A good learning objective describes something a learner will be able to do, in a way you could watch them do it. The verb carries most of that weight. This guide gives you the verbs for each level of Bloom's Taxonomy, the verbs to avoid, and a free checker you can paste your own objectives into.
Paste one learning objective. The check runs in your browser; nothing is sent anywhere.
The six levels, with verbs and examples
This is the revised taxonomy (Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001), which is the version most instructional designers use today. The levels run from recalling information up to producing something new. Higher isn't automatically better: pick the level the job actually requires.
Remember
Recall facts and basic concepts.
define, list, name, recall, recognize, identify, state, label, match
Example List the four data classification levels used at the company.
Understand
Explain ideas or concepts in your own words.
explain, summarize, classify, compare, describe, interpret, paraphrase, give an example of
Example Explain why a customer record is classified as confidential.
Apply
Use a procedure or idea in a new, concrete situation.
apply, use, demonstrate, execute, implement, calculate, complete, perform, solve
Example Apply the correct handling steps to a customer record you receive by email.
Analyze
Break information into parts and see how they relate.
analyze, differentiate, distinguish, examine, organize, compare and contrast, diagnose, troubleshoot
Example Distinguish a legitimate data request from a social engineering attempt.
Evaluate
Make and justify a judgment against criteria.
evaluate, justify, critique, assess, prioritize, recommend, decide, defend
Example Decide whether a vendor's data practices meet the company's privacy standard, and justify the decision.
Create
Put elements together into something new.
design, create, develop, plan, produce, compose, construct, propose
Example Design a data-handling checklist for your team's onboarding.
Some verbs appear at more than one level. "Compare" can mean describing differences (Understand) or working out how parts relate (Analyze). The context and the task decide the level, not the verb alone.
Verbs to avoid
These verbs describe something happening inside a learner's head. You can't observe them, so you can't assess them, so they can't anchor a course.
The fix is almost always the same question: what would I see them do if they understood it? "Understand phishing" becomes "Identify three warning signs in a suspicious email." Now you know what to teach, what to practice, and what to put on the quiz.
A four-part way to write an objective
A reliable pattern is Audience, Behavior, Condition, Degree:
- Audience: who (often implied: "you" or "learners").
- Behavior: the observable verb and what it acts on.
- Condition: the situation or tools involved.
- Degree: how well, when that matters.
Given a sample inbox of ten emails (condition), learners will identify (audience + behavior) the phishing attempts, missing no more than one (degree).
Objective checklist
- Starts from an observable verb, not "understand" or "know".
- Names one behavior, not three stitched together with "and".
- Sits at the level the job requires, not a level that sounds impressive.
- Could be assessed with a task that looks like the real job.
- Has a matching practice activity before it's assessed.
- Has at least one assessment item that actually measures it (see alignment).
Checking a whole course
The checker above looks at one objective and one verb. A real course needs more: whether each objective is at the right level, whether the assessments match, and whether the practice builds toward them. Pedagrade checks all of that at once. Paste a course or upload the file and it reviews every objective against Bloom's, flags the ones that can't be measured, and writes a better version for each.
See what it finds in your course.
Paste a course or upload the file. In about a minute you get a scored report with every finding cited and the fix written for you. Your first audit is free.
Start your free audit