Because teaching has dynamic qualities, written objectives may not be available or may need to be updated. Further, as faculty are generally actively engaged in revising their materials and practices, there may be a tendency to write objectives that describe instructional activities rather than student outcomes. Goals and objectives are different in that goals express intended outcomes in general terms and objectives express them in specific terms. Goals are written in broad, global, and sometimes vague, language. Objectives are statements that describe the intended results of instruction in terms of specific student behaviors.
Confusion occurs often on how to describe a measurable objective.
A statement such as ' Students should understand how to work in a team' is difficult to come up a good measurable method to assess 'students' understanding' on how to work as a team. Students should be able to manage their schedule for team work and write the team report.' are more measurable. The verbs such as understand, know, have, and so on are often too vague to be measurable. The verbs such as demonstrate, articulate, critique, present, perform, and so on usually are easier to identify how this objective will be measured. Learning outcomes are about knowledge, skills gained, attitudes, beliefs changes and professional values and ethics.