“If you don’t know where you are going, you might not get there.” - Yogi Berra
Key Learning Points
- Learning objectives provide the instructional roadmap toward achieving learning goals.
- Learning objectives should emphasize the highest priority content and sessions should be structured around achieving these objectives.
- Learning objectives should be SMART and should articulate the audience, desired behavior, conditions under which behavior is expected and the degree of competency expected.

1. Overview

Developing high-quality learning objectives is necessary for an effective teaching session. Learning objectives guide the teaching and learning processes, provide learners with an understanding of expectations and facilitate appropriate assessment activities.
Learning outcomes can be differentiated from learning goals:
- Learning goals are larger aims of your instruction. For example, a learning goal for your session might be that students become more comfortable managing acute pain.
- Learning objectives articulate the necessary tasks that must be accomplished to achieve the learning goals.
For example, a learning objective applied to achieving the previously stated goal could be to “Calculate dose conversions among intravenous formulations of morphine, hydromorphone and fentanyl when presented a case of a patient with acute pain.”
Learning goals and objectives should emphasize only the most high-yield content and should guide all instructional activities. For example, to achieve an objective that students demonstrate an ability to conduct a code status discussion, students must be provided the opportunity to practice or role-play this skill.
3. Practice
Improve the following learning objective:
5. Wrap Up
Writing learning objectives helps you as an educator focus on what is most important for learners to master.
- Resist the temptation to bypass writing learning objectives.
- Keep learning objectives in the forefront as your teaching session.
- Align your instructional strategies with the verbs used in your objectives to facilitate appropriate assessment.
Other Resources
Effective use of performance objectives for learning and assessment. University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Teacher and Educational Development. (2005).
Principles of Writing Learning Objectives. Adapted from Preparing Instructional Objectives, Robert F. Mager.
References
Anderson, L. W. and Krathwohl, D. R., et al (Eds..) (2001) A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Allyn & Bacon. Boston, MA: Pearson Education Group.
Bloom, B.S. and Krathwohl, D. R. (1956) Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals, by a committee of college and university examiners. Handbook I: Cognitive Domain. NY, NY: Longmans, Green.
Lang, J.M. (2008). On Course: A Week-by-Week Guide to Your First Semester of College Teaching. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Schuh, J.H., Biddix, J.P., Dean, L.A., and Kinzie, J. (2016). Assessment in Student Affairs (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Suskie, L. (2009). Assessing Student Learning. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Next up: Structuring Sessions Effectively