Learning objectives and learning outcomes

Don’t underestimate the importance of learning outcomes. Online courses are a vehicle for trans-formation for your students– from their current reality to their desired future. Just because you know what your course will give your students, it does not mean that they will know. Learning outcomes clearly explain, with measurable verbs, what the learner will be able to do, know and feel by the end of your course.

  • What skills will they be able to demonstrate?

  • What new knowledge will they have obtained?

  • What feelings will they have moved away from or to?

  • As an example, to write a learning outcome, complete this statement “By the end of this course you will be able to… ”

  • ○ __________________________

  • ○ __________________________

  • ○ __________________________

For example: “By the end of this course, you will be able to demonstrate the 6 steps for making a pina colada cocktail.”

Let’s say the goal of your class is to teach people to master the mixology arts, you might have a bundle of classes on how to become a bartender. A course outline is like the roadmap of how your online course will bring your students from A to B. It will help you deliver content to your students in a structured, ordered way, layering skill upon skill until they finish your course feel-ing like an expert. Your course is the way learners will get from Point A to Point B. So the first step is to define what point A is for them.

But wait…what do we mean by “THEM”? Who is your target audience for the course you’re creating? What relevant prior knowledge do they already have about the topic, and what (if any-thing) are you going to have to teach them before they are ready for the main topics you want them to learn? Your course outline will help your learners achieve the desired knowledge, skills and behaviors you want to teach them. So, make sure you define your course prerequisites thor-oughly. Because teaching advanced learners is totally different from teaching beginners, the stu-dents’ level must be reflected in your course outline. Understanding your audience's level and learning style (and communicating that level in your lesson outline) is absolutely critical as it will guide which training methods you’ll need to use when teaching your class.

It turns out that there are a lot of pre-requisite skills that you, as a lesson creator, need to use, be-fore you start actually planning your lesson. These pre-requisite skills include:

• Having a well-defined learning goal for your course as a whole (Point B, your student’s desired future)

• Having a well-defined starting point for your course (Point A, your student’s current reality today)

• Understanding what your target audience already knows (what skills and behaviors they al-ready have) relative to what you’re about to teach them

Many course creators start out thinking they can teach all the skills needed to achieve their top-level learning goal, all in one course. This soon starts to feel overwhelming to the class creator, and far more so to any potential students. It important to plan each individual lesson and see the course as a great puzzle that needs to be filled with all the small pieces in order to make a clear big picture.

In formal education institutions, lecturers and teachers refer to the course outline as their course syllabus. You can find terms such as "course outline" or "lesson plan" or “lesson outline”. We treat lesson plans as the individual pieces that make up the entire class outline puzzle. However, it's no use having all the best lessons and digital assets available for teaching a topic if you don't know what order to teach them in. And often, organizing your lessons and teaching materials in a way that makes sense to you isn’t necessarily what works best for others. That’s why it’s always important to align your education materials in a way that optimizes learning outcomes for your students. Your learners should easily understand the lessons you teach. To do this, you’ll need an effective and efficient class structure that works.

WELCOME

INSTRUCTIONS

OBJECTIVES

MODULE
CONTENT

MODULE
KNOWLEDGE CHECK

MODULE
SUMMARY

PRACTICE ACTIVITIES

ASSESSMENT

SUMMARY

NEXT
STEPS

EXIT
INSTRUCTIONS

SUPPORTING RESOURCES

Previous
Next