Goals & Objectives

Begin by asking yourself these questions:

What do I want my students to be able to do as a result of my web-based instruction? What do I want my students to know? What would be ideal outcomes of this course?

This preliminary evaluation is important because:

When you move instruction to the web, you benefit by re-examining your course to decide what topics and activities are sufficient and necessary to meet course goals and objectives. Any extra resources will take concomitant extra time to prepare and maintain. Conversely, to the extent your online materials and activities are the central resource of the course, any holes or inconsistencies will confuse students and necessitate them contacting you. Focusing on behavioral outcomes ("what will students be able to do?") is a powerful way to check the consistency of your goals, content, and assessments.

Decisions you can make:

What content must be there? What is essential and what would be nice to know? What exercises and activities will lead to your goals and objectives?

Resources to explore this issue:

Blooms Taxonomy: verbs for describing cognitive behaviors:
http://www.officeport.com/edu/blooms.htm

University of Newcastle Instructional Design tutorial:
http://www.newcastle.edu.au/discipline/sociol-anthrop/staff/kibbymarj/online/design.html