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DEVELOPING YOUR LECTURE OBJECTIVES
This template will assist in the design/redesign of your lecture objectives. As you
answer the questions, your objectives take shape. Click the hyperlinks for more
detailed information and examples.
Section One – Writing Measurable Learner Objectives:
The first step in writing measurable learner objectives is to answer the question
“What will the students be expected to know by the end of the lecture in order to
demonstrate mastery of content and readiness for the next lecture in the series?”
Writing objectives is a two-step process involving planning and development.
I. Planning: Determine what content needs to be taught.
Before you can write measurable learner objectives, you need information about the
learners and their readiness to tackle the content.
 “How much do they already know?”
 “What are their aptitudes and learning characteristics?”
The place to begin is to complete needs assessment which, in turn, helps plan
content. To determine what content to include in YOUR lecture presentation,
1. list what students are expected to know when they enter classroom
2. list what students should know at the end of the lecture
By “subtracting” what students already know from what they need to know at the
end of the lecture, you determine what information YOU present in the lecture.
Students need to know at the end of a lecture
(minus) What Students already know at beginning of lecture
(equals) What should be covered in the lecture
WORK SECTION:
TYPE YOUR ANSWER AFTER EACH OF THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS (printed in red
type and highlighted with the symbol
):
THIS:
1. List what students should know and do at the
end of this lecture:
MINUS THIS:
2. List what students will likely know at the
lecture:
beginning of the
RESULTS IN THIS:
3. List what
should be covered in the lecture.
However, just because content should be covered doesn’t necessary mean that
YOU need to teach it BECAUSE students will learn from other resources besides the
lecture: practicums, online resources, reading assignments, and library research.
Therefore, take what SHOULD be covered in the lecture and subtract what students
will learn from the other methods . The result is a list of what YOU need to teach in
your lecture.
(minus)
(equals)
What needs should be covered in the lecture (item 3 above)
What students will learn by other methods
What you teach!
4. List content students will learn in practicums.
5. List content students will learn from other sources: text, online,
library resources.
6. List content that is NOT covered in steps 4 and 5. This is what
YOU WILL TEACH in your lecture presentation!
© 2001, Karen Merz: OSU-College of Osteopathic Medicine
II. Development: Now you are ready to write objectives.
Objectives are keyed to what the students need to know, not the chapters in a textbook.
From Step Six in Section One, you now know what concepts you need to teach. For
each of these concepts you will write objectives that tell what students, by the end of
the unit,
 will know and
 at what level of competency.
These main objectives (or Terminal Performance Objectives) represent what the
learner must know in order to have mastered the concept.
Each of the main objectives is achieved by mastering a series of lesser objectives
(Enabling Objectives) that collectively must be achieved to master the main
objective. Each of the EOs, in turn, has EOs as you progress backwards toward the
entry knowledge level of the students.
Example:
CONCEPT# ONE
1 Objective
Enabling Objective 1
Enabling Objective 1-a
Enabling Objective 1-a-(1)…
What students already know about concept
2 Objective…
3 Objective…
CONCEPT #
TWO…
The process of writing the progressive series of enabling objectives helps you focus on
what you need to teach students as distinguished from what they can be expected to
learn on their on or from other sources. The limited amount of lecture time forces
you to concentrate on the essential information. Completing the following worksheet
will help concentrate on the essentials as you organize concepts and their relating
objectives:
1. In the first (left) column enter the concepts (only one in each
square) you plan to teach based on Step 6 of the Planning Section.
CONCEPTS
OBJECTIVES
© 2001, Karen Merz: OSU-College of Osteopathic Medicine
ENABLING
OBJECTIVES*
TEXT
SOURCE(S)
Click here for additional worksheet space for entering concepts, if necessary.
2. In the second column, enter at least three objectives for each
concept. State how students will demonstrate mastery of the lecture material.
Write carefully worded statements (measurable objectives) of what students will be
expected to know at end of the lecture. Write these at the highest cognitive level
expected.
Content is presented at lower cognitive levels early in the lecture and built upon throughout
the lecture. Later assignments and assessments query students at the highest cognitive level
at which content was presented. Content at lower cognitive levels are embedded in the
higher order questions. If students will actually evaluate a process by the end of the lecture,
you wouldn’t include a “define” or “related” level objective in the list since lower cognitive
levels are subsumed in higher cognitive levels for each content area.
