Learning objectives are at the very core of the instructional design process, and rightly so. Without them, how would we know what content and activities to include in our courses? Unfortunat...
Published 10 years ago
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I never list learning objectives as statements at the beginning of a course module. I pose them as questions. I find this far more effective and less likely to trigger the usual boredom. I turn those cliched statements around and format them as problems requiring solutions, or scenarios that the learner might encounter.
So instead of saying something like:
"At the end of this course/module you will be able to....[list of boring statements here]"
I'd say something like:
"How should you respond to a co-worker who suggests you do something unethical?"
or
"Fred's workmate suggests he does something that might be unethical. How should Fred handle this?"
I usually keep the list of questions around 5 or less in any single module. That way the module doesn't intimidate the learner.
So instead of saying something like:
"At the end of this course/module you will be able to....[list of boring statements here]"
I'd say something like:
"How should you respond to a co-worker who suggests you do something unethical?"
or
"Fred's workmate suggests he does something that might be unethical. How should Fred handle this?"
I usually keep the list of questions around 5 or less in any single module. That way the module doesn't intimidate the learner.
- Rod, you make a good point about the intimidation factor that comes from a long list of objectives. I agree with Allison--posing these as questions is an interesting way to engage the learner.
- I really like the idea of presenting the objectives as questions instead of statements, I think it definitely is a more engaging way of going about it. Thanks so much for sharing, Rod!
