Learning objectives: how to formulate them, types and examples
Learning objectives may only be a few lines long, but they have a fairly big job to do.
At their simplest, they describe what learners should know or be able to do by the end of a course, module or activity.
When written well, learning objectives give everyone a clearer idea of where the learning is heading. They help the learning designer decide what belongs in the course, give the subject matter expert something clear to review and show learners what they should be able to do by the end.
They’re also handy when another document appears halfway through the project with “just one more thing” to include. If it doesn’t help learners achieve one of the objectives, there’s a good chance it doesn’t need to be there.
In this guide, we’ll look at the different types of learning objectives, how to formulate them, where Bloom’s Taxonomy comes in and some examples you can use as a starting point.
What is a learning objective?
A learning objective is a short statement that sets out what learners should be able to do by the end of a piece of learning.
Say you’re creating a course about fire safety. “Fire safety” tells you the subject, but it could take the course in quite a few directions.
Do learners need to:
Spot potential risks?
Follow an evacuation procedure?
Choose the correct response in an emergency?
An example learning objective for this topic may be:
“By the end of this course, learners will be able to identify common fire risks in their workplace.”
Now the course has a clear job to do.
Of course, not every objective asks the same thing of the learner.
Some focus on what learners need to know, some on what they need to do, and others on how they need to think, respond or behave.
Recognising that difference helps us understand the different types of learning objectives.
What are the different types of learning objectives?
For workplace learning, it’s useful to think about learning objectives in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes.
Some courses will focus mainly on one. Others will need a mixture of all three.
Knowledge objectives
Knowledge objectives focus on what learners need to know, remember, recognise or explain.
For example:
“By the end of this course, learners will be able to identify the warning signs of a phishing email.”
The learner doesn’t need to become a phishing expert. They just need enough knowledge to spot suspicious emails
Depending on the topic, you might ask learners to identify, describe, explain, recall or distinguish between different things.
Skills objectives
Skills objectives focus on what learners need to be able to do.
For example:
“By the end of this course, learners will be able to follow the correct procedure for reporting a phishing email.”
Knowing what a suspicious email looks like is one thing. Knowing what to do when one lands in your inbox is another.
A skills objective could involve using a piece of equipment, completing a process, handling a customer complaint or correctly responding to a situation.
Attitude objectives
Attitude objectives focus on how learners think about, value or approach something.
For example:
“By the end of this course, learners will recognise the importance of reporting suspicious emails.
These can be a little trickier because you’re not just asking somebody to remember a fact or follow a process. You’re trying to influence how they approach something and, ultimately, the choices they make afterwards.
In practice, the three objective types often overlap. Someone might need the knowledge to recognise a phishing email, the skill to report it correctly and the right attitude to bother reporting it in the first place.
Once you know the type of outcome you’re aiming for, the next job is to put it into a useful learning objective.
How to formulate learning objectives
A good place to start is with the outcome itself. What should the learner be able to do by the end of the course?
For example, instead of writing “Learners will understand the company’s complaints procedure”, you could write: “Learners will be able to follow the correct process for logging and escalating a customer complaint.”
The second version is much clearer because it describes something you can actually observe or assess.
Next, check whether the outcome is realistic for the learning you’re creating.
For example, a learning objective for a 20-minute course might reasonably ask someone to identify the steps involved in a difficult employee conversation. Expecting them to become an employee relations expert is probably asking a bit much.
Whatever you ask learners to do in the objective, the learning needs to give them enough support to get there. If you expect them to demonstrate a process, for example, they need to see how it’s done and have a chance to practise.
If the objective feels too ambitious for the time, format or content you’ve got, you probably need to reconsider the scope.
Once you know what learners need to achieve and that it’s realistic, Bloom’s Taxonomy can help you decide the level of learning required.
Bloom’s Taxonomy groups learning into six levels:
Remember
Understand
Apply
Analyse
Evaluate
Create
The useful bit is working out how much you’re asking of the learner.
Do they need to remember something? Apply it in a real situation? Analyse information? Make a judgement? Create something themselves?
Once you know the level you’re aiming for, you can choose wording that makes the objective clear and measurable.
Words and phrases like “understand”, “know”, “learn” and “be aware of” crop up a lot, but they can be difficult to measure. After all, how do you know somebody “understands” something?
Rather than leaving it open to interpretation, describe what the learner should be able to demonstrate.
Too vague:
Understand the company’s complaints procedure
Explain good customer service
Know how to identify and report a phishing email
Be aware of the organisation’s data handling rules
More useful:
Follow the correct process for logging and escalating a customer complaint
Explain the three steps used to handle a customer complaint
Identify a suspicious email and report it using the correct process
Apply the organisation’s data handling rules when storing and sharing customer information
If learners only need to recognise a hazard, you might use “identify” as the verb for that objective. If they need to use a process correctly, “apply” or “demonstrate” may be more appropriate. And if they need to produce something themselves, you might use words like “create”, “develop” or “design”.
You don’t need to treat Bloom’s like a rulebook and hunt down the “perfect” verb every time. The point is to choose wording that matches the level of learning you’re aiming for.
Learning objective examples
Here are a few examples for a course on sustainability:
Learning objective:
Define what is meant by “sustainability”
Explain the importance of introducing sustainability initiatives
Identify the business benefits of sustainability
Outline ways to make the workplace more eco-friendly
Create an environmental action plan
Each objective asks something different of the learner.
If the objective is to define sustainability, they only need to show that they understand what the term means.
If the objective is to create an environmental action plan, they need much more support. The course should explain how to build one, what it should include and give them an opportunity to practise.
That’s why the verb matters. It tells you how much the learner is expected to do and how much support the course needs to provide.
Once you’ve got the wording right, the next thing to consider is how many learning objectives you actually need.
How many learning objectives should a course have?
There isn’t a set number that works for every course.
How many learning objectives you have will depend on the length and complexity of the course. Focus on the most important things learners need to be able to know or do and use these to formulate your objectives.
For a 30-minute course, around five learning objectives is usually plenty.
If you’ve got 12, there’s a decent chance you’ve either got too many objectives or a lot more than 30 minutes’ worth of learning.
Remember: learning objectives should not simply be a list of every point covered in the course. They should be focused, overarching goals of the learning.
A final check before you start building
For each objective, check whether it is needed to achieve a learning outcome. Remove any objectives that simply describe what the course will cover.
Give your objectives one last check:
Are they clear and concise?
Can you observe and assess their effectiveness?
Are they realistic for the time and format?
Does the course give learners enough to achieve them?
Have you focused on the outcomes that really matter?
If yes, you’re in a good place. If not, it’s much easier to sort them now than halfway through the build.
Need a hand turning those objectives into learning?
Clear learning objectives are a great starting point, but what happens next matters just as much.
Our instructional designers can help you turn those objectives into practical, engaging eLearning that gives your people the opportunity to develop and apply their skills.
Whether you’re starting from scratch or trying to untangle a course that’s become bigger than it ever needed to be, we can help work out what people really need to learn, then design the course around that.