Speaker 1: In this video we will be discussing learning objectives and alignment. Let's start this presentation with a quick and easy explanation of the difference between learning objectives and competencies. Learning objectives say what we want the learners to know and competencies say how we can be certain they know it. We will get into more details as we move along in the presentation, but for now let's take a look at the definition of a competency. A competency is the capability to apply or use a set of related knowledge, skills, and abilities required to successfully perform critical work functions or tasks in a defined academic or work setting. The important part of this statement are the words knowledge, skills, and abilities. I like to think of a competency as the big picture that tells the story of what the student should be able to do, know, and apply once they are done with a program, a degree, or even a training. In contrast, the learning objectives should be specific measurable statements that are written in behavioral terms. The objective lets us know if the assessment criteria were met and if aligned correctly we then know that the competency was met. Let's talk about objective alignment. I often get asked if learning objective alignment really matters and my answer is yes. It is important for so many reasons. One reason is that you want to make sure you are teaching and assessing the skills, knowledge, and application of the program competencies and goals. Another reason is to make sure that the students are gaining the knowledge through instructional activities, completing an assessment that proves they met that learning objective, writing learning objectives effectively. You will want to make sure there is one measurable verb in each objective. The first example is describe the history of public health. The second example I am showing you is describe and create a marketing plan for your organization. In this one, there are two measurable verbs. I now have made the learning objective harder to assess because I have two things that I am assessing and they fall under different Bloom's Taxonomy levels in the cognitive domain. As you can see, there are two different levels. One is a lower level and one is higher on Bloom's Taxonomy. So what happens if I clearly describe but I don't create or vice versa? How will you decide if this objective is met? What would it mean if it was partially met? Would you consider it met or not? So this kind of opens up some gray areas. So this type of objective then becomes more subjective and it is best just to avoid multiple verbs. Also, I want to caution you on using the word understand in a learning objective. Understand is actually a domain in Bloom's Taxonomy and not a measurable verb. One person's definition of understanding a subject will vary from another's and this makes it very subjective. Instead, find a verb like define, describe, discuss that will allow you to see how they understand. Another pitfall is selecting lower level Bloom's Taxonomy verbs for the assessment when the assessment clearly meets higher level criteria. Let's take this assessment as an example. So in this assessment, students will interview a community organization and create a public health intervention. I'm going to go ahead and show you how the different levels fit into this assessment. My first example is under the remember domain and it's choose a community-based public health intervention. The next one is discuss a community-based public health intervention and it's under the understand domain. Under the apply domain, I have apply a community-based public health intervention. Under analyze, I have examine a community-based public health intervention. Under evaluate, recommend community-based public health interventions. And finally, under the top level create, I have design a community-based public health intervention. Create is the highest level and it fits the assessment well. So we should select it for our action verb. And although the objective does not include the choose, discuss, and apply, we already know that they must have those lower level skills in order to create the higher level assessment. Not all assessments will reach the top levels and that is okay. You just want to make sure that most of your learning objectives are falling in the top four levels. Let's go ahead and talk about alignment now. You want to make sure that everything you do aligns together to give your students an optimal learning environment. Your competency or goals should align with your assessment, which should align with your learning objective and your instructional activities. As you can see with this example, I align the assessment infographic to the generate a culturally competent communication tool for a specific audience learning objective. That aligns with the selected communication strategy competency. When I look at the alignment, I can see that the instructional activities are also a good fit with the learning objective. The learning objective fits the assessment and the competency fits well with the learning objective and the assignment. So everything is well aligned. And now it's time to take a look at the four parts of a learning objective. The four parts are condition, who, behavior, and criterion. Now let's go ahead and start building some objectives using four parts. We will start with the condition. The condition is student-centered and describes the conditions under which the learner will be expected to perform in the evaluation situation. For example, after the completion of this model is one and given a set of data is another condition. Next up is the who. Who will be completing the learning experience? In our two objectives that we're building, the first example is the participant and the second example will be the student. Now it's time to use Bloom's Taxonomy to complete the behavior section of the objective. Once you have the concept and the activity assessment idea, you can look through the verbs and select the appropriate one for the assessment and apply the behavior and action to your learning objective. In example one, we have write three learning objectives using the four parts. And in example two, we have interpret the computer output. And finally, we add the criterion to the objective. Here are some examples. So for example, if you want to have it speed, you could do under 60 seconds and less than five minutes. If it's an accuracy, you can give a range. No more than three incorrect answers, correctly, 10 out of 12. If it's quality, you could do exceeding eight out of 10 standards or for a total of three times. If it's quantity, you can use producing 12 items, writing at least 100 words, and so on. And now we have finished writing our objectives by adding the criterion. In example one, we added correctly. And in example two, we added with no errors. So we have two complete objectives using four parts on the screen right now. And in summary, I want to share some important take-home points for you. The first is your learning objective has four parts, the condition, who, behavior, and criterion. I also want to let you know that there are times you might not use the criterion and you might write a three-part objective. It just depends on the situation. Another take-home point is to use one measurable action verb per learning objective. And last but not least is to remember alignment. Alignment does matter. And thank you for watching.