Do you have objectives or outcomes?

How many of you saw the title and thought, aren't those the same thing? How many read the title and knew they're different?

Let's dive in, shall we?

An objective is measurable and has an action verb related to a knowledge, skill, or behavior. Say you're creating a training for the service industry, and within the training you have the learner practice creating a combination of drinks. A worthwhile objective for this might be "The learner will create at least 10 correct drink orders in seven minutes." 

In the online training you'd have a timer on screen, and as orders come in they make the drinks. This practice would measure if the learner was successful or not about their knowledge of how to make certain drinks.

Take it a step further and use some on-the-job training with the same objective to assess the skill component. They have the knowledge of what goes into the drinks, now lets test if they can actually make them. 

The outcome of training/learning opportunities is so that more customers will be served in a given time frame. Another benefit for the company may be that the customers give more positive ratings because the service is quick and free of error. 

So here's the take away:

It's important to know the difference between an objective and outcome because when you create a course, learners need to know what is expected of them. When learners know what is expected of them they will focus on details that will help them achieve that.

Another equally important take away is there needs to be evidence that this training or course was valuable. Having this data will give the company for learning department figure out where the knowledge, skill, or behavior gap lies: in the training or in the environment.