ABCD Objectives

 

Hello everyone, this is my second blog post and today we are going talk about an interesting topic  we treated last lecture. Yeah it is about ABCD objectives and I saw important and useful elements of these objectives in our learning process , now as students and after as teachers.

 

At the beginning let's start with what are ABCD objectives, how do they help us to fulfill objectives we may have during a specific lecture and how this method also helps us to build an useful learning objective. After reading the lecture and in special this topic we can surely say  and claim that a simple way to make sure you’re building a useful learning objective is to use the ABCD method. Each letter in ABCD stands for a different part of your learning objective. These different parts answer four questions about your objective: who, what, how, and how well.

The Four Parts of an ABCD Learning Objective

A classic way to think about constructing a learning objective is that it should have four parts. It’s not always the case that you’ll need each of the four parts, but it’s definitely a good idea to at least consider the need for each to ensure the learning objective is as clear, actionable, and measurable as possible.

The four parts can be remembered with the simple acronym ABCD, which stands for:

• Actor
• Behavior
• Conditions
• Degree

Let’s take a closer look at each.

A is for ACTOR

Every learning objective should state something that the learner should do. Sometimes, your objective may refer to the “actor” in general terms such as “the learner” or “you.” Other times, you may identify the actor by his or her job role, such as “the customer service representative” or “the press operator.” Regardless, remember that each learning objective states something that the actor must be able to do after the training. This is the “WHO?” of your objective.

 In courses with multiple learning objectives, it’s fine to begin a list of objectives with something like “the learner must:” written only one time. In other cases, you can leave the actor implicit and not state this directly, but be certain to keep the actor in mind when writing the objective. Remember that your goal is to help real people perform necessary tasks on their real jobs.

B is for BEHAVIOR

Every learning objective should state something that the learner must do—a behavior of some sort. And these behaviors should duplicate or closely resemble the task the employee will have to perform on the job. So, for example, if your training is designed to teach a machine operator to operate a machine, the behavior in your learning objective would be something like “operate the machine” and not something like “explain the steps of operating the machine.”

Ideally, the behaviors of your learning objectives will mirror the real tasks the workers will actually perform on the job. That’s the point of workforce training, after all–to teach people to perform their job tasks.

A final note–be careful not to write objectives about employees “knowing” or “understanding,” because (1) in most cases, people don’t get paid to simply “know” or “understand” on the job, (2) it’s impossible to observe if someone knows or understands, and (3) reasonable third parties can disagree if an employee knows or understands. Yes, we do use knowledge on the job, but we use it to make decisions or perform tasks–focus your objectives on the things we do with knowledge on the job.

 People sometimes refer to this as the “observable verb” step because behaviors must be stated as a verb that you can observe: define, state, build, construct, change, etc.

C for CONDITIONS

Many times, the learner will have to perform the learning objective’s behavior within a set of given conditions. For example, you might say “given a list of words, circle the ones that are part of a given machine,” or “given a wrench, tighten this bolt,” or “given a schematic diagram, correctly identify the machines in a work area.” This is the “HOW?” of your objective.

 There may be times when a condition is not necessary, but always check to see if it’s appropriate to add one.

D for DEGREE

This part of the learning objective explains the criteria for performing the task well enough. Examples here include “in less than ten minutes,” or “with 90% accuracy,” or “90 times an hour.” This is the “HOW WELL?” of your objective.

 There may be times when a degree is not necessary, but always check to see if it’s appropriate to add one

Conclusion: ABCD Learning Objectives

A, B, C, D–four easy steps for building a learning objective that includes all the information it should. Create learning objectives following this model and you’ll have a solid blueprint for your learning assessments, learning content, learning activities, and learning evaluations as well.