing learning objectives that are practical for you, try this exercise:

Make a list of concrete knowledge, skills, or competencies you wish students to gain from taking your course. Try to keep the ideas on your list specific, observable, and measurable as well as aligned with your department’s expectations for the course. Start with a stem sentence that begins…

“At the conclusion of the course [or unit or module], students should be able to…”

…and then, referring to Bloom’s taxonomy, choose a verb that is specific and measurable, for example, “At the end of this module, you should be able to list and describe five [insert the knowledge here].”

Consider the level of achievement you expect for each item on the list, and whether students will be expected to achieve it with or without aids (e.g. dictionary, reference guide, etc.).

For each element of your course, ask yourself:

Does this course content (or activity, practice, assessment, or feedback) support one or more specific learning objective?
Then reverse the question when reading through the objectives: Is this objective being supported through specific course content, etc.?

Is this objective being evaluated at the point in the course where students are expected to have achieved it? Prior to that?

Are students made aware of how each element of their coursework relates to their achievement of a course objective?

Resources

Download this course planning grid to check alignment as you design your course: Word doc or PDF

References

Bloom, B. (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives; the classification of educational goals, by a committee of college and university examiners. Benjamin S. Bloom, editor [and others. (1st ed.].. ed.). New York: Longmans, Green.

Anderson, L. W., Krathwohl, D. R. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Longman.