Introduction to DEIA in OER for Social Justice
1.6 Measurable and Student-Centered Objectives
Theresa Huff
Ensure your objectives are measurable
Now that you have ensured the foundation of your OER incorporates DEIA principles and goals, they must be reviewed to ensure they are measurable.
- We cannot create OER content without a clear picture of what our students will need to do with that content. By creating measurable objectives before we write or adapt, the scope of the writing is clarified.
- We cannot assess what we cannot measure. By creating measurable objectives, choices for formative and summative assessments are clarified.
View this interactive video to learn how to ensure your objectives are measurable:
What's This Tool? - H5P Interactive Video
Figure 1.6. Instructional Technologist, Fan Yang, walks through several unmeasurable objectives and offers several ways to reframe them and ensure they are measurable.
Your Turn: Step 3 – Revise objectives to be measurable and student-centered.
In the OER Objectives Worksheet tab of your OERFSJ Deliverables 1-5 spreadsheet in your team’s Google folder, take another look your DEIA-infused list of Original Weekly or Module Objectives . Review them to make sure they are:
- Measurable.
- Your module or weekly objectives should begin with an action verb that can be measured (“Research”, “Use”, “Analyze”).
- Examples of objectives that cannot be measured usually start with verbs like “understand”, “know”, “appreciate”, “familiarize”, “study”, “be aware”, “become acquainted with”, “gain knowledge of”, “realize”, or “learn”.
Example of revising objectives to make it measurable:
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- Replace: Understand persuasive strategies to structure verbal messages that are adapted to specific audiences.
- With: Identify the five persuasive strategies.
- And/or: Adapt verbal messages to persuade specific audiences.
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Note: Understanding cannot be measured. Reframe from the student’s perspective. What do want the student to do to show they understand?
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- In the Measurable Weekly or Module Objectives column , replace these vague, unmeasurable verbs with verbs that state exactly what the student will do.
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- Written from the student’s perspective.
- Your module or weekly objectives should complete a sentence that begins with “By the end of this module/week, students will be able to…”
- Example of revising objectives to the student’s perspective:
- Replace: Increase awareness of social justice issues in the current public education system
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- With: Identify a variety of social justice issues in the current public education system.
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Note: While this objective states what the instructor or content intends to do, without framing it from the student’s perspective, it is not clear what the student will need to do to demonstrate they have increased their awareness.
Beware Nested Objectives
Nested Objectives can complicate the designing of your OER. Ensuring you “unnest” your objectives before you try to map your content and assessments can save you loads of time and frustration down the road and help your students understand expectations.
Take a few minutes to look through the slides below. You’ll find out what exactly “nested objectives” are, why they are troublesome, and how to easily fix them.
What's this Tool? - H5P Course Presentation
A final review of your objectives
Review your list of DEIA-infused, measurable objectives in the Measurable Weekly and Module Objectives column. Particularly in a project in which your OER will be used in several different courses, there may be some objectives that are duplicated or some that could be combined into one. You may have also added some weekly or module objectives that may not align with your course outcomes. In this last step, you will shore up those pieces and complete your objective list.
Your Turn: Step 4 – Finalize your objectives.
You should have all your DEIA-infused, measurable objectives now listed in the Measurable Weekly and Module Objectives column of the OER Objectives Worksheet. Review them once more using the following prompts:
- Which objectives repeat and could be combined?
- Remove repeated objectives and combine those that make sense together.
- Do all your objectives align with the course objectives?
- Look back at Course Outcomes you listed at the left of your OER Objectives Worksheet.
- Make sure that all your module/weekly objectives align with and support at least one of those Course Outcomes. This ensures what you are teaching and the OER you are adapting or creating stays within the scope of the course.
Once you have narrowed down your list to include the essential objectives, your OER Objectives Worksheet is complete.
Next, you will use these objectives you just revised to begin organizing the framework of your OER into topics, chapters, and finally a Table of Contents.
Deliverable 1
Deliverable 1 is the OER Objectives Worksheet.
Once complete, you are ready to upload your OERFSJ Deliverables 1-5 spreadsheet to your team’s OERFSJ Google folder, and email OERFSJ@lmu.edu to let them know your Deliverable 1 is complete.
Resources
Instructional Technology at Mount St. Joseph. (2020, May 4). Measurable Objectives. [Video]. Measurable Objectives (youtube.com)
Additional Reading (and Listening):
Licenses and Attributions
“Measurable and Student-Centered Objectives” by Theresa Huff is licensed under CC BY 4.0.
This is a H5P Interactive Video. This H5P type allows creators to add engaging interactivity and formative assessments to existing videos.
H5P is a free, open-source interactivity building tool built into Pressbooks. The H5P Interactive Video is one of over 50 different types of H5P interactives.
This is an H5P Course Presentation Tool. This H5P type allows creators to use presentation slides with embedded elements such as links, pictures, audio and video clips, and interactive quiz tools.
H5P is a free, open-source interactivity building tool built into Pressbooks. The H5P Course Presentation is one of over 50 different types of H5P interactives.