Once you have written objectives for the lecture, use this checklist to verify that you
have sufficient representation.
3. In the third column, enter at least three enabling objectives for
each objective. Enabling objectives state what is essential for students to have
learned in order to achieve the performance level expected in the terminal objective.
You continue adding enabling objectives for each higher level enabling objectives
until you reach the students’ entry-level knowledge about the concept.
At this point determine what “level of mastery” in meeting course objectives that the
students need to progress to the next lecture. State the required level of mastery in
general terms – do not restate objectives but explain what students will study to meet
the objectives.
E.g., Successful completion of this lecture with a grade of ____ or above will satisfy…: or “You will
learn…”
4. In the fourth column, enter text and reference sources that will
provide content for your objectives.
© 2001, Karen Merz: OSU-College of Osteopathic Medicine
5. Now determine which topics you will teach to achieve the
objectives by assigning content sources and statements for each enabling
objective. Just remember that what you promise in the objectives section at the
beginning, you must deliver by the end of lecture.
6. To the results of the preceding step, assign the most appropriate
learning (and teaching) methods that will most effectively achieve each objective.
7. Write an overview or description of the lecture here:
© 2001, Karen Merz: OSU-College of Osteopathic Medicine
CONCEPTS AND OBJECTIVES WORKSHEET
CONCEPTS
OBJECTIVES
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© 2001, Karen Merz: OSU-College of Osteopathic Medicine
ENABLING
OBJECTIVES*
TEXT
SOURCE(S)
HYPERLINKED REFERENCES
LEARNER ANALYSIS
A “learner analysis” directly affects the stages of course development. Learner
preferences determine media and format decisions. Learner characteristics dictate
language, style of presentation, choice of examples, size of learning steps, and
sequencing.
Perform a learner analysis to
 Identify those characteristics of the target learners that are relevant to the
design of instruction,
 establish the average set of characteristics and the spread or range, and
 assure that criterion tests are not contaminated by irrelevant factors.
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NEEDS ASSESSMENT
Before developing content for a course, you need to identify, verify, and justify that
the content actually needs to be taught. A needs assessment is done to identify what
should be taught in a unit or course, or “delivered” in a presentation.
Consider what it is that students should be able to know and do that they can’t do
now and couldn’t know or do without your course.
A needs assessment:
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identifies which needs are instructional and which are something else, i.e.,
administrative or procedural;
identifies where the instruction needs to begin;
determines the design of the instruction (teaching approaches);
answers questions of “Why have the instruction?” and “For whom is the
instruction designed?”;
provides a flexible curriculum able to respond to student needs and goals;
helps in the process of assigning priorities to the content; and
assists in obtaining commitments from others for accomplishing goals.
Students arrive “in the classroom” with differing learning goals and needs, which they
expect to have met by the course. A needs assessment helps you develop a
curriculum and activities which are responsive to these learning goals and needs. You
begin “teaching” at the level where students are when they enter the course, not at
some arbitrary entrance level determined by a textbook publisher. (When you select
a text and use chapters to determine units, you give text publishers more authority
then they should have in determining what is important for your students!)
Begin by answering these questions:
© 2001, Karen Merz: OSU-College of Osteopathic Medicine
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What would/should the students already know about the topic? (assessment of
students’ proficiencies at beginning of the course)
What are student’s educational goals?
What are the learners expected to do to demonstrate that they have learned
the content sufficiently?
How will learners demonstrate they have reached mastery level?
When you design your course based on answers to these questions, you build on the
abilities and accomplishments students bring to the course. Students are allowed to
articulate and display what they already know and can do. You select appropriate
course content and activities for the abilities and needs of the students likely to
enroll in the course.
During the course you use needs assessment to ensure that the learner and course
goals are being met. When discrepancies arise, you can make the necessary changes.
At the end of the course you should perform an evaluative assessment to review and
revise the course and plan learning experiences for future students.
After instructional needs have been identified, they should be translated into
instructional objectives that are then ranked in the order of priority. Those
objectives with the highest priority are included in the course while objectives with
lesser priority are included as time and resources allow.
