Ola, the fictional character I’ve been writing about is now designing the final module of a mini-management development programme for a group of new and inexperienced managers. She has also developed three modules which are:
Setting clear expectations
Giving effective feedback
Having good coaching conversations
This is the last one and she has already written a performance goal for it (you can read about that here). Now she wants to define the course’s learning objectives and write some key learning points for those objectives. Learning objectives define what the participants should know and be able to do after attending the session. While key learning points are the topics that will be covered during the training session to help the participants achieve the learning objectives.
Learning objectives
Ola has defined the following learning objectives for the session:
By the end of this training session, participants will be able to:
plan and prepare for a one-to-one meeting,
create an agenda that works for both the manager and the team member, and
create an engaging environment that allows both the manager and team member get value from the meeting.
Key learning points
What are one-to-one meetings?
Purpose and benefits of one-to-one meetings
Creating a one-to-one meeting agenda
How to have a one-to-one meeting – demonstration
How to have a one-to-one meeting – practice session.
Now that Ola has written the learning objectives and key learning points, she now needs to write the learning delivery activities which will be used to teach the key learning points to the participants.
In the next post, we will see what Ola’s learning delivery activities are.
Ola is in the process of developing the second module on how to give effective feedback from the mini-management development programme she is implementing for 15 new and experienced managers at her company, OpenNoviz. Previously, she identified the module’s performance goal as:
The managers will be able to give their team members feedback that is supportive and developmental to them (team members) for the purpose of performing their job roles proficiently.
Now, she wants to write the learning objectives and key learning points.
Learning objectives
Ola has been very thoughtful about writing the learning objectives for two reasons:
Firstly, the managers will need to acquire some key information about effective feedback.
Secondly, it is not enough for them to have the knowledge, they must be able to apply it to give their team members effective feedback.
On that note, she has written the following learning objectives for the course:
By the end of this session participants will be able to:
explain what effective feedback is, and what it involves,
accurately describe how to give effective feedback using the SBI (Situation-Behaviour-Impact) framework, and
demonstrate how to give effective feedback using the SBI framework.
Ola chose to use the SBI framework because of its simplicity and practicality. It’s easy to learn and use in her opinion. There are other feedback frameworks she could have chosen.
The SBI framework is from the Centre for Creative Leadership.
Key learning points
Key learning points are the specific topics that Ola needs to cover in the course to achieve the learning objectives. Here are the key learning points she identified:
What is effective feedback?
Benefits of effective feedback
What is involved in giving effective feedback
Poor and good feedback
The SBI feedback model
Giving feedback the SBI way
Now that Ola has identified the learning objectives and key learning points, her next step is to design the learning delivery activities for the key learning points.
The second step in my simple framework for designing training whether virtual or face-to-face (and I sometimes use it for elearning) is to, write the learning objectives.
You can read about the whole framework here and about the first step here.
Learning objectives are a common and sometimes controversial topic in the learning and development space. Some practitioners have argued that there is no point using them but I like them and actively use them. I like them because they give me a clear direction of what I want to achieve when developing a training session.
So, what is a learning objective?
A learning objective is a statement that describes what the participant attending the course should know and be able to do by the end of the course. This applies to all types of training whether face-to-face, virtual, or e-learning. A learning objective should clarify what the participant or person taking the course should be able to do at the end of the course.
There’s much more we can write about learning objectives, for instance, how to write them but that’s a discussion for another day and at some point, I will write a series of posts on how to write learning objectives.
But let’s return to the scenario I used in the previous post between Debbie and Larry.
The first step in the framework was to identify the performance goal which Larry identified as:
“You want your team leaders to give frequent feedback to their team members which tells them about specific behaviour, the impact of the behaviour and what they need to change or continue doing?
The performance goal if you remember is what people should be doing or be able to do to meet the required performance criteria.
Now it’s time for the second step which is to write a learning objective based on the performance goal.
Now back to our story.
Larry has gone away to think about Debbie’s request after asking some more questions and he does think that there are three performance gaps which are:
a knowledge gap which is about having the right information. In this case the right information about giving effective feedback.
a skills gap which is about using the information to do something. In this case, using the information to give effective feedback.
a habitgap which is about getting into the habit of giving effective feedback.
Larry’s not thinking about how to meet the gaps now. He will get to that point later in the framework but he does want to write some learning objectives.
The thing about learning objectives is that they must state what a learner will be able to do and sometimes under what conditions with standards attached.
Here’s an example:
After going through this training session, participants will be able to input payroll details into the payroll system accurately using the payroll data entry guide.
There are three parts to this learning objective:
participants will be able to input payroll details into the payroll system – this is what people must be able to do after the training session.
accurately – this is the standard they must meet when details are inputted into the system.
using the payroll data entry guide – this is the condition under which they should be able to complete the task.
Not all learning objectives need these three components.
Here’s Larry’s learning objective:
By the end of this training session, participants will be able to give feedback that:
clarifies observed behaviour
states the impact of the behaviour
identifies change needed or behaviour to be maintained where required
As you can see each of these learning objectives uses action verbs that state what learners should be able to do after the training session. Here there are no specified conditions but the action verbs, ‘clarify’, ‘states’, and ‘identifies’, also double as standards to meet.
So, that’s it. Larry now has his learning objectives which by the way Debbie approves of after they have another brief chat on Zoom.
This is also the second stage of my simple framework. If I was developing a course, at this stage I would make sure I have a good learning objective.
One more thing, what also makes writing an objective like this very important is that you should be able to check during the training whether people can achieve the objective or not and ultimately you should be able to evaluate the success of your training in the real world by answering this question:
If I observe a learner giving feedback will they be able to:
clarify the behaviour,
state the impact of the behaviour, and
identify behaviour that needs to changed or be maintained?
If not, then maybe the training was not successful.
LearnaBytes 