Performance Objectives

This discussion forum examines the role of performance objectives in assessing the knowledge and skills of online learners. Respond to the following and, if appropriate, include personal experience as part of your answers.

Use the Ashford Library and find a research study from a peer-reviewed journal that addresses the assessment of knowledge and skills in online learning environments. Please make sure to use APA formatting to appropriately cite your source. In your posting, include or share relevant points from your research article regarding assessing the online learner. Also, include an APA formatted reference of the article.

Tip: Use this library tutorial for advanced searches to learn about searching for peer reviewed journals.

Part 1

Objectives are the steps the learner takes to achieve learning goals. According this week's material, objectives must be narrow, concrete, and measurable. Therefore, the performance objectives of a lesson should be observable. However, due to distance or a technological barrier, do you think that obstacles could arise to prevent accurate observations to determine whether a student has accomplished a performance objective? If so, what are some ways that these barriers might be overcome?

A common concern among online instructors is students submitting original work. How can you verify that a student's performance is original and not copied from another source? If you were an online instructor, what would be your policy on plagiarism? What action would you take if you had a student who submitted someone else's work without properly attributing that work to the external source?

Part 2

Next you will apply what you know about writing performance objectives to this point and construct three performance objectives.

Read the follow outcomes:

1. Make a good cup of coffee

2. Safely mow the lawn

3. Write a well constructed research paper

Select one of those outcomes and create three performance objectives that would measure whether the outcome was successfully attained. For example, if you told someone to "make a good cup of coffee," what are three measureable objectives that you would use to assess whether that individual actually did "make a good cup of coffee"?

As you write the performance objectives, make sure you are challenging your students. Bloom's taxonomy is a great framework to use to ensure that you are writing objectives that push students into the higher order of thinking (Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation). Use this framework when writing your three objectives. Write one objective at the Analysis level, one at the Synthesis level, and one at the Evaluation level.