Designing Principles for Creating Effective Web-Based Learning Resources in the Geosciences

Topical Resources

Useful Examples of Explicit Learning Goals

An explicit listing of learning goals should be one of the first things people see when they access an online resource. This helps your students know exactly what will be expected of them. It also allows other educators who come across your site to know what it is about and whether or not they might be able to use or adapt it for their teaching.

Unfortunately, few educational web sites actually include this explicit list and even fewer include it on the front page. Much of it must be gleaned from context, or simply isn't available. The following examples demonstrate a variety of ways to explicitly incorporate learning goals at or near the top of a web resources.

Cosmic Catastrophes (more info) class at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
These class goals are the first listing on the class homepage.

Vostok Ice Core activity - http://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/mathstatmodels/examples/Vostok.html
The learning goals for this exercise are located near the top of this one-page activity description.

[link

https://web.archive.org/web/20160508034624/http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/ocean608/

]
The objectives for this activity are near the top of the opening page.

History of Geologic Theory class at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Extensive class objectives and outcomes are listed under one of only two links off the main class page.

Dr. Robert Stewart's Physical Oceanography Class Page (more info) at Texas A&M University
The goals for this class are listed under one of several links off of the main class page.