during the qm 11 review process course learning objectives are reviewed in this video we will cover a few common recommendations for reviewing and updating course learning objectives to meet specific quality matter standards for those learning objectives it can be really helpful to think about course learning objectives through three main lenses measurability authenticity and depth of knowledge measurability is a big in the quality matters review standards in this lens it is all about clarity knowing that the action can and will be measured the how of that measurement comes later in the course assignments and activities in measurability avoid terms like learn grasp and even understand as they can be ambiguous and difficult to truly measure authenticity is all about considering how the knowledge gained will be applied in real world contexts as it relates both to the content and to the student depth of knowledge is a major consideration for the quality matters review standards and it is all about the objectives supporting critical thinking moving from lower order thinking skills to higher order thinking skills showing that the level of critical thinking is appropriate for the course level for example a 5 000 level course should show higher levels of critical thinking skills as compared to a 2000 level course many are familiar with bloom’s taxonomy it can be helpful for crafting learning objectives that are measurable and show higher order thinking skills however there are of course critiques of blooms our review does not require the use of a specific taxonomy we’ll talk more about this in a moment another piece to know is that it is highly recommended to have only about three to six total course learning objectives this will help create clarity and focus if you have more than six learning objectives consider if they really might be more module level objectives and not really course level objectives meaning they may dig deeper into specifics and may make more sense that they are an objective for a specific week or a specific topic and not necessarily for the entire course back to bloom’s taxonomy we reference this taxonomy because of its familiarity and ease of use however it is not required to use blooms there are alternative taxonomies available that you can use what is important to note with regard to quality matters review and standards is the ability to move toward higher order thinking skills not having all course level learning objectives be at the remember and understand level blooms can assist with writing learning objectives in a way that is measurable for example students are asked to grasp a concept and instead they will apply a given concept to show comprehension check out the resources we’ve provided on our course quality assurance site for more examples and resources and information let’s run through two quick examples that are from a course on educational technology for educators one thing to note by quality matters standards is that course learning objectives should be written from the learner’s perspective so using this statement by the end of this course students will be able to is the best way to start your learning objectives so let’s take for example old learning objectives from the course that is on educational technology for educators let’s take a look at this first learning objective it’s demonstrate basics and advanced levels of knowledge of internet resources consider in the situation how will demonstrate be measured what is meant by internet resources and is demonstrate really just proof of remembering so here’s an example of what we changed it to evaluate emerging technologies and instructional strategies evaluate gives us higher order thinking this objective isn’t as vague and it provides specific actions that can be measured so let’s check out another example in this example we’re going to look at two specific learning objectives that were listed for the course the first is to plan shoot and edit instructional videos for the classroom and the second was to list storage options for multimedia projects and thinking about these learning objectives plan is in the application realm of critical thinking but for a high level course that isn’t a very high reaching objective also should the ability to list options for storage really be a course level objective we can instead simplify this objective into a single learning objective produce instructional videos production is at the highest level of critical thinking in the realm of creation further to state produce encapsulates the overarching goal on the other hand module or week level goals may include how to plan or storyboard a video project and another week may include how to edit those videos further the old objective of listing multimedia storage doesn’t have to be a course level objective instead this can be attained as one of the steps in the video production process and therefore covered as maybe one of the weak level objectives in addition to how the course learning objectives are written the qm reviewer is asked to assess how the course learning objectives are achieved in the course syllabus template that you will use the course schedule includes a place to identify your course learning objectives that are being tied to that week’s work as part of the qm review the reviewer as mentioned before is asked to assess if the activities assignments and assessments measure the course learning objectives to help evaluate this standard please add the course learning objectives identified for that week or module you can simply put the objectives number from where you listed them in the first few pages of your syllabus please note that putting course level number two for example does not mean that that entire course learning objective will be fully met that week it simply means that the week’s activities are helping to lay the work for that objective to be met by the end of the course as such you will list this objective multiple times in your schedule you are also likely to list more than one objective for each week there are learning objective resources available on our course quality assurance site interested in learning more request a consultation appointment with one of our instructional design team members to discuss learning objectives brainstorm course material and so much more check out our range of services available through the services portal we look forward to working with you