A learning objective is a statement on the skills, knowledge, and attitudes (Dick & Carey, 1978) students will be able to achieve when they have completed a portion of your course, such as a unit of instruction or assignment. They should be student-centered, measurable, and observable, and clearly stated so that students and instructors understand what is expected and will be measured; they may define the conditions under which performance or achievement of the objectives will be measured (Nilson 2010; Fink 2013; Wiggins & McTighe 2005; Linder 2017).

Learning objectives serve as a roadmap for your instructional choices when you develop and deliver a course. They support academic staff in choosing pertinent subject matter, resources, teaching methods, exercises, and evaluations. These elements should all be in line with the objectives of the course. When submitting a course proposal, instructors must include official learning goals and objectives. They may also be listed in the course catalog and on the syllabus.

Four primary factors that make creating learning objectives important. 1) Because they can create a logical progression of learning milestones, the faculty can effectively organize the course material. 2) The faculty can also quickly match objectives with evaluation techniques. 3) In order to help students evaluate themselves, the teacher might explain expectations to them. 4) Finally, objectives might be connected among students’ courses. The student may determine, rather than just assume, whether they have learned and understood the lessons thanks to the objectives.

The difference and relationship between learning goals and objectives 

For instance, if you wanted to teach students how to evaluate theories of state formation, your course objective might read something like this: “By the end of this course, students should be able to write an essay that explains one major theory of state formation and makes an argument about how well it describes the historical experience of a relevant country.”

Types of learning goals 

In general, learning goals are the touchstones when instructors design a course, which can be described as what a course is about. Based on the nature of a course, learning goals can be simply classified as cognitive goals, psychomotor goals, affective goals, and interpersonal/social goals.    

Goal Type	Goal Definition	Example
Cognitive	Having to do with knowledge and mental skills.	Introduce cultural elements representing a modern city
Psychomotor	Having to do with physical motor skills.	Able to cook a typical Chinese food
Affective	Having to do with feelings and attitudes.	Demonstrate a positive attitude toward non-discrimination of race
Interpersonal/Social	Having to do with interactions with others and social skills.	Able to define and identify bullying behaviors in school

Another classification of learning goals was developed by Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in terms of learning ability and how learning occurs. The RIT’s five learning goals consider the learning abilities emerging in the more modern and complicated society. 

1. Critical Thinking: critical thinking is learning to think, analyze, and interpret the information, evidence, arguments and theories, and the contexts in which these are encountered.
2. Global Interconnectedness: refers to the ability to understand and function in an increasingly multicultural, international, yet interconnected environment.
3. Ethical Reasoning: the learning process of ethical principles and application of them to understand and critically engage the ethical dimensions of thought, knowledge, and behavior.
4. Integrative Literacies: describe the integration, connection, and linkage through serious inquiry and collaborative learning of six core areas of literacy: science, computation or digital, mathematics, communication, technical, and aesthetic.
5. Creative and Innovative Thinking: advanced cognitive process that imagine new possibilities.

Depending on a learning situation, learning goals can also be defined as

1. Short-term goals
2. Long-term goals
3. Work-habit goals: these goals depend less on what’s being worked on and more on how the student is working.
4. Subject area goals: instructors and students identify  which subject requires the most extra attention and go from there.
5. Behavioral goals: these goals include getting along better with classmates, practicing patience, being quiet when needed, and so on.
6. Specific knowledge goals: a specific knowledge goal can be set at any time and in any class setting.  It is related to the evaluation of learning process and so instructors or students choose what need to be improved or focused more.  This goal happens most when students have personalized learning initiatives.

Types of learning objectives 

Unlike learning goals describing learning from a macro level with general aims, learning objectives articulate the specific and measurable things students will be able to know or do upon completing a course.

Bloom’s taxonomy is the most famous learning objective category.

The original taxonomy was developed by Benjamin Bloom with collaborators Max Englehart, Edward Furst, Walter Hill, and David Krathwohl in 1956.  The authors created a progressive, leveled framework of six categories (from low to high thinking level)

1. Knowledge “involves the recall of specifics and universals, the recall of methods and processes, or the recall of a pattern, structure, or setting.”
2. Comprehension “refers to a type of understanding or apprehension such that the individual knows what is being communicated and can make use of the material or idea being communicated without necessarily relating it to other material or seeing its fullest implications.”
3. Application refers to the “use of abstractions in particular and concrete situations.”
4. Analysis represents the “breakdown of a communication into its constituent elements or parts such that the relative hierarchy of ideas is made clear and/or the relations between ideas expressed are made explicit.”
5. Synthesis involves the “putting together of elements and parts so as to form a whole.”
6. Evaluation engenders “judgments about the value of material and methods for given purposes.”

The recent taxonomy moves knowledge out of the category but considers it as the basis of learning process, and creates a separate taxonomy for knowledge: factual (elements), conceptual (classification, theory, etc.), procedural (algorithms, criteria, etc.), and metacognitive (strategies).

Comparison of similar but confusing terms

Some expressions are often used interchangeably with learning objectives.  However, those concepts may have significant differences in a context.

Concepts	Similarity	Difference
Learning Outcomes	Both describes the specific, measurable knowledge and skills that the learner will gain	Learning objectives are often viewed from instructor’s perspective.  While learning objectives are more from learners’ perspective
Learning Results	Same as above.  In addition, both are criteria based.  And can be evaluated as successful or failure.	Objectives are expectations on what to achieve.  Results are more detailed jobs or tasks and they help to understand whether objectives are met.
Learning Targets	Same as above	Learning targets are often viewed from instructor’s perspective.  While learning objectives are more from learners’ perspective
Learning Competencies	Both describe what students are expected to gain from a course or program.	Competencies are more related to applied skills that enable people to complete a specific task or function in a working/educational setting.  Objectives are general statements of what students can do or know after completing a course/program.

What makes a good/smart learning objective?

Learning objectives are the most important piece to be released to students at the beginning of a class because they guide them to understand the course scope, desired skills, and grade composition.  These objectives should be statement of measurable results to help students identify the learning progress. They also define the boundaries and criteria of assessment, evaluation and other learning activities.

A well-composed learning objective needs to comply with the following criteria: 

• Start with who, such as I/we/students in this class.
• Describe an expectation that will be achieved in future, such as will or can.
• SMART objectives: learning objectives should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.
• Consistency: The module-/unit-level learning objectives are set consistent with the course- or institute-level objectives
• The objective statement sets up connections with learning activities or assessments in the course