No, students do not really care about objectives!
Instructional Design
Do students really care about instructional objectives? How can you make them more appealing?
What students really care about in learning is what excites them!
Objectives are quite dry sticks, aren't they, in terms of interest level. Let's just say it: Objectives, though essential, are B-O-R-I-N-G. They are the bones of the crucially necessary skeletal structure underlying the body -- which is the really exciting outcome! We can make objectives more appealing by first projecting the truly exciting body of work that students will be creating as they engage with our online courses. Online learning really is exciting because we're focusing on Creativity, and that's where students are most engaged, isn't it? Individual Creativity = Engagement = Excitement. This excitement is part of why we're all paying thousands of very smart dollars to learn online learning to be able to teach it. Right?
Risk is essential to excitement, and risk can be uncomfortable, but we don't have to worry: "Put your mind at ease; you are supposed to feel uncomfortable about this and unsure about what you are doing. . . . It is okay to do things scared" (Smith, 2008). We are only going to be excited about something that is new, that is just outside our comfort zone, eh? Like stage fright. We are completely excited to be on stage but fear is just below the surface. We deliberately choose the fear because of our excitement. We aim for our own Zone of Proximal Development (Vygotsky, through Boettcher, 2007) and reach just beyond our comfort zone into where we're going next - because we want to learn. We want to find our brain's "receptor nodes for bits of new information and then arrange [sic] that information into a useful mental model" (Boettcher). A mental model that's useful to us, which is why it's engaging in the first place.
We can make learning objectives more appealing by starting off with the Big Picture: This class is really going to engage you because, by the end of it, you will be creating your own website! Where you will be showing off your newfound knowledge of _________ to the world!
Now that's exciting!!!
Excitement is the key - to passion, to learning, and especially to creating. Learning more of what we want to learn, bringing more meaning into our lives by grounding our studies in what is meaningful to us -- these are the things that are exciting about learning!
The key is to be in touch with our own excitement and passion about what we're teaching - or facilitating. The key for us educators is to be excited about learning ourselves, and then transmitting that excitement to our students!!!
Tell the truth. Explain the objectives. Get into the nitty gritty, the ABCD's of the thing. Then the students may be inspired by your own inspiration and become ready to absorb the skeletal structure underlying the exciting corporeal aspects of your course. Go ahead!
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Boettcher, J. 2007. Ten Core Principles for Designing Effective Learning Environments: Insights from Brain Research and Pedagogical Theory. Innovate 3(3). (http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=54).
Smith, R. M. 2008. Conquering the content: A step-by-step guide to online course design. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Vygotsky, L. S. 1962. Thought and language. Trans. E. Hanfmann and G. Vakar. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. 1978. Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Trans. M. Cole. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
