SMART (S = Specific, M = Measurable, A = Attainable, R = Relevant, T = Time-bound) principle is a goal-setting theory that includes five aspects: clarity, measurability, achievability, relevance, and timeliness. This online nutrition practice course introduces SMART principle teaching methodology to help students build autonomous learning capabilities. Questionnaires were used to learn about students' satisfaction. We also evaluated the students' practical skills by measuring students' self-perception of collaborative attitude, leadership, communication skills and intellectual challenge abilities before and after the course. The results found that 89.7% (26/29) of the students were generally satisfied with this online nutrition practice course. About 86.2% (25/29) of the students thought online learning was acceptable. By the end of the course, students' self-perception of collaborative attitude, leadership, communication skills and intellectual challenge abilities were increased by 7%, 13%, 14% and 10%, respectively. This online nutrition practice course indicates that SMART principle can help students build autonomous learning capabilities by setting practical, specific and time-limited teaching objectives, which improves students' learning enthusiasm and effectively enhances the practice ability of students.