Learning Objectives

Learning objectives are sets of knowledge, skill, or behavior that learners are expected to know, understand, and/or perform as a result of learning. Learning objectives can be measured to determine the knowledge (cognitive) or skills and behaviors (affective) that learners have gained over time.

In Schoology, you can access the following learning objectives:

• Custom Learning Objective: These learning objectives are created or imported manually. You can create your own learning objectives, or your school may have custom learning objectives available to you already (Enterprise).
• Common Core: These learning objectives are provided by the Common Core State Standards Initiative.
• Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS): These learning objectives are provided by Achieve, Inc.
• ACTFL Standards for Foreign Language Learning: These learning objectives are provided by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
• College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education: These learning objectives are provided by the Literacy Information and Communication System (LINCS).
• AERO (American Education Reaches Out) Curriculum Frameworks: These learning objectives are provided by the U.S. State Department's Office of Overseas Schools as part of Project AERO.

• State Standards: These learning objectives are also provided by the Common Core State Standards Initiative, but the learning objectives are specific to each state.
  
  

  

  Common Core, NGSS, ACTFL Standards for Foreign Language Learning, College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education, AERO Curriculum Frameworks, and State Standards are consistently updated in Schoology. Any learning objective titles that contain a year indicate the original publication date and not the most recent update.

How do I create and organize Learning Objectives?

Custom Learning Objectives should have unique titles. If creating similar objectives for multiple groups or grade levels, please make sure to include a unique identifier in the title to differentiate each objective. Likewise, any objectives that already exist within Schoology such as Common Core or State Standards should not be recreated as custom objectives without adding a unique identifier or character to the title.

You may use Common Core, NGSS, ACTFL Standards for Foreign Language Learning, College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education, AERO Curriculum Frameworks, and State Standards in your courses without organizing these learning objectives. However, if you'd like to use Custom Learning Objectives, you can organize content into the following areas:

• Personal Learning Objectives
• Group Learning Objectives
• School Learning Objectives

Personal Learning Objectives

Personal learning objectives are objectives you've created in your Personal Resources. These learning objectives are only accessible for you, and cannot be shared with other users. To access personal learning objectives, click Resources on the top menu.

Add Custom Learning Objective:

1. Click the Learning Objectives area on the left menu of your personal resources. Depending on the settings in place at your school, this area may not appear (Enterprise).
2. Click the Add button.
3. Select the option to add a Folder, Custom Learning Objective, or other alignments to your resources.
   We recommend using a folder structure to organize your learning objectives.
4. Enter a unique title for the learning objective and a description of the item.
5. Click Create to complete.

Import Learning Objectives:

1. Click the Learning Objectives area on the left menu of your personal resources.
2. Click the Options button.
3. Select the option to Import.
4. Use an XLS or CSV file to import unique titles and descriptions for each learning objective.
5. Add the learning objectives to a particular folder.
6. Attach the file, and then click Upload File.
7. If the file contains headers in the first row, check the box for First row contains headers.
8. Match the Title and Description columns, and Preview the matches.
9. If the learning objectives appear correctly, click Confirm to complete.

Move or Delete Learning Objectives:

1. Check the box next to the item you'd like to move or delete. To check all boxes, click the box to the left of the Edit button.
2. Click the Edit button.
3. Select the option to Move the item(s) to another learning objective folder, or select the option to delete.

4. Click the Confirm button if you're sure you'd like to move or delete the item(s).
   
   

   

   • Depending on the settings at your organization, Learning Objectives may not be available.
   • You may also Edit, Move, and Delete individual learning objectives from the gear to the right.
   • Learning objectives cannot be deleted if they are associated to course materials. If you wish to delete a learning objective, you must first remove the objective(s) from any existing content.

Group Learning Objectives

Group learning objectives are objectives you've created in your Group Resources. These learning objectives are accessible to all members of the group. To access group learning objectives, click the Resources area on the top menu, and select Group Resources. You may also access Group Resources by clicking the Groups area on the top menu, and then selecting a particular group.

Enable Learning Objectives for the Group

1. From the Group Resources area, click the Options button. Depending on the settings in place at your school, this area may not appear (Enterprise).
2. If you'd like to create custom learning objectives for the group, click the option to Enable Learning Objectives.
3. If you're sure you'd like to enable learning objectives for the collection, click Enable.

Add Custom Learning Objectives to the Group

1. Click the Learning Objectives folder that displays when you enable learning objectives for the group.
2. Click the Add button.
3. Select the option to add a Folder, Custom Learning Objective, or other alignments to your resources.
4. We recommend using a folder structure to organize your learning objectives.
5. Enter the title of a learning objective and a description of the item.

6. Click Create to complete.
   
   

   

   For more information on importing, moving, and deleting learning objectives, review the previous section about personal learning objectives.

Disable Learning Objectives

1. Click the name of the Group Resource collection, or click the Resources area of the group.
2. Click the gear to the right of the Learning Objectives folder.

3. Click Disable.

   

   Disabling learning objectives in a group removes all learning objectives from the particular group, but it does not delete the learning objectives from the system. Re-enabling the learning objective re-populates them to the Learning Objectives folder.

School Learning Objectives

School Learning Objectives are objectives created by system administrators at your school or organization. They are accessible to all faculty members of the school or organization. If you're a system administrator, and you'd like to learn more about setting learning objectives in your school, please see our System Settings guide for Grade Settings.

How do I use Learning Objectives?

When creating a course material or resource template, you'll see the option to Align Learning Objectives to the material or resource.

1. Create or edit a course material or resource template.
2. Find the Option settings near the bottom of the form.
3. Click the Align Learning Objectives icon.
4. Depending on the Personal, Group, and School Learning Objectives available to you, you may click on a category, and select from available Learning Objectives.

Attach these learning objectives to the material or resource template to help you assess student progress.

Since learning objectives are customizable and may be unique to a particular party, you cannot attach them to Public Resources, which are resources shared globally with Schoology users.