Developing a new course - or revising an existing course - often begins with drafting course goals and learning objectives.

• Course goals describe what you want to teach your students.
• Learning objectives describe what you can see them do as a result of the course.

For example, one goal of a literary theory course might be to familiarize students with various schools of thought and approaches to literature; a learning outcome for that same course might call for students to identify and compare the assumptions about meaning or language within three or four different schools of literary criticism.

Clearly written course goals and learning objectives provide a roadmap through the course content. As the instructor designs the course, the course goals guide selection of material and the learning objectives guide the selection of ways to assess student learning.

Strategies and Resources

• Sample learning objectives from multiple disciplines (From Carnegie Mellon University).
• Writing learning objectives using precise and measurable student centered outcomes (From the University of Texas).
• Aligning your course learning objectives with instructional techniques and assessment techniques (From Carnegie Mellon University).
• Writing learning outcomes using the ABCD method: “'A' is for audience, 'B' is for behavior, 'C' for conditions and 'D' for degree of mastery needed.” (From Penn State).

Instructional Design and Development

• Writing course goals and learning objectives for online, hybrid, or web-enhanced courses.
• Identify and design learning activities and assessment tools to help online students achieve learning objectives.

Office for Teaching, Learning and Assessment

• Resources on writing learning objectives
• List of learning goals for schools, departments and liberal studies domains and for the university