When creating a plan or a project, it is important to have an outcome or goal by which to measure an accomplishment or an ending to work toward. In academia, there are program goals, course learning objectives, and student learning outcomes. While the terms goals, objectives, and outcomes can be misunderstood and have been interchangeable, they are different.  

Goals vs. Objectives vs. Outcomes 

There is a hierarchy to these terms, with goals at the top, objectives in the middle, and outcomes at the bottom. Goals are written to describe what the students can expect from the institution, the program, or the instructor; whereas outcomes describe what an instructor can expect from a student at the end of the identified learning prompt (Depaul University Center for Teaching and Learning, n.d., para. 4). Objectives fall in the middle and are what the instructor plans to implement to support learning. Goals are not measurable, objectives can be but do not have to be, and outcomes are (Depaul University Center for Teaching and Learning, n.d., para. 6). For the learning experience to be measurable, it lists an action that can be assessed, and it specifically describes what students are to accomplish.  Lastly, goals are broad, objectives are intermediate, and outcomes are narrow in the scope of learning.  

Learning	Specificity	Measurability	Expectations	Taxonomy	Example
GOALS – What students can expect from the provider of learning	Broad	Not	Students of the provider of learning	Bloom’s Taxonomy learning goals	To introduce how to thoroughly research, plan, and write a business plan for a newly developed phone application
OBJECTIVES – What specifically do the instructors plan to implement to support learning	Intermediate	Maybe	Instructors of students	Bloom’s Taxonomy learning goals or associated action verbs	Students will learn how to conduct a competitive analysis for their new phone application
OUTCOMES – What an instructor can expect from a student at the end of the identified learning prompt	Narrow	Yes	Instructors of students	Bloom’s Taxonomy associated action verbs	Students will compare up to 4 competitors for their phone application

 

Any of these specific terms can fulfill several distinct aspects of a course:  

• Performance indication: to assess if learning has occurred, through measurable actions. Particularly important for Quality Matters reviews and institutional accreditation. 
• Course design: to guide the inclusion of integral pieces used in a course to best facilitate learning.  
• “Establish pedagogical interchange”: so that both instructors and students know what to expect from the course (Armstrong, 2010, para. 14). 
• Course Alignment: to establish guidelines to connect learning materials and activities back to.  

Objectives to Outcomes 

Learning Objectives are great starting points for a course, which can help to navigate the design and development of a course. They are a fundamental step in the process of mapping your course and writing your learning outcomes. When possible, faculty can first write measurable course learning objectives, then write student learning outcomes for the learning experiences (units, modules, weeks), activities (labs, projects, etc.), and materials (lectures, video presentations). 

Learning outcomes are great ways to steer the student learning experience. They are written with the specific action a student is to complete for a task. These action verbs can be used to describe the expectations for the accomplishment. These verbs are based on Bloom’s Taxonomy. 

Bloom’s Taxonomy  

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a series of learning goals organized into a pyramidal framework, where the lowest level is at the base and the highest level is at the tip. These goals are remembering (base), understanding, applying, evaluating, and creating (tip). The framework was originally proposed by several scholars in 1956 and has since been used as the standard in education for learning objective and outcome design ever since (Armstrong, 2010).  

With the change in the educational landscape to online learning, there is now a framework that caters to digital learning. While the learning goals have remained, the activities associated have been modified over the years to suit the ever-changing educational landscape. For instance, under the creating goal, an in-person course may have activities like building a structure and drawing an image, while the online course would have to start a blog and design an interactive game. SCSU has access to tools, programs, and apps that can be used for each level of Bloom’s Taxonomy. They can be used to promote student engagement and interactivity with the learning material. Any of them could be accessed, developed, and easily integrated into D2L or the web browser.  

      (Image adapted from Ray, 2021)

Tips for Designing Measurable Student Learning Outcomes 

1. Consider how you can accurately measure the outcome. Will it be assessed by an assignment or assessment? Will one outcome be foundational to another one? This can help with guidance toward an appropriate action verb.  
2. View Bloom’s Taxonomy goals as starting points, then pick an action verb associated with it to write the outcome. This allows you to steer away from unmeasurable or hard-to-measure verbs such as “learn,” “know,” “understand” or “explore.”   
3. Use action verbs for all goal levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Try not to rely too much on the lowest level or the highest level. To make sure that the course has a balance of expectations for students to achieve.  
4. Write outcomes that are specific and clear about what to expect from the students. Providing outcomes with easy-to-interpret language ensures that students are more capable of understanding them. 
5. Write singular outcomes instead of split outcomes, which contain 2 or more verbs. This loads up the outcome and can make it more complex to understand. 

To help easily incorporate these tips and more, use the acronym S.M.A.R.T: 

• Specific 
• Measurable 
• Achievable  
• Relevant 
• Time-bound 

Whether you are creating course objectives or student learning outcomes, the need to use Bloom’s Taxonomy and make them S.M.A.R.T. is pivotal to student learning. The SCSU Online and Distance Learning team can provide guidance and tools to get you on the right track. Reach out to us via email  or through Bookings .  

Additional Reading: 

For more information on adding interactive applications to a course, check out this previous blog post. 

For more information on course mapping, check out this previous blog post.  

 

References: 

Armstrong, P. (2010). Bloom’s taxonomy. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/   

Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2007). Practical use of program evaluation among sexually transmitted disease (STD) programs. https://www.cdc.gov/std/program/pupestd.htm   

Depaul University Center for Teaching and Learning. (n.d.) Course objectives & learning outcomes. Teaching Commons. https://resources.depaul.edu/teaching-commons/teaching-guides/course-design/Pages/course-objectives-learning-outcomes.aspx#:~:text=Learning%20goals%20and%20objectives%20generally,%2C%20project%2C%20or%20unit  

Great Schools Partnership. (2014, May 15). Learning objectives. The Glossary of Education Reform. https://www.edglossary.org/learning-objectives/   

Koppens, Y. (2018). Person holding silver retractable pen in white ruled book [Photograph]. Pexels.  https://www.pexels.com/photo/person-holding-silver-retractable-pen-in-white-ruled-book-796603/   

Ray, K. (2021, February 16). Updating Bloom’s Taxonomy for Digital Learning. Tech & Learning. https://www.techlearning.com/news/updating-blooms-taxonomy-for-digital-learning