Tools for Gathering Information:
The previous discussion assumed that you already had some information about student
needs and goals. When you do not have the necessary information, you will need to
gather it using some form of assessment: survey questionnaires, interviews, learnercompiled inventories, review of the literature, informal observations of performance,
questioning, or pre-testing.
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DETERMINING COURSE CONTENT
An analysis of content possibilities for the course will
 provide focus on what students need to learn,
 provide guidelines for sequencing and pacing, and
 insure the validity, integrity, and timeliness of all content within a course.
Course subject matter (information, attitude, skills) should be congruent with
learning objectives and student needs, not simply the selection of successive chapters
in a text.
Determine what knowledge, skills, and attitudes should be taught and analyze them
into component parts, which you then sequence appropriately. Determine the main
task or concept. Next, identify the necessary and sufficient sub-tasks. Make the subtask into a main task and repeat the process with each sub-task until you arrive at the
© 2001, Karen Merz: OSU-College of Osteopathic Medicine
entry level of students. Assess the validity, integrity, and “timeliness” of all the
content. Current information should be current. Select material that will not
become obsolete.
Step One:
Begin by listing key or main competencies (content areas) or tasks and identifying the
necessary and sufficient subtasks that directly contribute to each.
Careful selection of content will reflect the most important topics or skills.
Step Two:
For each of the subtasks, repeat the previous process until you reach the entry level
of the target audience. That is where you will begin the course.
Step Three:
Distinguish between essential and optional material…the “need to know: from the
“nice to know” information. Scale down your list to a realistic amount of content
within the confines of the course time limits.
Step Four:
Select sufficient content to make the course challenging but not so much content that
the pace of the course is too rushed. Anticipate which topics might take longer and
where students might have more questions or difficulty learning.
Step Four:
Identify which content students can learn on their own and which you should teach.
Step Five:
Prepare a conceptual framework on which to hang the major ideas and factual
information.
Step Six:
Organize the content in a way that will enhance students learning it: Structurally,
Conceptually, or Learning based.
Step Seven:
Devise a logical arrangement of content for the course:
 chronologically
 topic or category
 abstract to concrete, or concrete to abstract
 theory to application
 principles to theory
 increasing levels of complexity
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© 2001, Karen Merz: OSU-College of Osteopathic Medicine
STUDENT DIRECTED LEARNING
Course material can be presented to students through
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Outside text reading
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Group research and discussion
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“Live” links on your course pages to…
Web sites containing…
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Textual documents
Visual materials
Audio and video
recordings
Reference materials
Personal web pages containing…
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Personal lectures
Notes and papers
Slide show presentations
Graphics, tables, maps
In a sense, you can “create your own text” incorporating a large variety of materials
while not overburden students with high “textbook” costs. So many materials are
freely available via the web.
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WRITING MEASURABLE OBJECTIVES
Objectives help us to
 Clarify exactly what is to be learned or done by when at what levels of
proficiency,
 Determine teaching methods, media, and activities,
 Allocate time,
 Focus attention
 Guide lesson (unit) planning,
 Prioritize learning outcomes,
 Lessen student anxiety about expectations
 Reduce dissatisfaction with topic or methodology
Types Of Objectives:
There are objectives and then there are objectives! Some objectives represent
terminal or “learning” (performance) outcomes, indicating what desired result will be
obtained at the end of some action or activity and how students are expected to
demonstrate learning. Others represent what the learner will “do” in order to reach
the terminal objective - behaviors, attitudes, and skills that the learner must have to
© 2001, Karen Merz: OSU-College of Osteopathic Medicine
demonstrate mastery of the terminal objectives. Still other objectives are behaviors
or actions that you as the teacher perform to effect the terminal objectives. All
three types of objectives are used in developing units.
Terminal/ Performance Objectives:
A performance objective should be tightly defined, clearly informing students about
what must be done, and at what level of performance, in order for them to
successfully achieve the objective. For example, the statement “Students will take a
blood pressure reading…” is not an adequate terminal/ performance objective.
