By Kate Cammack, CfT Co-Director
Let’s imagine you just received this email:
What would you bring with you? How would you decide?
Maybe you’d make some assumptions, like “It’s still hot, so it must be a beach trip – better bring my snorkel gear!”
Or, maybe you made a different assumption, like that we were heading with Lauryl to the University Chalet in the heart of ski country.
It’s clearly important to know what we’re doing (our plan) and where we’re going (our destination) so that everyone can plan ahead, they know what to pay attention to, and they do what they’re supposed to do.
Teaching has a plan and a destination
In our teaching, we articulate what we’re doing (our plan) in our learning objectives. And, we have evidence that students learned (our destination) in our learning outcomes.
Outcomes are tangible evidence of student learning – they might be activities, assignments, or something else that you use to assess students’ work toward a learning objective. I found Lang & Braseby’s recent post “If you teach it, can they do it?” and associated chart (below) to be particularly helpful:
As a fresh new semester approaches, it’s a great time to revisit your learning objectives and outcomes.
You can approach this work at the level of your entire course, a specific class session, or even one single assignment.
Take your students along for the ride
While we all (likely) list our course learning objectives in our syllabus, we all have learning objectives for each unit or even each class session — even if we haven’t written them down.
But articulating your learning objectives — whether for a unit and even a reading — helps your students know where you’re going and what they need to pay attention to.
And, it can be easy! This fall, I added them to the beginning of each of my Brightspace units, like this:
I’ve also rephrased a few learning objectives as more student-friendly “guiding questions” or “what to take notes on” below certain readings and videos, in the hopes that it helps students focus on key points and come prepared for class (!):
Also, while these are doable, student-centered things (and thus similar to the Learning Outcomes” column, above), a true learning outcome is something that the students would actually be producing/doing to demonstrate that knowledge (e.g., an assignment, an exam answer).
Join us to prep your Brightspace for the semester!
Drop by next week to zhuzh up your Brightspace! Our incredible Adam Hawkins (aka Sewanee’s “Brightspace Guy”), our amazing Matt Brown (aka “King of Digital Accessibility”), and I (aka “Links are her Love Language”) will be there to ideate, troubleshoot, and make your teaching life easier with Brightspace tips & hacks:
- Wed Aug 10th, 10-11:30am (add to your calendar)
- Thurs, Aug 11th, 10-11:30am (add to your calendar)
If you already have your Brightspace set up for this semester, that’s shamazing! I’m (hopefully) right behind you!
Related readings:
Nowak (2026) Taking the cotton candy out of your learning objectives
Hara (2010) Graphic display of student learning objectives
Davidson (2017) Design learning outcomes to change the world
UMass Amherst IDEAS (2025) Planning with precision: Developing learning objectives with AI
Duke CTL – Writing effective course learning objectives
Stachowiak (2011) Creating measurable learning objectives.
Chatterjee & Corral (2017) How to write well defined learning objectives
AI was not used to support/write this post.