Bloom’s Taxonomy Learning Objective Design Training Course

Course overview

Learning and Development teams are frequently asked to prove that training supports operational performance, yet many course objectives remain vague: “understand the policy,” “know the process,” or “be aware of risk.” Such statements cannot guide content selection, assessment design, facilitator decisions, or post-training evaluation. This course addresses the practical gap between a business request and a measurable learning objective that specifies what people must be able to do, under what conditions, and to what standard.

Participants use the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy to distinguish remembering and understanding from applying, analysing, evaluating, and creating. They translate performance problems into observable behaviours; select precise action verbs; write objectives using the Audience, Behaviour, Condition and Degree (ABCD) model; and align objectives with activities, assessments, and evidence of competence. The course also covers common design errors, including unmeasurable verbs, objectives that describe content rather than performance, and assessments that test at a lower cognitive level than the stated objective.

Instruction combines expert-led demonstrations, critique of real L&D examples, individual writing practice, peer review, and structured design workshops. Participants bring or select a workplace learning initiative and leave with an Objective-to-Assessment Alignment Pack: a performance analysis, a set of tiered learning objectives, assessment blueprints, activity recommendations, and a quality-check rubric ready for stakeholder review or course development.

The programme suits experienced L&D professionals, instructional designers, facilitators, and HR capability specialists who already work with training programmes and need a disciplined, defensible method for designing learning that can be assessed and applied at work.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Diagnose performance gaps using a task-and-performance analysis before drafting learning objectives
• Classify workplace learning outcomes across the six levels of the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy
• Select observable Bloom’s action verbs that match a defined cognitive level and job task
• Write measurable learning objectives using the Audience, Behaviour, Condition and Degree (ABCD) model
• Differentiate enabling objectives from terminal performance objectives within a learning pathway
• Construct assessment criteria and evidence requirements aligned to each stated learning objective
• Audit existing course objectives with a Bloom’s alignment and measurability quality-check rubric
• Produce an Objective-to-Assessment Alignment Pack for a workplace learning initiative

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Learning and Development Managers — who must ensure learning investments address measurable capability needs
• Instructional Designers — who need a reliable method for turning subject-matter input into assessable objectives
• Learning Experience Designers — who sequence digital, classroom, and blended activities around intended performance
• Training Managers — who commission programmes and need to challenge vague learning outcomes before build begins
• HR Business Partners — who connect workforce capability plans to role performance and business priorities
• Subject-Matter Experts and Internal Facilitators — who contribute technical content and need to express expected learner performance clearly

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience contributing to, designing, facilitating, or reviewing workplace learning programmes. They should be comfortable discussing job roles, business processes, performance standards, and basic assessment formats such as knowledge checks, demonstrations, or workplace observations. Familiarity with course outlines, facilitator guides, or learning management systems is useful but not essential. Participants should bring a real training brief, existing course, or capability problem where possible. No prior formal qualification in instructional design, psychometrics, educational theory, or e-learning authoring is required, and no statistical analysis is used.

Training methodology

The instructor models each design decision using workplace examples such as compliance, systems, leadership, and technical-process training. Participants analyse weak objectives, map job tasks to Bloom’s cognitive levels, and rewrite objectives through timed individual and small-group workshops. Peer-review rounds use a structured rubric to test measurability, conditions, standards, and assessment fit. Case studies show the consequences of misalignment between objectives and evaluation. On the final day, each participant applies the method to a live learning brief and receives facilitator and peer feedback on an implementation-ready alignment pack.

Course outline

Day 1: From business request to performance requirement

• Distinguishing training requests from verified performance problems
• Performance analysis using role, task, condition, and standard
• Knowledge, skill, judgement, and attitude as distinct learning requirements
• Terminal objectives and enabling objectives in workplace programmes
• Content statements versus observable performance statements
• Evidence sources for defining competent job performance
• Objective-writing failure patterns in corporate learning briefs

Workshop: Participants analyse a flawed training brief and produce a performance-gap statement, target-role definition, and initial evidence list.

Day 2: Applying the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy

• The Anderson–Krathwohl revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy
• Remembering and understanding objectives for foundational knowledge
• Applying objectives for rule-based and procedural work
• Analysing objectives for diagnosis, comparison, and root-cause work
• Evaluating objectives for judgement, prioritisation, and decision-making
• Creating objectives for design, planning, and solution development
• Selecting action verbs without overstating cognitive complexity

Workshop: Participants classify sample workplace objectives by cognitive level and create a Bloom’s taxonomy map for their own learning initiative.

Day 3: Writing measurable performance objectives

• The Audience, Behaviour, Condition and Degree model
• Defining observable behaviour with precise performance verbs
• Writing conditions that reflect tools, information, constraints, and work context
• Setting degree criteria using accuracy, time, quality, and compliance measures
• Using Mager-style performance objective structure
• Avoiding unmeasurable verbs such as understand, know, learn, and appreciate
• Sequencing objectives from prerequisite capability to terminal performance

Workshop: Participants draft and refine a complete objective set using the ABCD model, including conditions and measurable degree criteria.

Day 4: Aligning objectives, learning activities, and assessment

• Constructive alignment between objectives, practice, and assessment
• Matching assessment methods to Bloom’s cognitive levels
• Knowledge checks, scenario questions, simulations, demonstrations, and workplace observations
• Creating analytic scoring rubrics for complex performance
• Designing practice activities that prepare learners for assessment
• Detecting under-assessment and over-assessment in course designs
• Building an objective-to-assessment alignment matrix

Workshop: Participants build an alignment matrix linking each of their objectives to learning activities, assessment evidence, and scoring criteria.

Day 5: Quality assurance and workplace implementation

• Objective quality criteria for clarity, measurability, relevance, and level
• Peer-review protocols for learning objective critique
• Using stakeholder language without losing performance precision
• Reconciling business metrics with learning and assessment measures
• Adapting Bloom’s objectives for classroom, virtual, and e-learning delivery
• Version control and governance for approved objective sets
• Implementation planning for a live learning design project

Workshop: Participants present their Objective-to-Assessment Alignment Pack for peer review and produce a 30-day plan for applying it to a live programme.

Tools & standards covered

Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy (Anderson–Krathwohl), Microsoft Excel, Articulate Storyline 360, Moodle LMS

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions