6 Steps to Writing Learning Objectives

When you plan a training program, you have a specific learning objective or goal, which is why you have a training program in the first place.

The goal may be to reduce implicit bias or improve soft skills. It can be to teach specific methods to improve the skills of teams or take it to the next level; Whatever it is, this guide will help you write learning objectives that facilitate meaningful growth.

What are the learning objectives?

Learning objectives are the goals you set for group learning. Essentially, you should define why you are training your employees. After you have identified those learning objectives, you can identify the gap between your current situation and the one you aspire to, and then break down the goals into practical steps to help you achieve them.

Identifying the gap is called a training needs analysis, and applicable steps are educational measures or initiatives. The learning objectives must be important, specific, and meaningful to get the most out of the learning process. The learning objectives must answer the following question: “What do I want the trainees to learn from this training?”.

Benefits of learning objectives

Besides the general goal of training, smart trainers set more precise learning objectives, as these objectives provide direction for smaller parts of the training. These objectives have several benefits:

• Tell the trainees what they need to pay attention to.
• Tell the trainers what they should focus on.
• Clarify the success of the training process for stakeholders.
• Make the evaluation process easy.
• Help trainers look at the learning process.

However, writing learning objectives that provide these benefits can be difficult. There are a large number of ideas related to each objective.

6 steps to writing learning objectives

• Separate learning goals from learning objectives.
• Divide the objectives into attitudes, skills, and knowledge.
• Make your objectives specific.
• Advance planning for your criteria.
• Inquire whether the learning objectives make sense.
• Simplify your objectives

Let's take a look at how to get started with writing learning objectives, with examples of some good and not so good ones:

1. Separate learning goals from learning objectives

While some people define learning goals and objectives in the same way, many believe that there is an important difference between them. From this perspective, learning goals are long-term and comprehensive, and they specify the overall goal of the training or course. Also, they may not be measurable. For a project management course, you might have a learning goal like “Improving practical project management skills,” which is a great goal; It will help you focus on training, but it is not specific or measurable.

However, a learning objective is a focused and measurable goal that guides your training or education over a short period of time. You can define a learning objective for a single training session or a training unit. For example, a project management course might contain a unit with a learning objective like, “Trainees’ ability to distinguish between three project management systems,” and this objective is measurable; The trainee can specify these systems or not.

Learning objectives should support your own goal of learning, and if so, and the objective  is specific, you will have a meaningful objective that learners can understand and trainers can follow. But what should that objective be?

2. Divide the objectives into attitudes, skills, and knowledge

If you've been in the training space for a while, you've surely heard of the Attitude, Skills, and Knowledge model of learning. Attitudes, skills, and knowledge are the three things that you can try to change in learners, and to influence behavior, you will need to change these three things.

To explain the idea:

Knowledge is simply the realization of something, and in training, knowledge is often proved through the ability to narrate information or concepts.

Skill is the ability to do something. It requires proof that goes beyond stating facts although knowledge is usually required to apply a new skill.

Attitude is how a person feels about something; It is very complex, difficult to measure and can take a long time to change, but it is the key to change a behavior, no matter how much knowledge and how many skills someone has. If they have a negative attitude towards something, they will not use their skills.

Usually, learning objectives focus on one of these areas. When writing learning objectives, you should focus on actions related to these areas. For example, a knowledge learning objective might include words like these:

• Narration
• Specification
• Categorization
• Conclusion
• Quotation

If the learner can do these things using the information provided in the training, you can conclude that they have acquired the necessary knowledge.

In the case of project management, we may want the trainees to identify the differences between flexible project management and linear project management. This may indicate that the trainees have acquired enough knowledge of both disciplines to differentiate between them. On the other hand, the skills require the use of more action-motivating vocabulary, which are:

• Explain
• Use
• Legislate
• Calculate
• Manage

Project management trainees may have a learning objective such as "Demonstrate the ability to create a Gantt chart for the listed project tasks". If trainees are able to do this, they gain chart creation skills.

It is difficult to find procedures related to learning objective attitude, and this is partly due to the fact that the evidence for changing attitude usually appears after training; That is, when it is time for the participants to decide whether they will put their knowledge and skills into practice or not. However, there is still a chance to guide your learning objectives if you use the correct actions:

As you can see, it is difficult to measure, especially early in the learning process. However, one of the most important objectives of training is changing attitudes. So, it's a good idea to include these types of objectives when you can. If the trainees can facilitate a project planning meeting that results in an actionable plan, they are more likely to have the right attitude toward project management.