Instead you might write, “Using their own stethoscope and the blood pressure cuffs in
the lab, students will select the appropriate sized blood pressure cuff, correctly
position the cuff and stethoscope, identify the systolic and diastolic karotkov sounds,
and, using patient medical records, accurately assess whether results are normal or
abnormal for the patient.
Question
WHO?
WILL DO WHAT?
GIVEN WHAT?
(conditions)
HOW WELL? (at what
level)
Parts of
Speech
Subject
Verb
Modifier
Object
Description
Who is doing the learning?
Who will perform the objective?
What is the observable,
measurable action?
What conditions will be in
effect when learner performs
action?
What resources will be used?
Are there time or resource
limitations?
Measurement used to
determine the acceptable level
of performance
Answer
Students
Select…
Position…
Identify…
Assess…
Lab cuffs, personal
stethoscope,
Medical records
Activity performed in
lab
Accurately
(100%)
Developing Objectives:
Begin by identifying the key outcome competencies of your course. Then identify the
sub competencies each competency, working backward until you arrive at the entry
level of the students.
Next, prioritize the competencies. Then write objectives for each of the major
competencies and sub competencies until you arrive again at the entry level of the
students. Evaluate the objectives, rejecting any that are trivial. Objectives that call
for memorization of facts are not major outcomes. In fact, such memorization is
embedded in higher-level competency.
Problems in Writing Objectives:
Moderation:
© 2001, Karen Merz: OSU-College of Osteopathic Medicine
Avoid the two extremes in writing objectives, i.e., being either too general/vague or
too specific/rigid. “After viewing this tape, students should be able to write good
objectives” is a descriptive but not specific objective. How is “good” to be
interpreted and evaluated? On the other hand, don’t be too specific as in “After
viewing this tape students should be able to list five ways that the specific level of
performance helps the teacher, giving at least 5 examples of each, including
demographic effects and age advantages.” Huh? The purpose of objectives is to
“make clear” not stupefy students.
Word Choices:
Objectives need ACTION verbs. The verbs commonly used in objectives are “to know”
and “to understand” which are fuzzy terms, open to interpretation. Instead, action
verbs should be used that provide clear, measurable statements of what students will
do or be doing when (s)he obtains the objective.
Vague Verbs: know, understand, appreciate, grasp the significance of…
Action Verbs: explain, describe, differentiate, list, compare, specify, verify…
Avoiding Trivial Outcomes:
Write objectives at the highest cognitive level at which content areas will be covered
throughout the course. Objectives that call for memorization of facts are not major
outcomes.
By completing the table on page 3 of the template, you identify the cognitive levels
of content areas throughout the course that helps in sequencing content and
activities. When you know the outcomes you want students to achieve at within each
unit, you are better able to respond to student comments and questions, answering
questions at progressive levels of detail as course progresses.
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COGNITIVE LEVELS
Cognitive studies focus on how people understand and learn. Students can “know” about a topic at
different levels. Research shows that students remember more when they learn material
presented at the higher cognitive levels.
Bloom’s Taxonomy:
In the 1950’s a team of educational psychologists, headed by Benjamin Bloom, worked on
classifying educational goals and objectives in three domains – the cognitive, the
psychomotor, and the affective. In 1956 the team published what is commonly referred to as
Bloom’s Taxonomy of the Cognitive Domain,* which categorizes the level of abstraction of
questions that commonly occur in educational settings.
