Center for Teaching and Learning

Learning Objectives

It is easy to view the task of drafting learning objectives as a mere administrative hurdle—one more box to check for a syllabus or a department review. However, when we move beyond the "paperwork" mindset, we find that well-crafted objectives are actually the backbone of successful course design. Think of them not as constraints, but as a roadmap for both you and your students. They provide a sense of purpose and destination, ensuring that every lecture, reading, and assignment is pulling in the same direction. By taking the time to articulate exactly what your students will be able to do as a result of enrolling in your course, you provide them with a clear path to success and yourself with a reliable framework for making tough decisions about what to keep in—and what to cut out—of your curriculum.

Why Learning Objectives Matter

Beyond simply fulfilling a departmental requirement, well-defined learning objectives serve as the functional "north star" for your course, providing clarity and intentionality for both you and your students.

• They act as a design filter for instructors. It is tempting to try to cover everything in a single semester, but time is a finite resource. Learning objectives help you decide what to prioritize in your lectures and assignments—and just as importantly, what to leave out. By keeping your objectives front and center, you can more easily confirm that you are "on track" as the weeks progress, ensuring that your day-to-day teaching remains aligned with your ultimate goals for the course.
• They help prospective students choose wisely. Before a student ever sets foot in your classroom, they are looking for a reason to commit their time and energy to your subject. Clear objectives act as a promise of what an engaged student will be able to do by the end of the term. This transparency helps students make informed decisions about whether the course aligns with their academic interests or career aspirations, leading to a more motivated and focused cohort.
• They empower enrolled students to monitor their own progress. Perhaps most importantly, learning objectives provide a framework for self-regulated learning. Even in the weeks between major exams or essays, students can use your objectives as a diagnostic tool. When a student asks themselves, “Am I actually getting this?” they don’t have to guess. They can look at the objectives and realize, "I can do X and Y, but I’m still struggling with Z—I should probably head to office hours this week." In this way, objectives shift the focus from "What grade did I get?" to "What skills am I mastering?"

How to Write “SMART” Learning Objectives

You may have heard of the value—perhaps in the context of conducting performance reviews—of setting "SMART" goals; that is, goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. The “SMART” acronym applies well to learning objectives, too. Here's why:

• Specific. It’s easy when writing learning objectives for the first time to produce something vague—for example, to tell students that you hope they will “know about eighteenth-century Western music.” But exactly what will they know? And what does it mean to know about it? By this definition, almost every student will meet this learning objective after only one or two class periods, insofar as presumably they’ll all know something they didn’t know before enrolling in the course. In this way, learning objectives that lack specificity rob students of the opportunity to monitor their own progress through the course.
• Measurable. Ideally, learning objectives set the agenda for your assessment strategy. If you cannot observe or measure the outcome, you cannot know if the objective has been met. Instead of using "internal" verbs like understand, appreciate, or internalize—which are difficult to see from the outside—try using "action" verbs. Can a student calculate a derivative? Can they categorize various artistic movements? Can they compose an original argument? When objectives are measurable, they provide a clear "yardstick" for both you and your students.
• Achievable. Students are motivated when their instructors set goals that are realistically achievable; correspondingly, they are demotivated by goals that seem designed to set them up for failure. This does not mean that your objectives should not be ambitious, or that they should be achievable without deep engagement and hard work. It means simply that they should take into account what a “typical” student enrolling in your course will be prepared to do, and how much growth they can be expected to undergo in the course of a semester. Consulting with the instructors who teach your course’s prerequisites (as well as the instructors who teach any courses that typically follow after your course) can be helpful to making sure that you have a realistic understanding of what’s possible.
• Relevant. This quality ensures that every objective serves the larger "why" of the course. It is easy to include objectives that cover interesting tangents, but every goal should clearly map back to the core mission of the class and the broader curriculum of the department. When students understand the relevance of an objective—how it connects to their future careers, later coursework, or their development as thinkers—they are much more likely to invest the "deep engagement" required to achieve it. 
• Time-bound. As noted in the prior discussion of achievability, it is important that your learning objectives be scoped realistically for the duration of your course, and that you recognize that it is not always possible for a student to master all of the dimensions of every topic within a single term. In fact, you’re likely to have the most success in moving your students towards the destination articulated in your learning objectives if several, or even all, of them are “smaller” than a full 12–week semester. It is perfectly alright for some of your learning objectives to be achievable within (for example) 2 weeks or 6 weeks, so that students are able to see that they have “finished” developing their mastery of some aspects of your course even as they continue to work towards others.

In order to write SMART objectives, we suggest that you begin with the phrase

By the end of this [course / unit / week ], you will be able to …

and complete the sentence with an action verb that reflects a specific visible, measurable act. In other words, rather than students “knowing about the French Revolution,” they should “be able to make an argument about the causes of the French Revolution that engages critically with at least three other historians’ interpretations.”

Pro tip: Many instructors find it helpful to use a heuristic known as Bloom’s Taxonomy to select action verbs appropriate to the level of their course and their students. This framework categorizes learning into levels of complexity, ranging from basic recall to high-level creation, and offers a selection of verbs that correspond to each level.

Download our visualization of Bloom’s Taxonomy

Some Sample Learning Objectives

Below are examples of how to transform a vague, instructor-focused goal into a SMART learning objective that can guide students’ learning.

A Learning Objectives Generator

Would you like some assistance in brainstorming learning objectives for your course, assignment, or even class period? Click below to engage in a guided conversation with the CTL’s custom chatbot designed to help you hone your learning objectives.

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Learn More about Learning Objectives

• “Learning Objectives,” from the Boston College CTE