As your training program progresses, you may wish to move from knowledge to skills to attitude-based learning objectives, or you may wish to incorporate skills early in the process to make the training as practical as possible. So, spend some time thinking about your objectives and how they relate to these three goals.

What about Bloom's Taxonomy?

Many training professionals use Bloom's taxonomy of "Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, and Create" when designing their learning objectives. You can choose actions and goals for each element of the taxonomy, and you can use the ABCD (Audience, Behavior, Condition, and Degree) model to create specific learning objectives.

3. Make your objectives specific

At the end of a learning session or training course, you should be able to determine whether or not you have achieved your objectives. For example, you cannot measure the objective of qualifying employees for performance management. You cannot prove whether you succeeded or not.

On the other hand, the ability of mid-level managers and supervisors to complete a performance management feedback session is measurable; You can put these managers and supervisors in a position where they have to provide feedback and determine whether or not it was successful.

"Note that the objective is a matter of opinion, and some skill-based objectives will be evaluated this way, so set standards and models that people follow to keep the evaluations fair."

You can also have more measurable objectives, for example, you can measure the objective of nurses' ability to list at least 35 common adverse events in the 50 hospitals with a quick survey. The more specific you are in your learning objectives, the better, remember that each objective must support your overall learning goal.

4. Advance planning for your criteria

When you're brainstorming for learning objectives, you don't need to get busy with the practical aspects. So, define your learning goals, then think about the smaller steps the trainees will need to take to reach those goals. Before you start the training itself, you should have a clear plan for how to determine if the trainees have achieved those objectives, and this may affect how you define your objectives.

For example, if you are running an online course, it will be difficult to ask participants to show the skills they have learned. Of course, you can set up Skype meetings with participants so that you assess their skills, but this does not make sense; In this case, your learning objectives may need to focus on knowledge and attitudes.

Even in direct training your condition may determine what makes sense; The sales team might be willing to take time off for your training, but if your assessments require them to sit down for an interview with the trainer to test their sales skills, they may oppose that idea.

Learning goals should not be defined by what you can measure, but the specific objectives you seek to achieve on your way to those goals may change based on how those objectives  are evaluated; It's something to think about while planning.

5. Inquire whether the learning objectives make sense

It's easy to get overzealous when you write your learning objectives, and when you are part of the training and development world, you may forget that people have jobs, goals, lives, and problems outside of your training. For this reason, you must make sure that your objectives are logical. You cannot expect trainees to learn everything in a few sessions, so asking the trainees to list 50 sales strategies is not a good objective.

Instead, demonstrating their ability to make a sale using a particular technique may be an objective that can be learned in one session, and it is difficult to say what makes sense because each group is different from the other, as are the thematic areas.

Finally, you should use industry and experience criteria when deciding whether your objectives make sense. Feel free to update your objectives  as you continue to deliver your training program. If you are too impulsive to choose objectives  (or too conservative), you can change them to suit the learning pace of your group.

6. Simplify your objectives

When you start to think in detail about your learning goals and objectives, you can go into the details. You may make a long list of objectives, or begin by setting very complex objectives. In many cases, these options may be viable, but you will find greater acceptance and success when you keep your learning objectives simple; This is because trainees react better to simple objectives.

If you don't share your learning objectives with the trainees, you should start doing it. When they know what is expected of them, they understand the purpose of the training, and it helps them integrate and decide where to focus their attention.

Opening up the training “by telling the trainees that they will be able to convince the committee that Product X is the best” is scary, this is a complex objective with many parts. However, telling them that they will acquire the skills to make useful suggestions is simpler and more realistic.

Better engagement of trainees makes it easier to communicate with stakeholders about simple objectives, and if you are presenting your objectives and results to CEOs or clients, they will interact better with simple objectives that they can understand just as well as trainees.

What is the appropriate degree of simplification of the objectives? Ask yourself this question: “Will the trainee understand the objective and its benefits?” If so, your objective may be simple enough.

In conclusion

Take the time to write your learning objectives in the right way

This can take a lot of work and action, in particular that you will face this in every session or training unit, and it can take a lot of your time. However, writing the learning objectives with these ideas in mind will help you better define what you intend to achieve, “which is very important if you're measuring the return on investment for your training."

Designers in learning space will know what you should focus on each session, trainers will know what ideas to focus on, learners will know what they need to understand, and everyone will know how to assess it—this makes training more effective for everyone.