Do your objectives look like those in the comic?

From the comic: At the end of this module, you will:

Understand the importance of washing your hands.

List the illnesses you will receive if you do not wash your hands.

Maybe your learners really do need to know why washing their hands is important, but I am going to go out on a limb and say that it’s not the knowledge surrounding washing their hands that they need – but how to actually wash their hands.

Have the objectives given the learner the support they need?

Let’s create task oriented learning objectives.

Bad Hand Washing Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will: Understand the importance of washing your hands.

List the illnesses you will receive if you do not wash your hands.

Better Hand Washing Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to wash your hands according to CDC standards, including: Setting the correct temperature

Scrubbing for the correct length of time

Rinsing your hands

Drying your hands

But Rachel, everyone knows how to wash their hands!

Are you sure? Are they doing it up to par with CDC standards? Are they using the correct type of soap?

But Rachel, it IS important for them to know how important it is!

Okay – sprinkle it in with the rest of the content! As you’re teaching them how many seconds to scrub their hands for, show a little meter that counts down the amount of bacteria they’re killing with each second of scrubbing. While instructing them on what temperature they need to have the water at, explain that it is the law for them to abide to these standards.

The bottom line is that adult learning (in most settings) should surround behavioral change. Behavioral change calls for task oriented objectives.

More Examples

You may not always be taking a course just on hand washing, so splitting up your objective like above may not work for you. Let’s take a look at a more robust course.

Bad Aseptic Techniques Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will: Understand how washing your hands is integral for the safety of our patients

List the steps of glove disposal

Understand the procedure for use of sterile needles

What does this course look like to you? I see a PowerPoint slide with a bunch of bullet points and “steps” graphics. Now, let’s make them more actionable:

Better Aseptic Techniques Learning Objectives At the end of this module, you will be able to: Wash your hands according to CDC and hospital regulations

Dispose of your gloves by effectively removing them and using the appropriate container

Sterilize needles with the correct solutions and dispose of them in the hazard bins

Now what does this course look like to you? I see videos, interactions, and people walking away with better knowledge on how to do their job.

Okay, you’ve convinced me, now how do I create effective learning objectives?

Let’s use a little formula.

Learning Objective = Action + How

Wash your hands according to CDC and hospital regulations

Dispose of your gloves by effectively removing them and using the appropriate container

Sterilize needles with the correct solutions and dispose of them in the hazard bins

Now that we have the little formula down, let’s go over some ground rules when using it.

Ask yourself the following questions:

Will the learners walk away knowing how to do something?

Have I attempted to illicit behavior change?

With these objectives, am I imagining an effective, engaging, and interactive module?

Have I avoided the use of the words understand , list , and explain for my action words?

If you’ve answered no to any of these questions – try again!

More information:

What's wrong with the words understand, list, and explain? Reimagine the learning objectives as an assessment or test. Do you want to test their understanding of something, or do you want to test their ability to do something? When it comes to adult learning, hopefully you are testing their ability to do something. The same goes for “list” and “explain.” Outcome based learning objectives When I refer to outcome based learning objectives, I mean that the learner will actually produce something during the course. For a workshop that was teaching Adobe Photoshop, the learning objective was: Create a custom header for your website using Photoshop! Much more exciting than just “learn Photoshop,” right? You can apply the same idea to business plans, budgets, and really almost anything computer related if you are creating e-learning.

Give me some examples of your revised learning objectives!

Want to try your hand at re-writing those learning objectives? Check out /r/instructionaldesign’s challenge.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

Email

More

Pinterest

Google



Reddit

Pocket





Like this: Like Loading...