Writing Learning Objectives

Valerie Smothers
Director of Communications
MedBiquitous Consortium
Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Last Updated: 17 August 2005

Learning Objectives define the purpose of a unit of instruction and describe what the learner should be able to do, know, or feel at the end of the instruction. Objectives are typically grouped into one of three domains: cognitive, focusing on knowledge; psychomotor, focusing on hands-on procedures and skills; and affective, focusing on attitudes. Most often, a learning objective begins with the following statement:

By the end of this course, the learner will be able to…

Behavioral learning objectives follow this statement with a description of a behavior that the learner should be able to demonstrate by the end of the course. For example:

…identify the appropriate dosage of antimicrobial prophylaxis for a patient…

Typically this statement uses verbs that describe actions, such as define, describe, identify, apply, interpret, analyze, plan, and evaluate.

This statement may be followed by qualifying statements that specify an acceptable level of performance or conditions of performance. For example:

…using a dose calculation tool or table.

Learning Outcomes are increasingly being used as an alternative to learning objectives within medical education. Learning Outcomes describe the broader goals of a unit of instruction relevant to clinician performance and patient health rather than deconstructing those goals into specific behaviors. For example:

The new graduate knows how to plan health promotion taking into account barriers to preventing disease and promoting health both in the individual and the population. (The Scottish Doctor Outcomes)

Links and Resources

Morrison, Ross, and Kemp. Designing Effective Instruction, Wiley, 2001.

Major Categories In The Taxonomy Of Educational Objectives
http://faculty.washington.edu/krumme/guides/bloom1.html
[Last accessed 17 August 2005].

Harden, RM. Developments in Outcome-based Education
http://www.iime.org/documents/harden.htm
[Last accessed 17 August 2005].