Defining Course-Level Learning Outcomes

Reflecting Your Big Ideas and Enduring Understandings with Your Learning Objectives

We will use Bloom’s Taxonomy to build on the basic formula introduced. Bloom’s Taxonomy is a hierarchical model used to classify and categorize different educational learning objectives and skills.

Your goal is to ensure that the lesson-level learning objectives you draft at this stage align with the overall learning goals for the course. Essentially, you are guiding students toward those course learning goals by providing smaller, incremental objectives that they can achieve along the way. When combined, these lesson-level objectives help students build and demonstrate the overall understanding reflected in the course learning goals.

Let’s work through a practical process for developing learning objectives for your course. Using the foundation you built at the Wade Level, you’ll create lesson-level learning objectives that support and lead students toward the overall course learning goals.

Step 1: Start with Your Course Purpose, Big Ideas, and Enduring Understandings

Before writing objectives, review the big ideas and enduring understandings you identified when articulating your course purpose. Your learning objectives should help students develop these understandings.

Example:

Big Idea from a 3rd year Biology course: Environmental factors influence biological processes

Possible Objectives:

• Students will be able to explain how temperature affects enzyme activity
• Students will be able to predict how changes in pH will impact cellular respiration
• Students will be able to design experiments to test environmental effects on plant growth

Step 2: Draft Course-Level Objectives

Write 4-8 learning objectives describing what students should be able to do by the end of your course. Focus on the most important capabilities, not all the topics you might cover.

Remember to:

Step 3:

Review the Bloom’s Taxonomy handout before continuing. As you read, pay particular attention to the different levels of learning and the action verbs associated with each level. Use the taxonomy to determine whether your learning objectives reflect the appropriate level of learning for your course or lesson and whether more specific action verbs could help make your objectives clearer and more measurable. Bloom’s taxonomy handout.

Here are some helpful questions you can ask yourself:

• Does this objective support and align with the overall course learning goals?
• Have I chosen an action verb that clearly describes what learners will be able to do?
• Is the level of learning described by this objective appropriate for the level of the course or lesson?
• Does the objective reflect the depth and complexity of learning I want students to achieve?
• Does the objective describe observable and measurable learner behaviour?

By combining the basic learning objective formula with Bloom’s Taxonomy, you can create learning objectives that are clear, measurable, and aligned with the level of learning you expect from your students. Taking the time to refine your objectives now will help ensure that your lessons, activities, and assessments all support the achievement of your course learning goals.

Quick tips:

• Start with 4-8 objectives for an entire course
• Write 2-4 objectives for each major module or unit
• Make sure each objective can be assessed
• Share objectives with students—they need to know the targets too

Going deeper with your learning objectives

Bloom’s Taxonomy provides a valuable framework for thinking about learning across the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains and provides a valuable framework for thinking about different levels of learning, but it is only one of several approaches available to educators. Let’s explore another taxonomy that offers a different perspective on how learning develops and how learning outcomes can be written.

Fink’s Taxonomy

Another widely used framework is Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning, which approaches learning from a different perspective. Rather than organizing learning into domains or levels, Fink’s taxonomy encourages educators to consider the different kinds of meaningful learning experiences they want students to have.

Review the lesson-level learning objectives you developed in the previous activity. Using York University’s handout, Fink’s Taxonomy of Significant Learning as a guide, consider whether there are opportunities to strengthen or expand your objectives to reflect additional dimensions of learning.

As you review your objectives, you may ask yourself:

• Do my objectives focus primarily on knowledge and skills, or do they also encourage learners to make connections between ideas?
• Are there opportunities for learners to apply their learning in meaningful or authentic contexts?
• Do any objectives help learners better understand themselves, others, or their role within a profession, community, or discipline?
• Are there opportunities to foster curiosity, interest, or a deeper appreciation for the subject matter?
• Do my objectives help learners develop strategies for continuing their learning beyond this course?

Based on your reflections, revise one or more of your learning objectives if appropriate. Not every objective needs to address multiple dimensions of significant learning. Instead, consider how the collection of objectives across your course can support a broader range of learning experiences and outcomes.