Learning objectives are the most effective when they are centered around learner success. They should communicate to the audience what they can expect to learn by the end of each session. Effective learning objectives are brief, specific, measurable, and easily accessible for your learners. At Elentra, our comprehensive health professions education platform gives learners, faculty, and staff quick insight into all things course-related, including learning objectives.

But we aren’t just a platform. We partner with our member institutions to offer support to every area of your program. And, since improving learner outcomes is a top priority for all health profession programs, let’s start with some tips for writing clear and effective learning objectives.

Include Specific Take-Aways

Learners should have a clear understanding of what they will learn or be able to do after each event or session. Before you write your lesson's goals, ask yourself: What do you want the audience for this event to be able to do when they leave? More specifically, what skills or knowledge do you want your learners to be able to use in a clinical setting?

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) recommends giving learners a way to gauge their own progress in terms of what they've learned by giving them specific key points or takeaways from each class session. 

Consider starting each objective with “After attending this session, learners should be able to…” Then, include specific takeaways from the content. 

Define Appropriate Skills

Great learning objectives are only effective if they can be observed and measured. In other words, you need to be able to see if learners have comprehended the material, as well as the depth to which they actually grasp it. When planning objectives, think about how you plan to gauge learner performance. The AAMC suggests linking each key point to performance using action verbs. Based on Bloom’s Taxonomy, the verbs should describe an action that is:

• Measurable
• Observable
• Specific to the desired level of knowledge or skills

Check for Desired Outcome

Once clear objectives are written, it's important to assess whether they are being met. This calls for some monitoring and adjustments to each objective. The goal is to fine-tune each session's objectives so that they align with participants’ learning. Try the following:

• Monitor learner assessments to ensure learning objectives are being met.
• Adjust each objective and/or lesson to maintain curriculum standards.
• Revisit this process with each course session.

Our experienced team at Elentra has designed our platform to help you track learner progress in real time. Contact us today so we can help you focus on what you do best – educating the healthcare professionals of the future.