The most appropriate way to present objectives and learning outcomes is in the form of lists. When writing lists, bear in mind the following points:

• Write a clear heading and a short introductory phrase.
• Ensure that every item on the list fits with the introductory phrase.
• Give every item on the list the same grammatical structure (parallelism).
• Be consistent with punctuation. If the phrase introducing the list is a complete sentence, close it with a colon and then give each item on the list sentence-style punctuation (initial capital letter and final full stop). Note that the gerund form (ing) functions as a noun and therefore can be used in a list of nouns without breaking the parallelism.

Objectives

Objectives are short statements that specify the learning that students should acquire during a particular subject. Because the focus is on the students, the statements should be phrased from their point of view. Generally speaking, you should express objectives in one of two ways: the heading “Objectives” followed by an introductory phrase and a bulleted list of verb phrases.

Learning outcomes

When writing course guides it is not necessary or appropriate to rewrite learning outcomes as these will all have been previously standardised by UVic Language Services. If you need a list of learning outcomes for your degree course, contact the course coordinator.

The following guidelines indicate how learning outcomes should be stated. Learning outcomes describe what students should be able to do after they have completed a course of study. The example below is a list of possible learning outcomes expressed as infinitive phrases.

When writing lists of learning outcomes, it is important to use the infinitives of dynamic verbs (explain, define, identify, analyse, recognise, etc.), which specify what students can do, rather than stative verbs (know, be, have, etc.), which describe states.

For a full list of verbs that describe learning outcomes, see the Appendix.