Five Elements of Writing Objectives

Objectives should contain the following five elements:-

1.    Who is to perform the desired behavior? Students and participants are the easiest to identify. In a training situation, where employees are not necessarily students in a classroom, more accurate descriptors might be

·       “all first-level supervisors,”

·       “anyone conducting selection interviews,” or

·       “all employees with more than one month of experience.”

the trainer is not the  “who, “although it is tempting for some trainees to write, for example, that the trainer will present five hours of information on communication. The goal of the instructor is to maximize the efficiency with which all students achieve the specified objectives, not just present the information.

2.    What is the actual behavior to be employed to demonstrate mastery of the training content or objective? Words like “type,” “run” and “calculate” can be measured easily. Other mental activities such as comprehension and analysis can also be described in measurable ways.

3.    And 4. Where and when is the behavior to be demonstrated and evaluated?  These could include “during  a 60 minutes typing test,” “on the ski hill with icy conditions,” “when presented with a diagram,” or “when asked to design a training session.” The tools, equipment, information and other source materials for training should be specified.

5.    What is the standard by which the behavior will be judged? Is the trainee expected to type 60words per minute, with less than three errors? Can he student list five out of six categories?