Lesson 4: Developing an Instructional Strategy

3.2. Informing Learner of Objectives

Once you have your students' attention, the next step is to tell them what they will learn. This will help them organize their thoughts and focus them on the key elements of your instruction. It also helps them determine its relevance to their specific needs. Adult learning theory says that if the material is relevant, it will increase interest in learning it.

Often this step results in a listing of the instruction's learning objectives. This is fine, but you shouldn't list the formal learning objectives you wrote word for word when designing your instruction. These are written for your use, not the learners, so you should transform them into a more casual form. Also, you should list only the top-level objectives. Listing too many will instantly turn learners off. You want to give them the big picture, not every little detail.

Methods for informing learners of objectives include:

• Provide an informal list of learning objectives describing what they will be able to do after completing the webinar
• Pose a set of questions that your instruction will answer
• Conduct a short, informal quiz covering key concepts that you will teach (good use of polling)

Share your examples for informing learners of the objectives.