Learning Outcomes vs. Objectives

Although out­comes and objec­tives are some­times used inter­change­ably, it’s use­ful to under­stand how these two con­cepts are slight­ly dif­fer­ent. The table below out­lines the key dif­fer­ences between learn­ing out­comes and learn­ing objec­tives.

Learn­ing Out­comes Learn­ing Objec­tives
  • Are state­ments about antic­i­pat­ed achieve­ments from stu­dents
  • Are more stu­dent-cen­tered and describe what the learn­er should learn
  • Are often writ­ten from a teacher’s per­spec­tive
  • Are typ­i­cal­ly writ­ten in terms of an instructor’s teach­ing inten­tions
  • Indi­cate what con­tent a teacher intends to cov­er through instruc­tion, cur­ric­u­la, pro­grams or activ­i­ties
Learn­ing out­comes are what is hoped stu­dents will learn along their jour­ney and are often pre­cise, spe­cif­ic, and mea­sur­able. Learn­ing objec­tives are focused on spe­cif­ic types of per­for­mances that stu­dents are expect­ed to demon­strate.

Exam­ples of Learn­ing Out­comes

By the end of this course stu­dents will be able to:

  • Crit­i­cal­ly eval­u­ate the con­nec­tion between human rights and legal def­i­n­i­tions of what is meant by ‘being human’
  • Describe four dimen­sions of cul­ture and ana­lyze the effects of those dimen­sions on com­mu­ni­ca­tion

Exam­ples of Learn­ing Objec­tives

  • This course will present dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives through the explo­ration of his­tor­i­cal data and pre­sen­ta­tions by guest speak­ers, to explore con­cepts across time and space of what it means to be human.
  • This course will intro­duce key dimen­sions of cul­ture and explore how these dimen­sions influ­ence com­mu­ni­ca­tion.
Tip While learn­ing objec­tives are writ­ten from the instruc­tor’s per­spec­tive, learn­ing out­comes are writ­ten from the stu­den­t’s point of view. Objec­tives are big­ger pic­ture while out­comes are more pre­cise and mea­sur­able.
Handouts Icon

Hand­outs:

  • Learn­ing Objec­tives ver­sus Learn­ing Out­comes: PDF Ver­sion