Learning Goals

From eLearning Industry

How to develop and use learning goals

When you are trying to develop and utilize learning goals effectively, there are a few things that you may want to keep in mind:

• Know your target audience
  Having a clear sense of who your audiences truly are, their interests, their current skill sets, and their level of experience is key to determining your learning goals. Find out about their current knowledge base, such as whether or not they know the basics of company processes and procedures. Researching all of these in advance will allow you to not only develop a winning strategy, but finely tune your goals in order to customize each and every element of your eLearning course. You may find valuable the 6 Key Questions To Effectively Analyze Your eLearning Course Audiences article.

• Know the desired outcome
  You need to have an in depth awareness of what your learners want to get out of the eLearning course. Are they trying to master a specific professional skill? Do they need to learn about the policies of a company (i.e. for new employee orientation)? Will they be taking the eLearning course in order to expand their knowledge of a particular subject? Knowing the desired outcome will enable you to create a strategy that encompasses necessary information, tools, and activities. For additional info highly encourage you to read the How to design assessments that promote the learning process article.

• Know how to communicate objectives
  The learners who decide to sign up for your eLearning course should know exactly what they are going to achieve by completing it. So, before beginning the development process, create a statement that describes the learning goals concisely, succinctly, and summarily such as: “Upon completion of this eLearning course you will know how to effectively utilize a point of sale system”, or “Upon completion of this eLearning course you will be able to utilize social media for marketing”. Clearly communicating your goals is just as important as developing them. Be as specific as possible and tell your audience precisely what your eLearning course is going to offer them. I highly encourage you to read the How To Write Aims and Objectives for eLearning Courses article.

How to link learning goals to your eLearning course

Aside from stating the learning goals in the eLearning course description and syllabus, you can link goals to your eLearning course by creating exercises and learning materials based upon pedagogical objectives. Resources and references should tie into the goals themselves, or take the learner closer to achieving the goal. Assessments are also essential, as these will allow you to gauge whether the learner is actually acquiring the information/skills, or if further action need to be taken in order to reach the desired learning goal.

It's important to incorporate periodic recaps into your eLearning course plan or curriculum, as well. For example, after each section completed you can create a summary or exercise that centers around the learning goals. This motivates the learners, as they are consistently reminded of what they will obtain by completing the eLearning course, and also allows them to more effectively retain the information for future use. In addition, try to omit any irrelevant content from the eLearning course, especially if they do not serve directly the learning goals. This extraneous information can lead to cognitive overload and distracts the learner from the core objectives.

While you are creating and implementing your interactive eLearning strategy, it's important to always keep one eye on the learning goals. Never lose sight of what you want learners to get out of the experience, as a whole. Even the most aesthetically pleasing, highly immersive, and well designed eLearning courses simply won't be successful if the primary learning goals aren't achieved.

Looking for more information about how to effectively formulate effective learning objectives? The Use Perfect Learning Objectives To Boost The Quality of your e-Learning article delves into the basics of learning goal creation and how to enhance the quality of your eLearning deliverables, including a detailed explanation of how to write a clear and concise learning objective.