Writing Objectives

In classrooms that utilize traditional grading, course objectives can feel like wrapping paper -- pretty statements that decorate the slides on syllabus day. Once presented, the objectives are discarded and the "real substance" of the course begins. No judgement, here! We've all done this. It's how things have always been done.

In classrooms that utilize mastery grading, on the other hand, course objectives are not fleeting decoration. The course objectives are the "real substance" of the course. Students are presented with the objectives daily throughout the semester: objectives are used to motivate lecture topics, to explain the value of classroom activities, to measure student learning in formative/summative assessments, and to identify areas for growth.

In mastery grading, objectives are everything. Mastery grading purists argue that final grade distinctions (e.g., A, B, C, D, F) should only reflect mastery of the stated course objectives. In theory, that sounds obvious and noble, but in practice, it means that your objectives need to encompass everything you expect from your students. Everything. If it isn't an objective, you can't assess it.

Even if you have a previously defined set of objectives for your course, if you haven't done mastery grading before, you should probably give your list another look. In our experience, instructors converting to mastery grading almost always need to add objectives they've unintentionally omitted. In this section, we discuss how to compile a thorough and robust set of objectives for your course.

Course goals vs. course objectives

Though often used interchangeably, learning goals and objectives serve different functions. Course goals are long-term and aspirational, while course objectives are specific and measurable.

Where to Find Inspiration for Your Objectives

We once met a professor who told us a story about her difficulty tracking down course objectives in her first semester teaching. Her first day on the job she’d been given a list of topics to cover in her course, but nothing more. She laughed as she recounted asking everyone she could find, “Who can give me access to the database of course objectives? There has to be a record of them somewhere!” Needless to say, the database didn’t exist, and she never “found” the objectives for her course. They often can’t be found at all.

Objectives aren’t universal. They need to be written by the instructor or teaching team of the course, based on their own expertise, insight, and values. Most courses do have universal standards, though, (like the list of topics given to the new professor in our story above) so let’s talk about where to look for inspiration for writing objectives. As you read, make a list of what you find. Don't prune anything yet, we'll get to that later.

• Check your syllabus. If you’ve taught your course before or if a previous instructor handed down their syllabus to you, that document is a great place to start. Most syllabi include course objectives or goals.

• Check your course specification. Most schools and universities have course catalogs or bulletins that describe each course they offer. How is your course described there? What topics/skills are important? Equally importantly, if your course is a prerequisite for other courses, how are those courses described? One of the primary goals of your course is to prepare your students for those courses.

• Check your accreditor's website. Find out which agency or organization provides accreditation for your school. Check out their online resources to see if they have standards written for a course like yours. Accreditation organization sample curricula can provide a higher level perspective into global trends and societal needs that your course can address.

• Check your rubrics. If available, gather some of the rubrics you've used to assess student work in your course. Add all of the rubric criteria to your list. In mastery grading, the objectives themselves are the rubric criteria, so you don't want to miss anything important.

• Check your experience. You're an expert in the subject matter of your course. What's important to you about the subject? Why are you passionate about it? Is there a skill, method, topic, or exploration that you think is important that hasn't been added to your list yet? Add it now.

Beyond the Subject Matter

In our own course conversions from traditional grading to mastery grading, we found that there are three types of objectives that are important (to us) but that are often omitted on traditional grading syllabi.

Communication

Regardless of your subject area, be it graphic design or biochemistry, it is usually not enough for students to understand and apply the technical details of your course topics. It is also important that students be able to talk about it. Your graphic design students may be able to design beautiful, elegant web pages, but if they can't describe that web page to the prospective customer before it's built, the customer will not hire them to build it.

The idea of "showing your work" also falls in the purview of communication. It is often not enough for students to get the "right answer," they also need to explain to others how they came to that answer. Communication is important.

We always add an objective for communication ("Design Communication," "Mathematical Communication," etc.) to our set of objectives so we're sure our students develop this skill throughout the course term.

Quality

Similar to the idea of communication, quality is also often omitted from course objectives but is vitally important to meeting the aspirational course goals. In a computer programming course, for example, it is not enough for students to write code (any code) that generates the "right answer." No, students need to write good code, code that is easy to read and computationally efficient. If a student develops bad habits in that course, those bad habits will affect their performance in future courses and even future job prospects.

