The goals and objectives are critical for me, as I can easily get off course and change the discussion to a current topic,that may not be in line with the objective of the course. I always feel better when I am on task and in line with the course objective.
Hi Courtney,
Thank you for your response. I like to ask questions of participants as well as contribute content. This way I get to learn along with everyone else.
Gary
Clear goals and objectives are necessary for the success of a student to retain in a logical and sequential order. They are needed to guide the student through an "outline" of the course, by which providing the "path" of which they will travel, and order.
Seems unusual that you sent "me" a question, but I have had some computer/system difficulties of late. Therefore maybe I'm just "late" on any response at all. By the way, love your courses...thank you for sharing your knowledge.
It is important to have clear goals and objectives primarily for two reasons. To start, the instructor needs to prepare themselves for each lecture. Without clear goals the instructor is not going to provide clear steps to reach the final course objectives. In the end the student is the one that suffers if the instructor does not set clear goals. The second aspect is that clear goals allow for the student to assess if they can handle this course at this point in time. Also, students may have signed up for your course in error and they need to work on other skills before entering your classroom. If a student does not properly assess the course then they may find themselves at midterms and falling behind. To compound this, it is also possible that a student who is not prepared for the course may affect other student's grades if there are group assignments. In the end it is not fair to the other students in your course.
Hi Kathryn,
You are right about the need for students to have a clear understanding of the goals and objectives of the course. This way they know what the expectations and requirements are and can work toward the meeting of them.
Gary
Hi Evan,
You make a number of good points but your last point really puts everything into context. If an instructor has laid everything out clearly and has used sound instructional delivery techniques then if a student does not live up to expectations then the responsibility does rest with that student. Students have to take accountability for their own success and work hard to secure the needed content and expertise to enter their chosen career field.
Gary
Basically so the students know what is expected of them and also so they don't make unrealistic goals.
Hi Jeff,
You make a good point about clarity. The more you can make the course requirements, policies and expectations clear the easier time the students are going to have getting settled into the course. When teaching online this is even more important as you say, not to mention the fact you are teaching subjects that cause a case of the nerves for many students. Anything you can do to help them calm down the better the course is going to flow.
Gary
Ambiguity makes people nervous. I've learned this from my own experience, and I've certainly seen this in a classroom. When you are working with adult learners, who are responsible for their own tuition, they don't want to be guessing at what they're supposed to do. They want to get their money's worth and learn what they are expected to know. Having clearly stated goals and objectives gives them the direction that they need to do their work with confidence. Clearly stated goals doesn't they will always succeed. However, if a student doesn't achieve what they hoped for, it should not be because his/her instructor didn't make the expectations clear.
Clarity is very important. Without clarity, you may not get what you want from the students. I teach in an online environment. It is amazing how many ways things can be misinterpreted. As such, I am forced to make things quite clear in writing. I teach math and statistics, as such, writing has not been a strong point for me. But, due to the nature of the online venue and the tendency for some students to assume or misinterpret, my instructions have gotten clearer across time.
Hi Maggie,
Also, by having the course objectives the students can see how far they have come from the beginning of the course and how many skills they have developed. They need this refresher at times during the course so they don't get to worn down forget why they enrolled in the course in the first place.
Gary
It is important to have clear goals and objectives so that the student can understand what they will accomplish by the end of the course. If the goals and objectives are unclear, then the student may not know the importance of the course or see its relevance. As the course progresses the student will be able to re-read the objectives and test themselves on their knowledge. The instructor can re-evaluate the course's goals and objectives and adjust activities to reinforce information.
Clear goals and objectives keep both the instructor and the students on point in the journey to their education. The framework provides an axis from which the instructor can make decisions about scheduling, delivery and measuring success of information transference. The same framework allows the students to anticipate their own success and schedule appropriate amounts of time for additional study and reflect on their success incrementally keeping them engaged in the process.
Without clear direction for our students, they may feel lost or even overwhelmed before ever starting. Having the goals and objectives clear before starting the course, the students can make smaller goals for themselves that are much smaller and easier to achieve that looking at the class as a whole.
SO true, This is one of the reasons that my syllabus is usually quite extensive. I would rather give more information than not enough. The only downside that I can see is that I occasionally get students asking more questions which makes me wonder if they read the syllabus.
Hi Peter,
This is true. The students want to know the specifics of grading so they know where their points are going to come from. With the rubric you are answering their concerns by having it all laid out for them.
Gary
Hi Karen,
This is the value of good planning. By having clear expectations you can reduce student fears and increase their understanding of what is going to occur in the coming course.
Gary
These are great points! A question that I had is whether many of you have also used a grading rubric for each assignment which I believe can clarify goals and objectives even more. From my experience, students will read the goals and objectives for a course, but they always fall back to the grading rubric.
Students must know what skills and proficiencies they will need when they begin their careers. The only way to give them this information is to provide concrete, actionable objectives.
I once had a technical writing job that required me to write course descriptions for the company's training and education department. I quickly learned never to use vague, non-measurable objectives like "Understand how X works." How can you demonstrate that you "understand" something? Students need to be reassured that they will understand X when they can do Y.
Hi James,
Exactly! Schools is hard enough without having to guess what the requirements are. It gets the class off to a good start when everyone knows what the expectations are.
Gary
