5 Different Ways to Make Learning Objectives Work

Informing your learners of the learning objectives as an event of instruction has not received enough attention from Instructional Designers. Listed here are a few tips of how learning objectives can be creatively leveraged for a more functional elearning design.

On-Screen Menu:

The learner is able to access the exact section which deals with the selected learning objective. This solution relies on the fact that most structuring of course content is done based on nesting of learning objectives.

Often learner’s use elearning as a learning resource that can be referenced and easily accessed in time of need.

Converting your learning objectives into a clickable menu means that learner can easily access the specific information that is needed.

Try converting the learning objectives into problem questions as the users first search for the problem similar to the one encountered by them.

Advance Organizer:

More often than not, the learners remain unaware of what a particular learning objective requires them do.

A listing of enabling objectives of a terminal objective, prepares the learner for the learning content in a better way.  Alternatively, you could summarize each section’s content and how it relates to other sections.

Graphic Organizer:

This treatment requires you to summarize the entire module visually as well.

Often the learning objectives page is a templatized form where the designer just plugs in the module-specific learning objectives.  A good way to design a learning objectives page is to revisit it after having visualized the entire module. This helps you create a unique graphic organizer by reusing the graphic elements created for the module content.

Pre-test:

A pre-test can also be leveraged to emphasize the LOs of a module.

This method requires the pre-test to emphasize the learning objectives by creating a test item for each terminal learning objective.

Pre-tests have been traditionally used to create a comparative benchmark with post-test performances; however, they can serve a greater function in “showing” the learner the learning path that follows.

Problem Scenario:

Learner’s pay more attention to content that helps them solve real-life problems.

Weave a problem scenario that stitches the learning objectives as means to solve the problem. Problem scenarios are great illustrations of the true value than merely listed learning objectives.  For example, the scenario of 12 year old requesting emergency contraceptives over the counter, nicely sets up the topic of reproductive health care for teens.