Many organizations are now reviewing their operations to develop appropriate measures to overcome deficiency problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The deadly virus has affected mobility, with many countries shutting down their transport networks and systems to contain its spread. From this perspective, approaches such as working from home have been widely adopted to reduce the number of employees in the workplace. Likewise, instructors have shifted to the online space where learning programs are rolled out to accomplish the desired objectives. Despite the willingness of individuals to adjust to the changing times, they face new challenges in coping with different situations. Developing instructional goals and performance objectives enable various parties to align their interests with the latest outcomes and overcome challenges that hinder overall progression. Instructional purposes should be SMART because of their dedicated approach to defining activities, highlighting the key insights, and indicating the concepts that learning institutions can use to dispense information to the students.
Developing Instructional Goals
Understanding the needs of individuals presents an opportunity for instructors to make informed decisions regarding the approaches that address immediate problems. When the world is adjusting to the digital space, many instructors and students were not prepared for the sudden shift. Developing practical instructional goals enables learning institutions to accomplish their desired objectives and overcome any challenges that might hinder the learning process (Richey, Klein, & Tracey, 2011). Instructional purposes can be categorized into three groups that include cognitive, affective, and psychomotor goals. Depending on the specific needs of learners, instructors can identify the objectives that complement the different abilities of individuals in the learning environment, as discussed below.
Types of Instructional Goals
Cognitive Objectives
Instructors examine the different needs of learners and identify an approach that addresses these problems. Under cognitive objectives, tutors might require students to be online for a certain period where learning will take place. Within that period, the learning objectives can be divided further to focus on the different problems affecting a student’s ability to comprehend the specified subject.
Affective Objectives
The pandemic has hindered mobility and affected the ability of individuals to live normally. Even with many governments providing an economic stimulus package, individuals are experiencing difficult times. From this perspective, instructors should monitor the students’ attitude towards learning to measure the effectiveness of the various study lessons.
Psychomotor Objectives
Since the shift to the online space might limit the student-teacher interaction, learning institutions should develop programs that allow instructors to monitor students’ skills. Developing tasks and requiring students to submit the finished outcome within a specific timeframe enables instructors to evaluate learners’ skill sets and their ability to meet the desired objectives.
Learning Goals for the Digital Space
Before the pandemic affected outcomes in the learning environment, instructors had developed clear goals that would guide the study process. However, due to the government’s directives advising people to stay at home, learning has primarily been affected. Compelling students to shift to the online space might take time to put in measures that ensure the quality of education is not changed during the transition. From this observation, instructors should develop viable strategies aligned to the new learning environment to maintain the conventional standards of education (Christensen, 2008). Keeping the same learning standards as before is critical to institutions’ ability to present viable solutions that correspond to the different aspects affecting individuals in their immediate environment.
By understanding the different needs of individuals, tutors can comprehend the various aspects that meet the evolving situation and review its ability to resolve issues that hinder the learning process. Besides, ensuring the learning goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound exposes instructors to an enabling environment where they can accomplish their expected results. Since it is impossible for instructors to create physical learning stations now, the online platforms should expose students to a simulation experience that monitors their ability to accomplish different objectives. Likewise, digital task cards and slots can enable learners to align their interests with distinct objectives embraced by institutions to facilitate the execution and implementation of learning goals.
Performance Objectives
Conditions
When learning has shifted to the online space, institutions should ensure that all students can access stable internet and other learning resources, which facilitate the entire study process. Likewise, schools should establish a command control center that captures the student-teacher interactions to monitor the nature of engagements between the two parties. The online shift should not undermine the quality of education because of the need to produce brilliant minds that can develop viable solutions to address significant problems affecting individuals in their immediate environment. The learning outcomes should be measured using practical digital tools that correspond to the changing needs, considering the nature of approaches that can be used at any given time.
Behavior
Just like in a typical classroom setting, learners should be exposed to a curriculum that lists out the informational resources that will be used during the learning process. Likewise, the students’ comprehension and other aspects should be continuously evaluated to identify learners who experience difficulties understanding different study topics (Dabbagh, 2013). From this realization, instructors have a role in guiding students towards the comprehensive study approaches that can be used to modify outcomes and overcome challenges affecting the quality of education being offered online. By addressing these issues, the student’s ability to solve learning problems will enable instructors to develop a practical goal that the learners can achieve.
Performance
By submitting tests on time and complying with the outlined guidelines, students will be measured against the course objectives to identify specific aspects that contribute towards the realization of different issues affecting individuals in their surroundings. Comprehending the measures that can be executed in the new learning environment presents exciting opportunities that both learners and instructors can explore to enhance their relations. Teacher’s counsel is now available by the click of a button, and communication outside the learning environment has improved drastically, exposing individuals to a wide range of approaches that can be used to overcome their issues.
Conclusion
Instructional goals should be SMART because of their dedicated approach to defining activities, highlighting the key insights, and indicating the concepts that learning institutions can use to dispense information to the students. Learning in the new era has opened up opportunities that can be carried to regular times when the world heals from the COVID-19 pandemic. Many organizations have realized that they can have employees working from home and still deliver the required objectives. Likewise, understanding the different aspects that affect individuals’ ability to discover their potential has been addressed in the shift to the online space. Learning institutions are now holding online classes to meet curriculum goals. In their part, instructors are expected to develop viable instructional goals and performance objectives that guide their interactions with students and other stakeholders.
