• Home
  • Resources
    • eLearning Freebies
    • Storyboard Depot
    • Instructional Design Programs
    • Best Stock Photo Sites
    • PowerPoint Grids
    • eLearning Examples
    • Glossary of Online Learning Terms
    • Graphic Editing Tools
    • Icon Collections
  • My Books
  • About
  • Book Store
  • COMMUNITY

The eLearning Coach

For designing effective learning experiences

  • Podcasts
  • LXD
  • eLearning Design
    • Audience
    • Instructional Design
    • Learning Objectives
    • Storyboarding
    • Tests
    • User Interface
  • eLearning 2.0
  • Cognition
  • Multimedia
    • Audio
    • Authoring Tools
    • Graphics
    • Video
  • Reviews
    • Book Reviews
    • Hardware Reviews
    • Software Reviews
  • At Work
You are here: Home / eLearning Design / Writing Performance-Based Learning Objectives: Part 1

Writing Performance-Based Learning Objectives: Part 1

by Connie Malamed

Tweet22
Pin16
Share12
Share33
83 Shares

learning-objectivesThere are really TWO categories of performance-based learning objectives based on their purpose. One type of learning objective is for internal use—the design team, client and subject matter expert. The other type is for the audience members. If designers would write different learning objectives for each category, the world would be a better place. This is because internal learning objectives tend to be too technical and non-motivating for your eLearning audience.

Writing Performance-based Learning Objectives

In classical instructional design, the instructional designer starts with a clear overall instructional goal. From this, the designer performs an instructional analysis to determine the content and skills the learner requires to reach this goal. Using the analysis, the designer then writes performance-based learning objectives. Textbooks tell us that objectives must be measurable and must describe the learning outcome in three or four parts (some combine the audience with the behavior—see below):

  1. Audience (Example: cat owner)
  2. Behavior that will demonstrate what the audience member has learned. (Example: Dispense a pill with a medicine dispenser into the cat’s mouth)
  3. Conditions in which this will be demonstrated. (Example: Given a large, snarly cat)
  4. The criteria or standards of the learning outcome. (Example: The cat swallows the pill)

Putting this all together, here is an example of a four-part learning objective:

Given a large, snarly cat, the cat owner will dispense a pill into the cat’s mouth with a medicine dispenser so that the cat swallows the pill.

There’s nothing wrong with this approach, though I haven’t seen anyone write such a detailed learning objective in a long time. Still, it can’t hurt to know how to do this and there may be some organizations, institutions or clients that require this. It isn’t difficult to do and it does make you think things through. In fact, it basically tells you how to write your test items. That’s great when you are so pressured to meet a deadline that you barely have time to think.

During course design, many people simply include just the #1 part above as shown below.

Dispense a pill into the cat’s mouth with a medicine dispenser.

However you write your objectives is fine as long as you are developing solid and engaging eLearning products. Not all designers write learning objectives and instead use a content outline. Without them, you may lose the focus on performance.

Purpose of Writing Internal Objectives

The real purpose of writing the internal type of performance-based learning objectives is so designers can:

  • Wrap their minds around the content to understand its scope
  • Use the big-picture view to understand what themes, interactivity and engagement strategies can work
  • Logically order the content (this can be done in an instructional analysis which many people don’t do)
  • Organize the content into chunks, topics, lessons, units, modules, etc.
  • Ensure that no content slips through the cracks
  • Ensure all required content is tested
  • Communicate the content to clients, subject matter experts and the development team

In the next article of this series, I’ll discuss ways to make sure your objectives are measurable. Then after that, you can look forward to a post about how to motivate your audience with exciting objectives (or at least not too boring). Why, this is becoming a three-part sequel, just like a bad movie.

If you found this topic interesting and helpful, please pass it on to a friend. Thanks!

Related Articles:
Writing Performance-based Learning Objectives: Part 2
Writing Performance-based Learning Objectives: Part 3

Comments

  1. Connie Malamed says

    April 11, 2016 at 2:04 pm

    Internal would be one you use for the team. Example would be, Learners will apply the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by selecting the appropriate actions to four scenarios. External would be presented to the learner and relate what he or she is going to learn to his/her world. Example:
    Jane is working in a foreign country but isn’t sure whether she can take an official out to dinner. Will it look bad? Is she setting a poor precedent? In this course, you’ll learn what to do in this situation and in many others you may come across.

    Hope that helps.

  2. Sally-Ann says

    April 10, 2016 at 11:39 pm

    please provide an example of an internal and an external (audience) objective?

Trackbacks

  1. Writing Learning Objectives: Part 3 | E-learning says:
    November 22, 2015 at 2:19 pm

    […] in this series discussed how to write learning objectives for your internal eLearning team. Part 1 demonstrated how to write classic three-part learning objectives and Part 2 discussed how to make […]

  2. How To Choose Verbs For Effective Learning Objectives | CallCenterBestPractices.com says:
    September 23, 2011 at 9:21 pm

    […] an Easy Way to Create Learning ObjectivesWriting Learning Objectives Using Bloom & MagerWriting Learning Objectives: Part 1: The eLearning Coach if (top!=self) { window.location = […]

  3. What Works in an Online Environment | Authentic On-line Learning says:
    June 12, 2011 at 5:02 pm

    […] thought to the learning activities that I would be asking them to do, and I needed to assign clear learning objectives for each activity.  Talking online with Alex via Meebo helped me to realize that I had to question […]

  4. Writing Learning Objectives « Design Doc says:
    February 28, 2011 at 9:31 am

    […] Writing Learning Objectives – The eLearning Coach – Another favorite blog. This post is Part 1 of 3 in a series. […]

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

UMBC Learning & Performance Technology Program

Learning and Performance Technology Program

The Learning Guild

Fullerton ID Program

Fullerton Instructional Design Program
learn instructional design in a community

5 QUESTIONS ABOUT A CAREER IN ID

5 key questions about a career in instructional design

SITE MENU

Home
Resources
ID Guru Mobile App
My Books
About
Book Store
Membership Community
Contact

TOPIC MENU

Podcasts
eLearning Design
eLearning 2.0
Cognition
Multimedia (Graphics & Audio)
Reviews
Mobile
Business

RESOURCES

eLearning Freebies
Free Storyboards
Instructional Design Programs
Best Stock Images
PowerPoint Grids
eLearning Examples
Glossary of Online Learning
Graphic Editing Tools
Icon Collections

© Copyright 2021 Connie Malamed · All Rights Reserved