Evaluating Your Course Design: Evaluating Objectives

Model Example

Directions
In this assignment you will be evaluating the objectives of your online course. Based on what
you read in the Evaluating Objectives Lesson, answer the questions below for the online course
you are evaluating.

Questions
Title of the course and module you are evaluating: Criminal Law: Statutory Interpretation, Week
02 Module
Course-Level Objectives
1. What are the course-level objectives in the course you are evaluating?
1. Identify, explain, and apply common methods of statutory interpretation and
analysis.
1.1. Articulate and apply the “textual/plain meaning,” legislative history, and public
policy approaches to statutory interpretation, demonstrating an understanding
of the relationship between legislative, executive, and judicial branches of
government in defining criminal liability.
1.2. Articulate and apply the “rule of lenity” in interpreting criminal statutes,
demonstrating an understanding of the public policy reasons behind this rule.
1.3. Articulate and apply canons of statutory interpretation.
1.4. Demonstrate the ability to divide criminal statutes into the core elements of
acts, mental states, consequences, and circumstances,
1.5. Demonstrate the ability to identify facts necessary to establish each element in
the statutory definition of a crime.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of foundational principles of criminal liability.
2.1. Demonstrate an understanding of the different theories of punishment that
underlie the definition of substantive criminal offenses, differentiating between
retribution, prevention, rehabilitation, deterrence, and expression.
2.2. Demonstrate an understanding of the meaning and application of causation in
the criminal law context.
2.3. Appreciate the reach and limits of criminal liability in crimes of omission and
strict liability.
2.4. Demonstrate an understanding of how mistakes of fact or mistake of law affect
criminal liability.
3. Articulate the elements of specific crimes and apply those legal doctrines to new
factual situations.

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 3.1. Differentiate the elements that separate homicide into different degrees of
murder and manslaughter, demonstrating how facts can be used to infer the
existence of different mental states that establish different degrees of homicide.
3.2. Differentiate the elements of theft, robbery, and burglary, demonstrating an
understanding of the different harms punished by each.
3.3. Articulate the elements of physical assault and battery statutes.
3.4. Articulate the elements of sexual assault statutes, demonstrating an
understanding of how the elements of consent, force, and harm affect criminal
liability.
3.5. Articulate and apply the law interpreting criminal responsibility for offenses
involving possession.

2. Where did you find these course-level objectives? In the syllabus.

Module/Unit-Level Objectives
3. What are the module/unit-level objectives in the module of the course you are
evaluating? (Only one module is required; however, multiple modules are shown for this
example.)
Week 02 Module:
1. Articulate and apply the law governing circumstances under which an omission to
act can give rise to criminal liability.
2. Articulate and apply the criminal tests for legal and proximate causation.
3. Articulate the difference between a mistake of law and a mistake of fact and
appreciate the policy reasons for treating them differently for purposes of criminal
liability.
Week 03 Module
1. Articulate the “plain meaning” approach to statutory interpretation and
demonstrate an appreciation of its primacy in statutory interpretation.
2. Articulate and apply basic canons of statutory interpretation.
3. Understand the role of “legislative history” and “public policy” approaches to
interpreting ambiguous statutes.
4. Appreciate the reasons for drafting criminal statutes broadly and interpreting them
narrowly.
Week 04 Module
1. Appreciate the importance of mens rea to theories of punishment.
2. Appreciate the challenge of interpreting statutory mens rea in the absence of clear
legislative guidance.
3. Distinguish and explain the four mental states in the Model Penal Code culpability
standards.
4. Apply the MPC culpability standards to a hypothetical fact pattern.

4. Where did you find these module/unit-level objectives? These were found on the
overview page of each module.

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Measurability

5. Are the course-level objectives in the course you are evaluating measurable? Explain
why or why not. Not all competencies are measurable and specific. For example,
competencies 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 3.2, and 3.4 include "demonstrate an understanding
of..." or "appreciate" which are both non-measurable verbs. Some other competencies
seem to be measurable and specific as these use verbs such as differentiate, identify,
apply, and evaluate.
6. Are the module/unit-level objectives in the course you are evaluating measurable?
Explain why or why not. Some of the module-level objectives are not measurable. For
example, the learning objectives 1 and 2 of week 04 use a non-measurable verb such as
“appreciate.” How could one observe what a student appreciates?

7. Are the module/unit-level objectives in the course you are evaluating consistent with
the course-level objectives? Explain why or why not. Only a few module objectives seem
to be consistent with the course objectives; however, both course objectives and
module objectives include non-measurable action verbs that affects their alignment.

For example, the first portion of the week 03 module objective “Articulate the “plain
meaning” approach to statutory interpretation and demonstrate an appreciation of its
primacy in statutory interpretation” seems to be consistent with a portion of the course
objective “Articulate and apply the textual/plain meaning legislative history.”

Clarity
8. Is it clear to you what each course-level and module/unit-level objective means? Explain
why or why not. Some course and module objectives with measurable action verbs are
somewhat easy to understand but unmeasurable objectives or objectives that include
Latin words or abbreviations might be difficult to understand unless learners are already
familiar with those words or acronyms (or abbreviations). For example, the week 04
module objective “Appreciate the importance of mens rea to theories of punishment”
uses the term “mens rea” which might not be easy to understand if this is a concept that
is just being introduced in this course. The module objective “Apply the MPC culpability
standards to a hypothetical fact pattern” uses an acronym that is spell in a preceding
objective but not clearly specified as the expanded form of the acronym (“Distinguish
and explain the four mental states in the Model Penal Code culpability standards.”)

Suitability
9. What is the level of your course (is it a lower-level, introductory course, or an upper-
level course; for K-12 instructors, what is the grade level)? This is a lower-level course.
10. At what level(s) are your course-level and module/unit-level objectives? How did you
determine your answer to this question (did you use a taxonomy? If so, which one)? It is
somewhat difficult to determine the level of the course or module objectives as some

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 objectives are non-measurable and clear; however, based on the objectives that are
measurable, it seems that these are suitable for a lower-level course.
11. Overall, are your course-level and module/unit-level objectives suited to the level of the
course? Explain why or why not. If I use the verbs “articulate” and “differentiate” as a
reference which are at the lower level of the Bloom’s taxonomy (Understand), the
objectives are suited for the level of the course. This is a lower-level course where
students are introduced to concepts and facts they need to recall and explain. In some
instances, students will need to draw connections and apply ideas or concepts, that
were introduced by demonstrating higher order thinking skills found at the upper levels
of the Bloom’s Taxonomy. For example, “Apply the Model Penal Code (MPC) culpability
standards to a hypothetical fact pattern.” I used the following Bloom’s taxonomy:
(https://tips.uark.edu/blooms-taxonomy-verb-chart/ )

12. What are the prerequisites required for your course? There are no prerequisites.
13. Where did you find information about these prerequisites? In the course syllabus.

14. Do you think your learners will meet these prerequisites before taking your course?
Explain why or why not. There are no pre-requisites for this course.

15. What academic support services are available to your learners? Law library and
academic excellence program.
16. Where did you find information about these academic support services? On the course
home page.

17. What student services are available to your learners? Counseling services, career and
professional development, library resources, financial aid, diversity and inclusion, and
the office of dean of students.

18. Where did you find information about these student services? On the course home
page.

Facilitator Feedback
Rating (Met or Revise):

Facilitator’s Overall Feedback:

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