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HOW TO WRITE CLEARLY STATED, MEASURABLE OBJECTIVES

What exactly are clear, measurable instructional objectives? Before we talk about what objectives are, let us
first talk about what objectives are not.

Objectives are not course descriptions, course contents, or educational goals. Objectives are not good
intentions about what the continuing education course hopes to accomplish. Objectives are not work of mouth
aims for the course. Objectives are definitely not merely proposals to offer continuing educational programs.

QUALITIES OF MEASURABLE OBJECTIVES

So, what then are clearly stated and measurable educational objectives?

Good objectives should:

x Be obtainable,
x Cover only one issue or learning aim,
x Be written,
x Express results to be attained in quantity, quality, time or cost,
x Be directly related to the program,
x Be as short, clear, concise and understandable as possible,
x Be positive statement of what is to be learned,
x Be realistic; resources must be available to accomplish the objectives.

An objective, according to Robert F. Mager, (Preparing Instructional Objectives, 2nd Ed., 1974, Fearon
Publishers, Belmont, CA) is a description of a performance you want the learner to be able to exhibit before you
consider the instruction to be complete.

To be useful, an objective must be clearly stated to succeed in communicating an instructional intent to the
learner. To evaluate the effectiveness of communicating the objective to the learner, it must be measurable.

COMPONENTS OF EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES

According to Mager’s definition, objectives should specify in measurable terms a future condition that is the
desired result of the educational program. Objectives should be understandable, measurable, achievable, and
feasible. Program objectives must be clearly stated and include at least three components. The first
component is performance: an acceptable outcome level (amount of change that is expected). Performance
provides the primary direction of what the learner is desired to learn. There should only be one performance
per objective.

The second component is B: a quantitative indicated of effectiveness (the achievement of results or benefits).
The criteria are associated with a verb or verb form to show action has occurred. The criteria define the time,
accuracy, and precision desired.

The third component is condition: the target group, the circumstances under which the objectives will be
performed.

CLEARLY STATED OBJECTIVES

To avoid vagueness and include the three components of an instructional objective review your own objectives
to see if they include each of the following:

To (action verb) Initiates the performance

Specify result (performance) What is to be performed
Conditions Situations under which performance will be assessed
Criteria How good performance has to be to meet objective

You can observe and evaluate these actions:

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California Blood Bank Society 1000 Q St, Ste 203, Sacramento, CA 95811-6518

Action verbs can include such words as

Maintain Compare
Reduce Demonstrate
Increase Mark
Identify Name
List State
Define Underline
Prepare Produce
Discriminate between Label
Write Discuss
Sort Differentiate.

These verb forms are non-observable, non-measurable phrases:

Avoid verb forms such as:

To understand To really understand
To appreciate To fully appreciate
To grasp the significance of

How does one measure really understand or appreciate a desired performance? You may wish this to be the
overall goal, but cannot measure it because criteria or conditions do not lend themselves to such subjective
phrases.

USING EDUCATIONAL PERFORMANCES OBJECTIVES

Let us now critique examples of poorly written and clearly stated, measurable objectives.

Poorly written Objective Understand circuit design diagrams of transistor amplifiers and learn how circuit
design errors affect performance.
How do you measure understand and learn? What is the performance
expected? What is the criteria of the educational objective?

Clearly stated, measurable Identify and mark circuit design errors on circuit diagrams of transistor amplifiers,
objective: including missing or extra components, or wrong connections, with 90%
accuracy.
Performance is to identify and mark the design errors on circuit diagrams.
Criteria is set at 90% accuracy. The conditions under which the
performance occurs will be missing and extra components or wrong
connections.

Poorly written objective: Describe how genetic alterations indicate cancer, and discuss the potential and
implication of molecular testing for cancer.
This ”objective” is really two objectives in one. Remember to be clearly
written objective, there should be only one learning aim per objective.
Also, this objective does not state the conditions with which this
performance should occur, nor does it state the criteria for acceptable
performance. This objective was from a homestudy CE course.

Clearly stated, measurable Select (in writing) one potential implication of molecular techniques to identify
objective tumor causing genes, given a multiple choice of four possible answers.
The previous multiple objectives was decreased to a single objective.
Since this was a homestudy course, the objective must take into
consideration how it will be evaluated. In this case the selection criteria is
a multiple choice exam.

In conclusion, here is a simple checklist to use when you are creating course objectives:
x Is your main intention for the instruction stated?
x If the main intention is not obvious is an indicator performance stated?
x Is the indicator behavior simple and direct?
x Have you described what the leaner will have, or not have, when performing the objective?
x Have you determined how well the learner must perform to be acceptable performance?
2005-2006 Committee Binder, Section VII; Version 4.5.0 Section VII, Page
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Revised 04/05, 01/17 (address update only)
California Blood Bank Society 1000 Q St, Ste 203, Sacramento, CA 95811-6518

If you consider all of these points when you draft your objectives, you will be certain to have clearly stated,
measurable objectives. Do not worry so much about form what is important is that you communicate your
instructional intentions. Simply say what you want your learners to do, under what conditions will they be doing
it with, and how well they will have to do it. That is all there is to it.

Now that you have clearly stated, measurable objectives what measuring instrument you will use to evaluate if
the learners have met the instructional objectives. At this point you can have confidence that your program will
be effective.

Distributed by:
Dona M. Lynch, Examiner
Office of Continuing Education
Laboratory Field Services
1995

2005-2006 Committee Binder, Section VII; Version 4.5.0 Section VII, Page
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Revised 04/05, 01/17 (address update only)