Setting The Right Learning Objectives With Custom eLearning Outsourcing
If you’ve made that important decision to outsource your custom eLearning courses, you have the option of outsourcing the entire project—start to finish (if you don’t have resources in-house), or outsourcing part of the project (if you have Instructional Designers in-house, you might want to involve them in storyboarding and then outsource course development). In either case, it is important to frame the right learning objectives.
Importance Of Learning Objectives For Your Custom eLearning Outsourcing
Learning objectives refer to the specific knowledge, skills, or attitude learners will gain and display as a result of going through the training program. They are very important in custom eLearning outsourcing because they:
- Tell learners what they’ll gain by going through the course
- Influence your choice of Instructional Design strategies
- Decide your content selection and learner assessment plan
- Impact the seat time and the cost of the course
Inputs Required To Frame Learning Objectives
What inputs should you be providing to your eLearning vendor so that they can write the right learning objectives for custom eLearning outsourcing? Here are some questions you can expect from your eLearning vendor:
- What are the organization’s business objectives?
- What are the training gaps the custom eLearning course intends to close?
- What are learners’ profiles and their roles in the workplace?
- What are the outcomes expected from the custom eLearning course?
- How will learners access the training? For example, do you have employees in the field? (If yes, then it impacts the learning objectives.)
Only if you share critical inputs related to your organizational training needs can the eLearning vendor come up with meaningful learning objectives.
Components Of Learning Objectives
Although we know you’re familiar with learning objectives, it’s always nice to brush up on them.
A good learning objective has the following 3 critical components.
- Performance
- Condition
- Criteria
Here’s more information on each component.
1. Performance
This describes what’s expected from the learner, and answers the following question: What will learners do to demonstrate their mastery over an objective in the course?
It is recommended to use action verbs for the performance component of learning objectives so that the learning objective is measurable in relation to the custom eLearning outsourcing. Bloom’s taxonomy, a classification of measurable verbs that helps us describe the knowledge or skills we want learners to achieve, is used to frame learning objectives.
Here are 2 examples of learning objectives showing the performance component:
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Both the performance components are specific and measurable outputs expected from learners.
While it’s good to have all three components in your learning objective, performance is the most important and a must-have component in the learning objectives of your custom eLearning course.
2. Condition
This component of the learning objective describes the conditions under which the learner is expected to perform. It answers the question: Under what conditions is the learner expected to perform?
The condition could refer to circumstances or parameters that influence learner performance, the resources or tools necessary for learners to perform well. For the learning objectives, as part of your custom eLearning outsourcing and the custom eLearning program, on the whole, to be realistic and close to the on-the-job scenario, don’t forget to share these inputs with your eLearning vendor.
Now, let’s build on the earlier examples by adding a condition.
Adding a condition makes the learning objectives achievable and realistic.
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3. Criteria
This component of the learning objective tells the learner the accuracy or quantity that demonstrates good performance.
It answers the following question: How well must learners perform a task?
When including a criterion in a learning objective, you can include speed, accuracy, quality, or quantity depending on what’s expected from learners. Criteria need to be observable or time-bound.
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Let’s add criteria for the learning objectives mentioned earlier. Ensure your learning objectives do not promise something that’s overly ambitious or impractical. This can affect the learning experience. Be it off-the-shelf solutions or custom eLearning, not having the right learning objectives in place is similar to placing learners in a boat without a rudder. Writing the right learning objectives for custom eLearning helps with aligning course content, deciding the right assessment strategy and Instructional Design strategies, as well as offering substantial value to learners and your organization.
Download the eBook The Ultimate Guide To Outsource Custom eLearning to see how the right learning objectives save cost and time in custom eLearning outsourcing! If you are looking for more insights on outsourcing custom eLearning, join this interactive webinar that offers tips and workarounds to make the collaboration a win-win partnership. It’s not just custom eLearning design and development, you can even outsource translation services or Flash to HTML5 conversions. RK Prasad, the CEO and Co-Founder of CommLab India, takes you through such intricacies and more in the webinar.
