diff --git a/examples/new_project_templates/lightning_module_template.py b/examples/new_project_templates/lightning_module_template.py
index a0c65af546..7f5459e161 100644
--- a/examples/new_project_templates/lightning_module_template.py
+++ b/examples/new_project_templates/lightning_module_template.py
@@ -86,7 +86,9 @@ class LightningTemplateModel(LightningModule):
         output = OrderedDict({
             'loss': loss_val
         })
-        return loss_val
+
+        # can also return just a scalar instead of a dict (return loss_val)
+        return output
 
     def validation_step(self, data_batch, batch_i):
         """
@@ -108,7 +110,9 @@ class LightningTemplateModel(LightningModule):
             'val_loss': loss_val,
             'val_acc': torch.tensor(val_acc).cuda(loss_val.device.index),
         })
-        return loss_val
+
+        # can also return just a scalar instead of a dict (return loss_val)
+        return output
 
     def validation_end(self, outputs):
         """
@@ -116,7 +120,9 @@ class LightningTemplateModel(LightningModule):
         :param outputs: list of individual outputs of each validation step
         :return:
         """
-        return torch.stack(outputs).mean()
+        # if returned a scalar from validation_step, outputs is a list of tensor scalars
+        # we return just the average in this case (if we want)
+        # return torch.stack(outputs).mean()
 
         val_loss_mean = 0
         val_acc_mean = 0