Align Learning Objectives
15 minutes
How to use the tool?
At the start of the course, have students personally connect to your learning goals and create their own.
Student experience
“I will be honest, this is the first time I read the syllabus for my teacher’s learning objectives. Usually I go straight to the assignments and the reading list!”
Motivation increases when learners can personally connect to the learning goals given to them and define their own.
What to Do?
At the start of your course before or during the first session, give your students your list of learning objectives (usually in your syllabus) and ask them to reflect on one or more of the following for each learning objective:
-
Do you want to learn this? Why or why not?
-
How much do you already know? What do you still need to learn?
-
How do you think you can best learn this?
-
Do you have any additional Learning Objectives of your own for this course?
Example:
“I teach an undergraduate course on the Anthropology of development in Africa and I asked students to reflect on these questions in a Microsoft Form before our first session so that I could also see the answers. Not only did students admit to reading the syllabus for the first time, but I learned a lot about their connections to the continent and their own strategies for working on the objectives of the course. I also asked them for any additional learning objectives they had for the class. It was great to feel they were making it their own from the go.”
