Are the goals and objectives changed when you take a course online compared to classroom-based instruction? Let’s think about this for a minute.

First of all, a goal is something that you are working towards–what do you want the students to be able to do as a result of a course or activity? Thus, your objectives are the steps that you will take to reach that goal. What are the building blocks to reach the ultimate goal?

Now, when thinking about the design of an online class the goals and objectives are still the same as long as the objective is a broaden objective instead of a specific activity. If you are teaching a History class in a traditional classroom and you decide to transfer the class online for the next year, your goals and objectives can still stay the same. Now, considering the tasks in the middle that accommodate, or the activities that are used to achieve the objectives and work toward the goal, they might need a little reworked to fit the distance education format. For example, if one of my activities, to accommodate an objective, is to role play the life of a slave–then such an activity might be transferred to a writing activity where the student writes about the life of a slave as if they are the slave. Overall, the goals and objectives for an online class are still the same, however, the activities used to achieve the goals and objectives may have to be altered a little to accommodate the world of distance education.