In developing your course structure, you were asked to break your course into smaller modules. Not only do these provide a conceptual framework that helps students understand how content is organized, but they also help to guide you in more detailed design. With modules identified, you can create more concrete module learning objectives that help support your course outcomes, which tend to be more conceptual. Writing good unit objectives will yield the most significant returns in the course design process. Well‑constructed module learning objectives help instructors know what they want to teach, identify ways students will be assessed, help students understand what they will learn, and help the department, program, and/or institution know whether the course meets accreditation standards.

After identifying modules for your course, the next step is to define what is included and how it contributes to the course. The following are elements of module details.

• Module Learning Objective (MLO):
• Bloom’s Taxonomy Level:
• Topics Covered:
• Supported Competencies (if relevant):
• Supported Course Learning Outcomes (CLO):

Module Learning Objectives

In developing your course structure, you broke your course into smaller modules. Not only do modules provide a conceptual framework that helps students understand how content is organized, but they also guide you in more detailed design. With course modules identified, you can create more concrete module learning objectives that help support your course learning outcomes, which tend to be more conceptual. Writing good module objectives will yield the most significant returns in the course design process. Well‑constructed module learning objectives help instructors know what they want to teach, identify ways students will be assessed, help students understand what they will learn, and help the department, program, and/or institution know whether the course meets accreditation standards.

Qualities of good unit objectives

• SPECIFIC — The unit objective describes the knowledge, attitudes, or skills that a learner should be able to demonstrate after a learning activity.
• MEASURABLE — The achievement of the unit objective can be measured by test items, observation, problem‑solving exercises, or other assessment methods during or after an activity.
• ATTAINABLE — The unit objective includes an action verb demonstrating a change or acquisition of knowledge, attitudes, or behaviors.
• RELEVANT — The unit objective reflects realistic student knowledge, attitude, or behavior expectations.
• TIME-BASED — The unit objective specifies the time frame for learners to achieve the objective.

Bloom's Taxonomy

Bloom's Taxonomy is a set of three hierarchical domains (cognitive, affective, and psychomotor) used to classify educational learning objectives into levels of complexity and specificity. While instructors are challenged to create higher‑level activities, these activities depend on students having already attained the prerequisite knowledge and skills at lower levels. Bloom’s Taxonomy aims to motivate educators to focus on building a learning path for students from lower‑level to higher‑level learning. When writing good unit objectives, it is vital to determine the desired level of Bloom’s Taxonomy for the unit. Once this is determined, select an appropriate verb associated with that level.

Bloom's Cognitive Domain

In the book Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. Handbook 1: Cognitive Domain, Benjamin Bloom defines the cognitive domain as including knowledge and the development of intellectual skills, recall or recognition of specific facts, procedural patterns, and concepts that serve the development of intellectual abilities and skills (Bloom et al. 1956).

• CREATE — Putting elements together to form a coherent or functional whole; reorganizing elements into a new pattern or structure through generating, planning, or producing.
• EVALUATE — Making judgments based on criteria and standards through checking and critiquing.
• ANALYZE — Breaking material into constituent parts, determining how the parts relate, and creating an overall structure or purpose through differentiating, organizing, and attributing.
• APPLY — Carrying out or using a procedure through executing or implementing.
• UNDERSTAND — Constructing meaning from oral, written, and graphic messages through interpreting, exemplifying, classifying, summarizing, inferring, comparing, and explaining.
• REMEMBER — Retrieving, recognizing, and recalling relevant knowledge from long‑term memory.

Bloom's Affective Domain

In the book Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Handbook 2: Affective Domain, David Krathwohl, Benjamin Bloom, and Bertram Masia defined the affective domain as including the way we deal with things emotionally, such as feelings, values, appreciation, enthusiasm, motivations, and attitudes (Krathwohl, et al. 1965).

• INTERNALIZE — Developing a value system that controls their behavior.
• ORGANIZE — Organizing values into priorities.
• VALUE — Attaching worth or value to a particular object, phenomenon, or behavior.
• RESPOND TO PHENOMENA — Attending and reacting to a particular phenomenon.
• RECEIVE PHENOMENA — Experiencing awareness, willingness to hear, and selected attention.

Bloom's Psychomotor Domain

In the book, The Classification of Educational Objectives: Psychomotor Domain, Elizabeth Simpson defines the psychomotor domain as including physical movement, coordination, and use of the motor‑skill areas. Development of these skills requires practice and is measured in terms of speed, precision, distance, procedures, or techniques in execution (Simpson 1972).

• ORIGINATION — Creating new movement patterns to fit a particular situation or problem.
• ADAPTATION — Modifying movement patterns to fit special requirements.
• COMPLEX OVERT RESPONSE — Performing motor acts involving complex movement.
• MECHANISM — Having responses that are habitual and can be performed with some confidence.
• GUIDED RESPONSE — Learning complex skills through trial and error.
• SET — Being ready to act through mental, physical, and emotional states.
• PERCEPTION — Using sensory cues to guide motor activity.

Module Details Worksheet

• Download the Step 4: Module Details Activity Worksheet.