Learning objectives that are SMART

Aug 11, 2011

Good morning,

I'm developping a training for underwritters. The company I work for is going through an acquisition and the underwritters will be going through conversion. (Conversion of systems and knowlege and procedures). This training will mostly be technical.

I was wondering if anyone could give me some examples of learning objectives that are SMART? I'm going around in circles  : (

Thanks!

Julie

3 Replies
Bob S

Hi Julie,

I don't usually write learning objectives quite that way (better for project goals and personal development IMHO), however here is how I might apply it to learning objectives...

Situation:

New product from ABC company  is introduced and management wants salespeople to increase sell-through by X percentage. Through analysis you identify a couple of particular objectives (goals) that will lead to that result. You align your learning objectives with those goals...

Objective #1 - Learn why the new product was devoloped and for whom

  • S - Understand and be able to identify the two best customer segments to pitch the new product to
  • M - Be able to recognize those customers when presented with scenarios in the course
  • A - Learn and be able to recognize the 3 major traits for customer segment #1, then learn and be able to recognize the 2 major traits for customer segment #2
  • R - Using those traits Identify which of your existing personal customers fit the likely profile
  • T - Complete all of the above by/within X date or X time after Y
Steve Flowers

Writing SMART objectives really depends quite a bit on your context, no? Two of the toughest qualities to work around If you're writing objectives to transition into the digital environment tend to be "measurable" and "realistic". Specific, assignable, and time-limited are usually pretty easy to translate. Though for many of the conceptual and enabling performance measurements, time-limited may not be critical.

If you're targeting the digital environment, knowing the challenges and opportunities presented by a digital environment and your resources within the digital environment (skills of your design and development teams) will help you frame up measurable and reallistic objectives. Most folks see eLearning as a transport channel for information. This is fairly myopic and limiting. The medium is capable of supporting complex practice of tasks requiring decision-making or problem solving. When properly designed, eLearning stuff can compete on par or better than alternate methods including the classroom and lab. It may not be reasonable from a cost perspective, nor possible given your team, but neither of these are limitations of the medium.

Among the greatest strengths of the digital environment is the opportunity for ample practice of "thinking tasks", or cognitive / covert tasks, and the formation of mental models.The success of practice opportunities, in my opinion, presented in the digital environment is largely dependant on the discovery of these cognitive tasks and explication of mental models during your pre-design analysis. Accurate definition of these cognitive / covert tasks is critical to the accurate definition of instructional objectives, meaningful activities, and ultimately the successful acquisition of real-world skills using eLearning tools.

Here's an example of a breakdown:

What we want the learner to do

What the learner is thinking about

·         Safely energize the XYZ system. (Application: Operate)

 

This action implies a clearly observable and measurable outcome.

 

We can emulate this process and provide variable practice and feedback for the task, but we might want to break this down into cognitive tasks to provide better input to our design.

 

This would be broken down into steps that represent the process. Each step might include an associated set of covert tasks.

·         Evaluate the current system state. (Evaluation)

 

·         Recognize hazards to safety and equipment associated with the light-off procedure for the system. (Comprehension)

 

·         Recall each step in the process of energizing the system. (Knowledge)

 

·         Interpret normal and abnormal system state feedback / warning after each step of the energizing task and take appropriate action. (Application)

 

This list breaks the task shown on the left into covert task considerations. These subcomponents to the task provide the assessment framework for practice tasks and may provide instructional framework to build specific foundational cognitive skills.

When establishing objective foundations for a design, I think in terms of questions. Here's the way I mediate challenges for objectives in the digital environment:

1. Figure out what the end goal is regardless of the environment. This frames up the achievement, accomplishment, or task level performance on the job. What's the learner going to deliver that they aren't currently delivering when all is said and done?

2. Figure out the perspective of change. What's the context of the "newness" or performance delta? Is the learner / performer:

  • learning new skills in anticipation of performance?
  • Extending existing skills to advance capability?
  • Refreshing existing skills for currency?
  • Recalling and applying skills for performance after training?
  • Updating skills after a system or process has changed?
  • Leveraging tools for performance in lieu of training?
  • Responding to an urgent requirement to perform a new task?

3. Frame up the constraints for the change and solution. What are my resource and technology constraints? Who is my audience? What is their current skill level?

4. Using the answers from the first three question groups, establish expectations for the type of solution to address challenges for each defined task. Are you looking for certification, proficiency (expertise), readiness (capability), or awareness (foundation)?

There's quite a bit more to it than this and this is just a start. But this is the process I'd use to frame up SMART objectives for the digital environment. These same practices can be useful for other environments as well.

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