How to Create Effective Learning Objectives for Online Courses

How to Create
Online Course Development
Effective Learning Objectives
Synergy, Innovation and Creativity

Learning Objectives are an important component
of eLearning. These are what students should know, be
able to do and under what circumstance at the
completion of the unit or course.
www.synotive.com | connect@synotive.com | 1300 894 506

 Learning Objectives help define the below much clearly.
 They set the guidelines for what knowledge and skills should be taught
and what students should learn
 Lead to what the learners need to be assessed on
 They determine what learning experiences the learner needs and the
type of eLearning strategies to employ
 Set up assessments to reconfirm objectives are achieved and where the
skill gaps are

Let’s take the following scenario below to create
learning objectives.
Client Giant Telecom Provider
Course Implementing Payment Plans
Target Audience Credit Officers
Client Goal
To ensure that credit officers are equipped with the
knowledge and skills to organise, calculate and create
payment plans.

 At the end of this course, the learner will be able to:
 Identify the root cause of late payments leading to arranging payment plans
 Calculate the minimum repayment amount required under a payment plan
 Discuss the various options available to arrange a payment plan
 Create a payment plan for the client
 Recommend steps to the client for avoidance of late fees

So, now we have 5 learning objectives. Let’s take a
closer look at each of them and dissect it further.

Identify the root cause of late payments
leading to arranging payment plans
1

The learner needs to be made aware of how to identify
the root cause? Will they be presented with real life
examples? Will they be presented with research findings?
Will there be presented with images or scenario based
learning?

How will they help with resolving the issue? Will there be
a case study or a scenario based learning concept? Will
there be principles presented to show how to resolve the
issue.

Discuss the various options available
to arrange a payment plan
2

What type of options?
What are payment plans? Are the learners aware of what
payment plans are? If not, a section on payment plans has
to be introduced otherwise the leaner will not be able to
know or help the client on the types of options available
Do you just present facts, or can you introduce characters
and create a simulation?

Calculate the minimum repayment amount
required under a payment plan
3

How will the learner calculate? How will you best
articulate this in the eLearning? Again, does your target
audience know what a payment plan is? If no, do you need
to create a section and explain the governing laws of what
they can and cannot offer the client? Has the client
provided you this information?

Create a payment plan for the client
4

Create? Create in excel, create in word. Do you need to
offer a simulation or an example sheet in the course so
that the learner can acquire the skill to do this at the end
of the course? Do you add an assessment based on this to
test their understanding of how to create a payment plan?
Can you include resources in the resource tab?

Recommend steps to the client for
avoidance of late fees
5

Recommend? How do you recommend steps to the client?
Will steps be shown in the eLearning course? What are
late fees? Do the learners have an awareness of what is
deemed as late fees? If no, it has to be presented in the
eLearning course.

Now, having further expanded the Learning Objective, it
becomes clear that there is something missing. Some of
the objectives do not clearly define under what
circumstance the learner should know and be able to do
something.

This is something many eLearning specialist can debate
about but it really depends on the overall goal of the
course. If you feel that you need to state this, then you
have to ensure that this statement can be assessed and
sometimes, in an online learning course it is almost
impossible to do unless there is a face to face training or
assessor who can validate this.

 To illustrate my point, let’s go back to this learning objective
 To illustrate my point, let’s go back to this learning objective
 To illustrate my point, let’s go back to this learning objective

If I create the second learning objective, how will this be
assessed within the online eLearning framework? This will
be an external assessment the client will have to perform
to ensure that the learner can really complete this activity
in 5 minutes.

Learning objectives are there to help guide the process of
course development and to ensure you stay in line and
meet your client expectations.
Remember, the moment a learner clicks on the start
button, there are there to learn; either something new or
going through something they already know in a little
more detail. It is up to you and your ability to identify the
target audience, what they are supposed to be learning
and how it can be measured.

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Email: info@synotive.com
Website: www.synotive.com
Phone
1300 894 506 Synergy, Innovation and Creativity

How to Create Effective Learning Objectives for Online Courses

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