Lesson 4 of 13 · Module 2: Map the Curriculum
Write Objectives in Mager Form
Write full three-part Mager objectives (Behavior, Condition, Criterion) for at least 3 items from your Lesson 3 action map.
How to Write a Learning Objective in Just 5 Minutes!
good, on-topic, recent, under the length target. Not a 3-objective rewrite exactly as described, but shows the same before/after discipline.
Objective
Why This Matters
You write this exact structure into every deal review and forecast call: specific behavior, specific condition, specific bar. You don’t need a lecture on what a three-part objective is, you’d write one better than most instructional designers by lunch. The actual risk in this lesson is narrower and sneakier: expert blind spot. When you’re this fluent in your own topic, “obviously important” details slip into objectives disguised as behaviors, and vague criteria slip through because you personally know what “done well” looks like without writing it down.
The Technique
Recap the shape fast, since you know it cold: Behavior is the verb, never “understand” or “know.” Condition is what tools, constraints, and context the learner has when performing it. Criterion is the specific, checkable bar for pass or fail.
The test that actually matters here is the stranger test: hand the objective, with no other context, to someone unfamiliar with the topic and ask them to judge a submission as pass or fail using only that sentence. If they need to ask you a clarifying question, the criterion isn’t done. This test catches the exact failure mode expert-written objectives fall into: criteria that are precise in your head and vague on the page, because you’re unconsciously filling the gaps with knowledge the reader doesn’t have.
Write the objective for what the learner does, not what you want to say. “Behavior: explain the three pricing models” describes a lecture, not a skill. “Behavior: set a defensible price for one offer and write the one-sentence justification” describes a thing they produce.
Watch For This
Good
- “Criterion: the price is justified by a specific named anchor (cost of the problem, cost of an alternative, or documented willingness-to-pay data), and a stranger can identify which anchor was used from the write-up alone.”
- Every objective could be handed to someone with zero background and judged without a follow-up question.
Classic Failure
- Behavior is really a topic in disguise: “explain pricing strategy” instead of “set a price and justify it.”
- Criterion sounds precise but only works if the reader already shares your mental model: “the price should feel right for the market.”
- Objectives were written from what you want to teach, not from the action map’s actual sequence.
Your Drill
Pick 3 items from your Lesson 3 action map. Write a full Mager objective (Behavior, Condition, Criterion) for each. Read all 3 to one person unfamiliar with your topic and ask, for each one, “could you judge pass or fail on this alone, with nothing else from me?” Log where they got stuck.
Done? Paste what you made into the AI coach below for notes against this lesson's pass checklist.
Pass Checklist
Lesson complete
Criterion met: Every behavior is a single observable action verb, every condition names the specific tools/context/constraints, and every criterion is specific enough that two different readers would independently agree on pass or fail from the wording alone.
Next: Lesson 5: Design the Drill and Feedback LoopHow solid did that feel?
Noted.
Coach Note
When your outside reader asks a clarifying question, don’t answer it out loud and move on. Write the answer into the criterion instead. That gap they just found is the exact gap a real learner would have hit alone, with no one there to ask.
AI Coach
Conversations clear when you leave the page.
Ask about this lesson, or paste what your drill produced above and get it checked against the list.
The coach comes online shortly.
Resurfaces In
Lesson 5 (one objective becomes a full drill), Lesson 6 (objectives anchor each script), Lesson 13 (Capstone).