Whatever your subject area, reflect on what makes the artifacts generated by your students (like the code in the example above) high quality. Write an objective or set of objectives that describe those traits (e.g., "Design, develop, and maintain code that's easy to read and computationally efficient.")

Effortful Engagement

Finally, let's talk about effortful engagement. Setting any sort of assessable expectation for behavior (attendance, class participation, turning in work on time, etc.) is a point of contention for some orthodox "Ungrading" or alternative grading believers. It is true that eliminating the effects of behavior on grades makes education more equitable and we support limiting the effects wherever possible.

However in our experience, it isn't practical to eliminate behavioral or pseudo-behavioral effects entirely. In many cases, attendance and class participation are necessary for a student to meet the objectives of a course (imagine class critiques in a photography course or dissection labs in biology). Flexibility regarding "behavior" is vital for equity and engagement is vital for learning.

To balance these truths, we always include an objective for what we call effortful engagement: "Engage in course material and activities with effort and intention." We make sure students have lots of opportunities (and types of opportunities) to exhibit their engagement.

Organizing Your Objectives

If you've been making a list as you go along, you probably have a mishmash of items to consider -- existing course goals and objectives, lists of topics, vague but necessary outcomes for success in future courses, etc. Read through your list a few times and try to identify themes. Give each theme a name (you can wordsmith the objective later). Make sure everything in your list is assigned to a theme. If a theme gets too large, break it up into sub-themes. When your themes seem complete and stable, you're ready to turn each theme into an objective

The number of objectives you choose is entirely up to you. We tend to have between 10 and 15 objectives, broken into two or three categories.

Example Course Objectives

Below is an example of the organization of the course objectives for one of our courses, a college-underclassman-level computing course. The color-coding isn't necessary, but it helps us (and our students) keep the objectives organized.

1. Course Topics Produce artifacts that display mastery of course topics.

   • Object-Oriented Programming Design Design and implement software systems with appropriate hierarchical class structures and behavior distribution.
   • Data Structures Choose/implement appropriate Container data structures for various needs and follow best practices for their use.
   • Algorithms Understand and implement complex algorithms, with a basic understanding of algorithmic complexity.
   • Recursion Understand recursive algorithms and implement them to solve various problems in computing.
   • Database Design: Design well-formed relational databases by employing primary keys, foreign keys, EER diagrams, and appropriate decomposition.
   • Database Implementation Implement software that uses best practices for interfacing with databases to store, filter, and retrieve business data.
   • Discrete Structures Understand and implement structures of discrete math, including maps, sets, functions, and relations.
   • Propositional Logic Understand and implement principles of discrete math, including propositional logic, truth tables, and order of operations.

2. Quality Develop code with professional-level quality.

   • Code Structure Structure software with appropriate modularity and OOP principles
   • Meets Spec Develop software according to provided specifications.
   • SE Best Practices Utilize software engineering best practices.
   • Testing Write effective and comprehensive tests for software.

3. Effortful Engagement Engage in course material and activities with effort and intention.

   • Class Participation Engage in your learning by participating in in-class activities.
   • Lab Exercise Apply course topics by completing hands-on lab exercises.
   • Required Reading Prepare for class by completing required readings.

Polishing Each Objective

If you haven't done so already, write a short sentence describing each objective. Course objectives should start with a verb, usually one from Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, and should end with a description of what knowledge/skill they need to master and how they need to show that mastery. For example:

Design well-formed relational databases by employing primary keys, foreign keys, EER diagrams, and appropriate decomposition.

In this example, the verb is "Design", the what is "well-formed relational databases," and the how is "by employing primary keys, foreign keys, EER diagrams, and appropriate decomposition."

It's okay to go through multiple iterations of the objectives, even throughout the term, so long as you warn the students at the start of the term that you might do so. Mastery grading is based on a growth mindset - instructors are allowed to grow, too.

Now, take a deep breath and celebrate this step. Crafting your set of objectives is the single hardest part of the traditional-to-mastery-grading process, and you just did it.

Looking Forward

Now, if you're ready, let's move on to designing mastery levels!