To develop a learning program or lessons you need to include detailed and specific information, based on the subject in question. Of course, all steps of the learning process are required, but setting goals from the start ensures success. The goals must be clear and relevant, but above all, they must be communicated with those who will receive the teaching. Write down your goals and include them in the course plan.
Steps
Part 1 of 3: Plan Your Goals
Step 1. Identify the general purpose of the teaching
Before moving on to anything else, you need to identify the purpose, or desired outcome, of the course. Usually, learning is designed to eliminate gaps in the knowledge or performance of employees or students. These gaps represent the difference between students' current skills or knowledge and what they need to achieve. Determine what you want to achieve from the course and go from there to complete the list of learning objectives.
- For example, imagine that your business needs to teach accountants how to register a new type of checking account offered to customers. The purpose of the course is to teach staff how to record new voice efficiently and accurately.
- The gap in the performance of the accountant is the lack of knowledge about the new service.
Step 2. Describe the expected performance
The activity taught during the training must be well defined. A written goal must contain concrete and measurable action. Use words that clearly explain to students what they need to do, avoiding all ambiguous or subjective terms.
For the above example, the task is to post the new accounting entry
Step 3. Explain the conditions under which the activity will be carried out
A goal must include a description of the circumstances. Provide details explaining under what conditions the activity will take place. In other words, what must happen before the action can be completed? Include what tools and aids you need, including textbooks, forms, tutorials, and more. If the activity is outdoors, you need to consider the climatic conditions as well.
For the above example, the conditions are a customer purchase with the new account type. Also, another condition may be that the accountant must know how to record the item in the company's accounting program
Step 4. Set standards
Describe what students are expected to consider to have achieved their learning objectives. You must communicate the minimum acceptable standards in the written learning objectives. Define how these standards will be measured and evaluated.
- The standards will be performance goals, such as completing the task in a certain time, doing a certain percentage of actions right, or completing a certain number of tasks in an interval or with a certain difficulty.
- Learning standards usually don't require you to master an activity perfectly.
- For the above example, you should require employees to record entries accurately and quickly.
Part 2 of 3: Writing Goals
Step 1. Use clear and direct language
Write goals so that they express a clear and measurable goal. In other words, don't use passive or indirect terms, such as "understanding" or "some". Instead, prefer direct sentences that indicate specific numbers or actions that need to be learned. This way the rest of the course, including materials, methods and content, will be consistent.
- In addition, this type of language allows you to better evaluate the success of the training.
- Clear objectives give students the opportunity to evaluate their progress, to know what to expect from the course and its results.
- For the accountant example mentioned elsewhere in the article, an example goal is as follows: "The accountant will be able to post current account entries successfully."
Step 2. Link Goals to Real World Events
Goals are better understood if they are contextualized. Always include what must happen for an employee or student to take the action in question. Then, link the activity to the desired result in the real world. This helps pupils to keep the right perspective on what they are learning.
For the previous example, the new account type may have been introduced to complement a new customer service designed to increase sales with repeat consumers. The correct entry of this data must be considered essential for the financial prosperity of the business
Step 3. Describe specifically what is considered a standard level of performance
This should be a precise value. It can be the percentage of correct actions, the speed with which the activity must be performed, or another measurable parameter. In all cases, this value should be clearly specified in the target.
In the example above, accountants may need to learn how to enter items with 100% accuracy. For other businesses, the percentage may be lower, but accounting should be as close to perfect as possible
Step 4. Write very concise goals
They shouldn't go beyond a sentence. That way they will be short and easy to understand. Any activities that require multiple sentences or are too complex can be broken down into smaller actions. Otherwise it would be more difficult to teach and quantify them.
In the example above, think about the basics. It is sufficient to write that the accountant must register the new current accounts with an accuracy of 100%, using the program currently provided
Part 3 of 3: Make the Targets Quantifiable
Step 1. Use the SMART acronym to make sure you can evaluate your learning objectives
SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound. This system has been used by corporations, government leaders, and professional training managers to establish and teach effective training programs.
- Specific: Clearly state what the learner with specific goals should be able to do. All goals must be well defined and not subject to debate or interpretation.
- Measurable: Observe and quantify behavior with measurable goals. The milestones must be the same for all students and subject to a standardized assessment.
- Attainable: Make sure the activity or action can be learned with attainable goals. Imposing impossible goals for students demoralizes them and does not lead to satisfactory results.
- Relevant: Determine that this is an important and necessary activity with relevant goals. There must be no arbitrary or optional elements in the activities included in the objectives.
- Time-bound (with a deadline): Set deadlines within the reach of students and schedules with fixed-deadline objectives. Effective goals have no elements without a time horizon. Set and enforce deadlines.
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Using the accountant example from the previous part, you can apply the SMART acronym as follows:
- Specific: The accountant must be able to post current account transactions.
- Measurable: The accountant must record transactions correctly 100% of the time.
- Attainable: The accountant's actions are not that different from those required by current services.
- Relevant: the activity of the accountant is fundamental to the accounting procedures of the company.
- Time-bound (with expiration): the accountant must learn to enter the new items by March 1st.
Write Training Objectives Step 10 Step 2. Avoid writing goals that cannot be measured
Try not to include milestones that cannot be measured objectively, such as making a student "like" or "notice" something. While these are undoubtedly important results, you would have no way of measuring teaching success.
In the example above, you shouldn't write "the accountant must know how the new entries are made". Rather, it uses a more direct language, such as "must be able to record new voices"
Write Training Objectives Step 11 Step 3. Include a goal for the assessment
Evaluate the students' work and give them the opportunity to do the same with the training. Some parts of the course should include a test of the knowledge learned while teaching. After all, notions are useless without experience and practice. Remember that it can take a lot of repetitions before performance standards are reached.
In the example above, you should provide accountants with many hypothetical examples of transactions of the new type and ask them to record them correctly
Write Training Objectives Step 12 Step 4. Finish the learning objectives
By following all the criteria described in the article, refine the objectives until you get the exact result you want. Again, make sure all aspects of the milestone are clear and measurable.
In the example above, you could write: "The accountant, using the company's existing accounting program, must be able to post new account items with 100% accuracy by March 1"
Advice
- Make sure everyone can see the goals. If you communicate them during a meeting or presentation, write them on a billboard or project them on a screen. If the goals are part of a book or manual, dedicate a page to their description.
- Ask other people for their opinion after writing the learning objectives. Talk to teaching experts to make sure your goals are clearly formulated.
