Manage learning objectives

Manage learning objectives

Learning objectives describe what learners will be able to do after completing your course. You manage them on the Goals & objectives tab of the Learning Design workspace and in Course settings. Both edit the same list. You can display objectives on any page using a Learning objectives block.

Add, edit, and remove objectives

In Goals & objectives:

1. Open Learning Design → Goals & objectives.
2. Choose Add objective (or Add the first objective in a course without any). The list shows how many objectives you have out of 12. Retired objectives and performance indicators don’t count toward the 12.
3. Select an objective to open its details, then write what learners will be able to do under Learners can…. The wording saves when you leave the field.
4. Use Move objective up and Move objective down to reorder it.
5. To remove it, choose the delete button, then Delete objective. If the objective is linked to pages, questions, or blocks, the confirmation says how many; deleting also unlinks it from them. Undo restores the objective and its links.

In Course settings, the Learning objectives group has a numbered field for each live top-level objective, a remove button beside each one, and Add objective. Its Goals & objectives and Alignment links open the workspace.

Objectives save automatically. Wait for the save indicator to confirm your changes.

To show objectives on a page, add a Learning objectives block. The block renders the list you manage here; you edit the list itself in Goals or course settings, not on the page.

Call them objectives, outcomes, competencies or learning targets

Under the course goal, Call them chooses the word the course uses: Objectives (the default), Outcomes, Competencies or Learning targets. Goals & objectives, Alignment and Review use it, for example Add competency and “No quiz question is linked to competency …”. It changes labels only; the tab names, the Learning objectives block type and the data stay the same, so switching back is safe. Course level sets what the course is pitched at; see framework levels.

Codes, status, indicators and prerequisites

Each objective’s details include a Record panel:

• Code: an optional short reference, up to 16 letters, digits, dots, dashes or underscores. Codes must be unique in the course; CO-3 and co-3 count as the same code. An empty field shows the next free code as a placeholder and doesn’t save it. A top-level objective shows CO- plus a free number, such as CO-3. An indicator shows the parent’s code, or the parent’s number when the parent has no code, plus the next free suffix, such as CO-2.2. Type a code, then leave the field or press Enter to save it. The saved code shows in the list in place of the number.
• Status: Approved (the default) or Draft (editor only). Draft objectives work everywhere in the editor, but learners don’t see them in a Learning objectives block until you approve them.
• Revision: the panel’s subtitle shows the revision. It starts at 1 and goes up by one each time you save a change to the wording, so results recorded against an earlier wording can still be traced to it. You can’t set it yourself.
• Learners should meet first: choose the objectives that are prerequisites for this one, up to 6. Studio refuses a loop, such as two objectives that each require the other, and names the loop.
• Performance indicators: choose Add indicator to break an objective into up to 6 observable indicators. Indicators appear indented under their objective, numbered 1.1, 1.2 and so on, and can be linked to pages and questions like any objective. Move up and Move down reorder an indicator among its parent’s indicators. They go one level deep; an indicator can’t have indicators of its own.

Setting a Code, Status, prerequisites under Learners should meet first, or a mastery rule doesn’t mark AI wording as edited. Changing the wording under Learners can… does. See See why AI suggested something, and where it came from.

Retire or delete

Retire keeps the objective, its wording and its revision history, but takes it out of coverage, alignment gaps, the objective pickers and the Learning objectives block. Pages and questions keep their links to it, so past results still resolve. Retiring an objective also retires its indicators. Retired objectives are listed under Retired at the bottom of the list; select one and choose Restore to bring it back.

Delete removes the objective for good, along with its indicators, its links and any prerequisite that names it. Undo restores them.

Write objectives you can check

The Writing objectives tips in Goals summarize the approach: start with a verb learners can show, such as describe, compare, apply, choose, or draft. Avoid verbs you can’t observe, like understand, know, or appreciate. Keep one outcome per objective, and split anything joined by “and”.

For example, “Choose the correct refund procedure for a customer scenario” gives you a concrete task to teach and assess. The framework levels panel under each objective checks its wording and lets you classify the kind of thinking it asks for.

Outcome checks

Goals & objectives checks approved objectives as you write them. A check shows in the objective’s details, with Why this matters and a Learn more link, and in Review:

• Reads like a topic: the objective names a subject, such as “Feedback models”, instead of what learners will do. The check says to start with an action verb, such as “Explain …”. An objective that starts with “Given …,”, “Using …,” or “After …,” and then an action verb is not flagged. Wording that starts with a frame such as “By the end, learners will be able to …” is never treated as a topic.
• Overlap: two objectives start with the same verb and share most of their words, such as “Explain how mercantilism shaped modern societies” and “… modern economies”. Merge them, or make the difference explicit.
• Too many objectives: more than 8 live top-level objectives. The note shows under the list; performance indicators don’t count.
• Assessed before taught: the first quiz that assesses an objective comes before the first page that teaches it, or before the first page that teaches one of its prerequisites. Open the quiz question takes you to it.

Draft and retired objectives aren’t checked. Like all wording checks these are advice: they never count as alignment gaps and never block building or publishing.

See coverage for an objective

Each objective shows a status, such as Covered, Not assessed, or Planned. Its details list where it is Taught on, Practiced in, and Assessed by, with Link page and Link question pickers to add links and Unlink to remove them. When something is missing, choose Fix in Alignment to work on that objective’s gaps. See Connect objectives to evidence.

Availability and limits

• You can have up to 12 live top-level learning objectives per course, each with up to 6 performance indicators and 6 prerequisites. Retired objectives don’t count toward the limit; a course keeps up to 96 objective records in all.
• Each objective’s text can be up to 300 characters.
• Blank objectives are allowed while drafting but are flagged in course review.

The Learning objectives group in Course settings lets you add, edit, and remove objectives up to a maximum of 12. Full-resolution PNG