Using this cognitive taxonomy, educators can arrange what they want students to
know (the educational objectives) in a hierarchy from least complex to most complex:
Competence:
Skill Demonstrated:
© 2001, Karen Merz: OSU-College of Osteopathic Medicine
Recall or recognition of information, ideas, and principles in the
approximate form in which they were learned
Knowledge
Key word: remember
Action verb cues: list, define, tell, describe, identify, show, label, collect,
examine, tabulate, quote, name, who, when, where, find, locate, recite,
memorize, recognize, repeat, point to, match, pick, choose, state, select,
record, spell, circle, underline…
Translation, comprehension, or interpretation of information based on
prior learning
Comprehension
Key word:
understand
Application
Key word:
solve the problem
Analysis
Key word:
logical order
Action verb cues: summarize, describe, interpret, compare, contrast, predict,
associate, distinguish, estimate, differentiate, discuss, order, group, infer causes
of, predict consequences of, extend, explain, define, translate, relate,
demonstrate, calculate, express in own words, write, review, report,
paraphrase…
Selection, transference, and use of data and principles to complete a
new problem or task with a minimum of direction
Action verb cues: apply, demonstrate, calculate, complete, illustrate, show,
solve, examine, modify, relate, change, classify, experiment, discover, change,
adapt, employ, use, make, construct, compute, prepare, put into action, do…
Distinction, classification, and relation of the assumptions, hypotheses,
evidence, or structure of a statement or question
Action verb cues: analyze, separate, order, explain, connect, classify, arrange,
divide, compare, select, explain, infer, distinguish, categorize, deduce, dissect,
examine, catalog, inventory, outline, chart, survey…
Origination, integration, and combination of ideas into a product, plan or
proposal that is new students
Synthesis
Key word: create
Action verb cues: combine, integrate, modify, rearrange, substitute, plan,
create, design, invent, what it?, compose, formulate, prepare, generalize,
rewrite,
develop, construct, build, assemble, collect, concoct, connect, devise,
hypothesize, imagine, generate, revise, organize, produce…
Appraisal, assessment, or critiques on a basis of specific standards and
criteria
Evaluation
Key word: judge
Action verb cues: assess, decide, rank, grade, test, measure, recommend,
convince, select, judge, explain, discriminate, support, conclude, compare,
summarize, appraise, critique, consider, decide, choose, debate, editorialize,
give opinion, prioritize, value…
© 2001, Karen Merz: OSU-College of Osteopathic Medicine
Research of the last 44 years supports the first four domains of the hierarchy but
puzzles over which of the last two is the most complex: Is synthesis more difficult
than evaluation? Are synthesis and evaluation equal in level of difficulty but use
different cognitive processes?
*Note: Full title: Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of educational goals. Handbook I:
cognitive domain. Authors: B. Bloom, Englehart, E. Furst, W. Hill, and D. Krathwohl.
Evolving Cognitive Theory:
Roots of cognitive theory are found in the research and theory of the 1920’s and 30’s.
During the 1950’s and 60’s, psychologists grew discontented with the inadequacies of
behaviorism to explain the complexities of human learning and attempted to explain
the mental events (cognition) involved in human learning. By the 1970’s, most
learning theorists had joined the cognitive field of thought. Today there are a variety
of perspectives and emphases within cognitive psychology that are currently
impacting educators' thinking about how to improve the teaching/learning process.
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CHECKLIST FOR OBJECTIVES
Description”
Interrelationships among objectives:
Sufficiency
Necessity
Lack of Redundancy
Lack of Triviality
Sequence
Does the list of objectives include a sufficient
number of objectives to assure the
performance of the main task or the
attainment of the goal?
Is each objective necessary for the
performance of the main task or attainment of
the goal?
Does the list avoid restating the same
objective in different formats?
Is each objective higher, or more complex,
than the stated (or implied) entry behavior of
the student?
Are the objectives arranged in an orderly
sequence, if there is one?
Extrinsic Evaluation:
Level of Learning
Is the objective stated at the highest level of
leaning desired?
Step Size
Is the size of the task implied in each objective
optimal for the students?
Level of Specificity
Is the amount of detail in each objective
appropriate for the students?
© 2001, Karen Merz: OSU-College of Osteopathic Medicine
YES
NO
Language
Is the vocabulary and style of language suited
to the students?
Brevity
Does the objective avoid all unnecessary
verbiage?
Intrinsic Evaluation of Individual
Objectives:
Behaviorality
Range
Aids
Standards
Process Impendence
Does the objective specify an unambiguous
student performance or product of that
performance?
Does the objective specify the range of
situations in which the students are to
perform?
Does the objective specify the tools,
equipment, reference materials, job aids, and
expert resources that the student should and
should not use?
Does the objective specify the minimum
criteria for acceptable student performance in
terms of factors such as time limits,
percentage of accuracy, tolerance of errors,
essential terms or concepts, process standards
and expert approval?
Does the objective avoid specifying or implying
any instructional or learning process?
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© 2001, Karen Merz: OSU-College of Osteopathic Medicine