Identifying Poison Ivy
"What is the learning objective that we're working toward?," I asked.
Silence.
I tried again, using different questions. “What is the intended outcome? How will we know that we’ve accomplished this goal?”
Finally, a response. “Um…Kate?” My husband leaned over, put his hand on my arm, and looked me in the eye. “We’re talking about children in elementary school. The goal is for them to run around, get out their energy, and have fun. And maybe know what poison ivy looks like.”
We were sitting with the Cubmaster of our children’s Cub Scout pack, brainstorming activities for this upcoming school year. This summer my husband and I agreed to become Co-Assistant Cubmasters for the pack, and this was our first group planning meeting.
“That’s it!” I proclaimed. “We want the Cubs to be able to identify a poison ivy leaf. I can work with that. We can teach them what it looks like, where it is commonly found, and reasons to avoid it.”
The Cubmaster piped up. “Since I began this Pack, a goal of mine has been to help the Cub Scouts learn to appreciate and respect the outdoors.” He continued, “how about once we teach them about poison ivy, we take the Cubs on a hike and show it to them?”
“And while we’re on the hike,” my husband continued, “let’s challenge the Scouts to point out poison ivy to each other.”
Now we were getting somewhere. The ideas for activities and themes suddenly started rolling in.
Learning Objectives in Training
When designing a training, the very first thing instructional designers do is craft the learning objectives (some clients call them “learning outcomes”). Learning objectives measure learning. They’re how we can determine if a concept has been mastered by the student or if it needs to be presented again or differently.
In this example, the objective is for the Cub Scouts to individually identify poison ivy. How will we know that they’ve met this objective? The Cubs will correctly identify poison ivy during the hike and the adult leaders will validate if the identification is correct.
There’s a lot that goes into writing effective learning objectives. In fact, there’s a whole hierarchical classification system called Bloom’s Taxonomy that distinguishes a learner's levels of cognition and thinking. But at the core I want you to remember this: every learning opportunity should have an objective, even something as simple as a child’s scouting lesson.
How can you apply this in the workforce? Let’s say that you’ve been invited to share your knowledge of a specific topic with your colleagues. When sketching out your presentation structure, you may think to yourself “I want the listener to KNOW…” Measuring someone’s knowledge is a complex form of assessment that you are unlikely to do during a presentation. Instead, ask yourself “what do I want people in the audience to be able to DO? How will I know that I’ve accomplished that goal?”
Or maybe you’re onboarding a new team member. Rather than rattling off a list of things for the employee to know, pause to think about your learning objective. Do you want the team member to start meeting with clients in the next two weeks? Then you’ll need to measure how much they learn through mock presentations.
Back to Our Cub Scout Planning Meeting
That night we ultimately sketched out the schedule for the entire year, including topics/themes for each meeting and learning outcomes. This year our scouts will learn many things, including flag etiquette, the importance of being a good citizen, and yes, how to identify poison ivy.