Learning objectives

MotivationTypical course goal:

Understand the analysis and design of hydraulic structures

Typical professor question:

“Does everyone understand?”

Typical student response:

(Silence)

Goals vs. objectivesGoal: Long-range, “big picture” desire

Example: To clean up the Raccoon River watershed

Goals vs. objectives

Objectives: Specific steps to achieve the goal

Examples:

1. Monitor water quality in the watershed2. Determine whether bacterial contamination

arises from human or animal sources3. Develop a total maximum daily load4. Assist unsewered communities in treating sewage

Exercise

How might learning objectives help students and professors?

Bloom’s taxonomy1. Knowledge: Recalling information

Ex: list, identify, outline, define

2. Comprehension: Grasping basic meaningEx: explain, describe, interpret, distinguish

3. Application: Using information to solve new problemsEx: apply, calculate, compute, solve

4. Analysis: Identifying relationships between partsEx: classify, derive, explain

5. Synthesis: Establishing new relationships between ideasEx: formulate, design, create

6. Evaluation: Judging the value Ex: determine, optimize, evaluate, select, justify

Exercise1. Knowledge: a. How would you improve the internal combustion

engine?

2. Comprehension: b. Who has the better basketball team—ISU orTexas Tech? Why?

3. Application: c. What is a derivative (in terms a non-technicalperson can understand)?

4. Analysis: d. What are the “Ten Essentials” of hiking?

5. Synthesis: e. Why does one feel warm in 70oF water and coldin 70oF air?

6. Evaluation: f. What is the intensity of a 24-hour storm with a 10-year return period for Ames?

Example: structural engineering1. Knowledge

Define deflection, load, moment, moment of inertia, Young’s modulus, etc.

?

Example: structural engineering2. Comprehension

Explain Young’s modulus to a non-technical person.

Example: structural engineering3. Application

Compute the deflection of a beam with given load, properties, and end conditions.

x

y

Example: structural engineering4. Analysis

Derive the equation for the deflection of a beam withgiven loading and end conditions.

Example: structural engineering5. Synthesis

Design a structure to meet given criteria.

Example: structural engineering6. Evaluation

Choose between several proposed structures to meet given criteria.

?

ExerciseWrite learning objectives for all six levels for

• Music teachers

• Football coaches

• Cooking instructors

• Preschool teachers

Literature review1. Knowledge: Who has worked on this problem? What did

they do?

2. Comprehension: What did previous researchers find?

3. Application: How do those results apply to your problem?

4. Analysis: What do the results of a particular paper meanfor the more general problem?

5. Synthesis: What remains to be discovered regarding the more general problem?

6. Evaluation: What is the best method for advancing the field?