Writing effective purposes (known as learning outcomes, goals, aims)

Overview

This article will step you through the process of writing effective purpose statements. You may also call these a range of other things:

• Learning outcome
• Learning objective
• Goals
• Aims
• Behaviours
• Competencies

The general approach during design is similar for any kind of purpose statement. The difference will be in how you connect them with items in your design and the language you use to write it. This article covers how to write a Learning Outcome type of purpose statement. This is also what our co-pilot is best suited for at the time of writing. Once you have set one or more purpose statements, you can link them to your design items.

Contains

• Writing a purpose statement - Navigate and using the Purpose writer,
• Working with tips and recommendations - making changes to your statement.
• Asking co-pilot for suggestions - working with suggestions from the co-pilot.
• Connecting purpose with content - how to connect your statement to content items.

Terminology

• Purpose - our term to encompass; learning outcomes, goals, behaviours, competencies, aims, etc.
• Purpose statement - an individual purpose that explains a measurable demonstration of learning.
• Content item - any single part of your design.
• Connector - a visible line that shows relationships between Purpose and Content items.

Ready? Let's work with purpose 💪

To start

Log in and select a design to work on. We'll use our demo design. Setting one or more purpose.

Step: Select Purpose from the toolbar

‍

Note: In this article we're going to add a purpose statement about learning backwards design!

Step: Explore the Purpose toolbar that appears at the top of your screen.

‍

The Purpose toolbar has three core features:

• Purpose statements - a dropdown of all your statements for this design.
• Show empty items - shows all content items with no connected purpose.
• Add / edit purposes - opens the Purpose writer to create or modify your purpose statements.

Step: Select Add / edit purposes to explore and use the Purpose writer

‍

Step Explore the Purpose writer - the tool to help you write impactful purpose statements

‍

Note: The aim is to write a clear, measurable statement of what a learner will be able to demonstrate as part of the learning experience. This tool helps you write statements by encouraging you to consider three areas:

• Active learning verbs (aligned to Blooms Taxonomy).
• Measurability - does it contain key words that will show progress or demonstration.
• Co-pilot checker - an optional way to craft, improve or verify your statement.

Step: Click 'Add item level' purpose to start writing our first statement (for any content or activity)

‍

As you write your statement, you'll see it appear in the list (at the top) as well as your editing area. The Tips and recommendations will update as you type.

Step: Select CHECK to get tailored Tips and recommendations based on your purpose statement.

‍

Tip: Co-pilot is not checked by default, as this uses up your credits.

Optional Step: Select the ASK CO-PILOT for an additional viewpoint

‍

Tip: The co-pilot is fed your statement and assumes the role of supporting you with suggestions. Treat it as a second opinion.

Optional Step: Select 'ASK CO-PILOT' to get a re-written suggestion from the co-pilot

‍

Optional Step: Review the suggestions made by the Co-pilot

‍

Optional Step: Refine our statement based on the co-pilot suggestion received.

‍

Tip: If we refine our statement we can select Check again which will update the Tips and recommendations.

Tip: You can keep refining your purpose statements until you're happy they are clear, specific, measurable and will lead to demonstrable learning outcomes. Perfection is an art and the goal here is to help you make improvements early, as robust statements will impact your design decisions.

Step: Close the purpose writer and must now decide which content will support learners with our newly written learning outcome.

‍

Note: We have added a number of content items that we, as the designer, know how to enable learners to demonstrate this 'backwards design' learning outcome. Linking content to purpose statements

Step: Select the Purpose tool and then select our new purpose statement from the dropdown of all statements created for this design.

‍

Tip: It's highlighted in red because, at the moment, it is not linked to any content.

Step: For each relevant content item, select the 'Connect' button.

‍

Tip: The connecting lines show each content item's connection to a purpose. Content items can be connected to any number of purpose statements.

Step: Review our connections - are we happy the content and purpose align? This is your decision!

‍

Adding more connections helps to show how all this content links to that intended learning outcome.

‍

Tip: The lines are visual indicators. They only appear when we're making, or checking, connections.

Review gaps

Our design may have many purpose statements and a lot of content. We can use the 'Show empty items' filter to explore gaps.

Step: Toggle the Purpose toolbar and select the Show empty items button

‍

Step: Review content items with no connected purpose - are we happy this content has no linked purpose?

‍

Tip: It's perfectly fine to have some content with no purpose (for example welcome activities) and some content items may be linked to several purpose statements (such as group project). These tools are only here to help you make informed design decisions.

Top 3 next steps

1. Another approach is the backwards design process - this is similar and may be suitable for you.
2. Start a new design and set purpose statements before content is added.
3. Review other design briefs, do they have clear goals? This task often starts before you begin the design process.

‍