VISION User Guide

To decide if an objective should be classified as a process, it is important that you consider several key factors.  Does the objective meet the definition of a process?  How does it compare with examples of other process objectives?  What instructional strategy would be used to teach the objective, and does that strategy make sense?  The answers to these questions, and more are provided by the topics below.  

Definition of a Process Objective

A process can be defined as:

       A set of sequential actions or events

       That occur within a system

       Resulting in something being accomplished

       Classify your objective as a use/process if it requires the learner to give the likely cause of system malfunction, or predict the likely results of changes to the system based on how the process works.

Examples of a Process Objective

Here are some examples of objectives classified as a use/process:

•Isolate a problem in the air conditioning start up circuit.

•Identify the potential effects of replacing the 5 gal. per minute pump with a 7 gal. pump in the fresh water transfer system.

•Identify the potential effects of cooling system failure during peak operation.

•Given history, symptoms and necessary test results, diagnose a problem in the patient's circulatory system.

•Given a scenario describing proposed policy and organization changes, predict the likely impact of the changes on the number of maintenance activities, total annual capacity, cost and staff loads.

All of the examples above meet the criteria for a use/process.  They require the learner to apply knowledge of the steps involved in a system to diagnose a problem, or predict the impact of a change.

Typical Action Verbs of Process Objectives

Below is a list of action verbs commonly used with process objectives

Instructional Benefits of Process Objectives

Why teach people a process?  What can learners do with knowledge of how a system works?  Understanding a process by which a system operates allows learners to do two things:

1.Figure out the possible causes of some unusual or problematic behavior in a system.

2.Predict the result of a change to the system, its components or the sequential actions that enable it to work.

Moreover, it's a good way to simply teach how a system works.

Let's suppose that complaints about the quality of maintenance work in your organization have increased dramatically over the past several months.  You might be able to come up with several possible causes based on your knowledge of the work order and maintenance process.  By tracking through the process to gather information, you might be able to pin down the cause of the maintenance problem.  For example, if you discovered a new QC engineer came on board several months ago, you would probe in that direction for more information.  Perhaps you would discover that all of the maintenance problems occurred on his or her watch.

Classifying an objective as a "use/process" follows the same logic.  It means that the instruction will focus on how the process works, with the ultimate goal of enabling the learner to apply the knowledge to diagnose a problem in the system.

But here is a very important point:

The reason for this type of objective is not necessarily limited to whether of not you want someone to actually diagnose a problem in the real system.  It may be valuable to write a use/process objective simply to teach someone about the system.  

The exercise of diagnosing a problem is a more interesting, more challenging way to orient instruction about how a system works.  It certainly beats asking someone to memorize all of the  various parts or components of the system.  If the learner can use his or her system knowledge to isolate a problem or predict the outcome of a change, you can be pretty sure he or she understands the system in quite well.

Instructional Strategy for Process Objectives

See Also:

Developing Instruction for Process Objectives