Monthly Archives: April 2011

How to Write Clear and Effective Learning Objectives

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Learning objectives, also referred to as learning outcomes, are difficult for many teachers and curriculum designers to create. This is because many instructors are not taught or shown the proper way to write them and the purpose earning objectives serve the instructor and the learners.

Let’s start with why learning objectives are needed, and then move on to how the create them.

Learning objectives are the foundation of any course or workshop. They identify critical elements that the learner must understand, and perhaps know how to apply, to successfully understand the depth and breadth of the course content. Without learning objectives, the learner cannot focus on the key concepts.

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Returning Student’s Assignment is a Learning Opportunity

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Students can put hours, days or weeks into preparing and writing assignments. Waiting for the teacher to mark the assignment and anticipating the grade is a source of stress for students. Returning the assignment can also be a learning point for both the students and the instructor.

I create a simple one-page mark sheet for almost all assignments. The exception is research papers, which require meticulous comments and suggestions in addition to marking sheets.

All mark sheets are based on the assignment specifications, which are outlined on the assignment sheet and, at a higher level, in the course syllabus. The mark sheets are easy to fill out and also easy for the students to quickly read.

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Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory – Accommodators and Divergers

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In this final post of a three-part series, I am providing a very brief overview of Kolb’s LSI quadrants of accommodating and diverging. These two quadrants represent those who learn best by experiencing and feeling. They tend not to learn best through abstract conceptualization, which is the domain of convergers and assimilators.

Accommodators use their senses and intuition to learn. More often than not, they rely on gut reactions or feelings to perceive information. Divergers make sense of information using cogitative means. They are thinkers and analyzers.

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Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory – Convergers and Assimilators

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In this second of a three-part blog posting, I am providing a very brief overview of Kolb’s LSI quadrants of converging and assimilating. I hope that readers have taken the 20-minute test, which costs $25. Taking the test will give you insights into how you learn and which learning styles you should make stronger.

Convergers are those who process information by taking part or doing an action. On the opposite side of the scale are assimilators, who process information through watching others and reflecting on what others do.

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