Three Tips to Writing Measurable Objectives for Students

The Online Learning Curve reports:

"Objectives play a fundamental role in designing appropriate instruction. Objectives enable instructors to identify what students should know at the conclusion of an instructional activity, organize instructional activities and [materials, determine] assessment methods of student performance, and create a level of accountability for student performance. To successfully address these four components, the course writer or instructor must write the objectives in a measurable (but not overly prescriptive) manner. The best objectives, especially for online courses, provide enough information to measure student outcomes while also offering instructors sufficient freedom to adjust assessment methods according to the student population and the instructor’s strengths...The Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy classifies measurable verbs into hierarchical levels. Renowned educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom developed the original Bloom’s Taxonomy in 1956. In 2001, a revised version was published, which clarified verb usage and reordered the top two levels...If you are writing objectives for a course syllabus, first review the objectives for the program to which the syllabus belongs. Likewise, if you are writing objectives for a lesson, first review the objectives for the course. In either case, rewrite any objectives that do not meet the criteria of an instructional objective. Doing so enables you to create more appropriate instructional objectives...Break down any existing objectives that have a large scope or require higher-order thinking skills (e.g., hypothesizing) into smaller, more manageable subobjectives. Breaking the objectives down helps you organize and group information for students; it also facilitates smooth content development."