Types of Analysis for Quality Instructional Design

• Analyzing The Learning Context
• Needs Assessment
• Problem Model
• Determine whether there really is a problem
• Determine whether the cause of the problem is related to employee's performance in training environments or to learner's achievement in educational environments.
• Determine whether the solution to the achievement/performance problem is learning.
• Determine whether instruction for these learning goals is currently offered.
• Innovation Model
• Determine the nature of the innovation or change.
• Determine the learning goals that accompany this innovation.
• If there is a choice, determine whether these goals are appropriate and high priority in the learning system
• Begin learning environment analysis design activities
• Discrepancy Model
• List the goals of the instructional system.
• Determine how well the identified goals are already achieved.
• Prioritize gaps according to agreed-upon criteria.
• Determine which gaps are instructional needs and are most appropriate for design and development of instruction
• The Learning Environment
• What are the characteristics of the teachers/trainers who will be using the materials?
• Are there existing curricula into which this piece of instruction must fit? If so, what is the philosophy, strategy, or theory used in these materials?
• What hardware is commonly available in the potential learning environment?
• What are the characteristics of the classes, homes, and facilities that will use the new instruction?
• What are the characteristics of the school system or organization in which the new instruction will take place?
• What is the philosophy and what are the taboos of the larger community in which the organization or school system exists?

• Analyzing The Learners
• Cognitive Characteristics
• General Characteristics
• General aptitudes
• Specific aptitudes
• Developmental level, such as Piaget's levels of cognitive development
• Language development level
• Reading level
• Level of visual literacy; ability to gain information from graphics
• Cognitive processing styles - preferred and most effective
• Cognitive and learning strategies
• General World knowledge
• Specific Prior Knowledge < -- MOST IMPORTANT
• Remember, just because something has been taught does not mean it has been learned. Additionally, some of the student's knowledge and skill may have been forgotten.
• Physiological Characteristics
• Sensory perception
• General health
• Age
• Affective Characteristics
• Interests
• Motivation
• Motivations to learn
• Attitude toward subject matter
• Attitude toward learning
• Perceptions of and experience with specific forms of mediation
• Academic self-concept
• Anxiety level
• Beliefs
• Attribution of success (i.e., locus of control)
• Social Characteristics
• Relationships to peers
• Feelings toward authority
• Tendencies toward co-operation or competition
• Moral development, such as Kohlberg's stages of moral development
• Socioeconomic background
• Racial/ethnic background, affiliations
• Role models
• Assessing Learner Characteristics
• Interview teachers, trainers, and other educators who work with the target audience
• Interview and /or observe members of the target audience
• Have members of the target audience complete assessment instruments that provide information about cognitive strategies, processing styles, and preferred instructional delivery modes.
• Examine job descriptions and personnel profiles of organization
• Read texts and articles about particular age groups and developmental levels that provide information on their interests, social development, and physical characteristics.
• Read texts and articles that discuss the interests and motivations of individuals with particular socioeconomic, ethnic, or racial backgrounds.
• Instructional Strategy Factors that are related to Learner Characteristics (a non exhaustive list)
• Speed of presentation (pace)
• Number of successful experiences learners should have in practice
• Types of statements to convince students of the relevance of the instruction
• Techniques for gaining and focusing attention and the frequency of use of these techniques
• Context of examples and practice items
• Amount of structure and organization
• Amount of structure and organization
• Medium/media of instruction
• Level of concreteness/abstraction
• Grouping of students
• Size of instructional chunks
• Response mode (written, oral, etc.)
• Number and difficulty of examples and practice
• Type of feedback given after practise items
• Level of learner control
• Reading level
• Vocabulary and terminology used
• Amount and types of reinforcement
• Amount of time allowed for instruction
• Amount and type of learning guidance, cues, and prompts provided
• Notes
• Learner characteristics can influence instruction at the most fundamental levels
• Sometimes these influences are apparent, sometimes they require a great deal of thought
• A careful consideration of the general characteristics of the target audience may be what elevates mundane segments of instruction into compelling, imaginative, and memorable instruction.
• Information on learner characteristics may help the designer to create effective, efficient, and interesting instructional materials.
• Common error - assuming all learners are alike.
• Critical to consider your target audience, as this knowledge wil be important in designing instruction that is effective and interesting to learners.
• Two caveats: First, do not fall into the trap of designing for learners with characteristics you hope they have rather than the actual characteristics they do have. Second, do not fall into the ethnocentrism trap - a tendency to explain things the way we will understand them, use examples that are familiar to us, and use instructional techniques that work well for us.

• Analyzing The Learning Tasks
• Writing Learning Goals
  • Preliminary learning goals (broad based, ambiguous) --> Learning goals (focusing) --> Learning Goals in "observable terms" (prescriptive, detailed, unambiguous)
  • Adequate "Learning Goals" describe in detail what learners should be able to do after the instruction
• Determining Types of learning
  • There are various task analysis systems (Bloom, Merrill, Gagne)
  • Gagne's Task Analysis System - Classifying Learning Goals
    • Declarative Knowledge
      • Not required to apply, only recall, recognize, or state it.
      • "knowing that" something
    • Intellectual Skills
      • Can not only recall, but can apply it in instances not encountered during instruction
      • "Procedural knowledge"… knowing how
      • Discrimination - the ability to perceive that something either matches or differs from other things. Fundamental to learning.
      • Concepts
        • Grouping things into categories
        • Concrete Concepts - ability to classifiy things into categories by their physical characteristics (visually, auditory, etc)
        • Defined Concepts - concepts that are classified by whether they match a definition or a list of characteristics.
      • Principles - relational rules - learned capabilities that involve multiple concepts working together
      • Procedures - rules telling us what order certain steps should be taken
      • Problem Solving - a learned capability involving selection and application of multiple rules - "domain specific problem solving"
      • Notes
        • Intellectual skills build on each other; they are hierarchical. Learners must be able to make discriminations among objects before they can identify the concrete concepts. They must acquire the concepts that are used in rules, and they must have acquired the rules they will combine in unique ways to create domain-specific problem solving.
        • This hierarchical arrangement of learning tasks is great help to us when we are analyzing a learning task.
    • Cognitive Strategies
      • Weinstein and Mayer
      • Rehearsal Strategies - are used for basic learning tasks and complex learning tasks that aid in selection of information to be recalled and enhance retention of that information
      • Elaboration Strategies - are used for basic learning tasks and complex learning tasks that tie new information to prior knowledge
      • Organizational Strategies - are used for basic learning tasks and complex tasks that select information to be retained and define the relationships among this information so that it may be integrated into memory
      • Comprehensive Monitoring Strategies - are sometimes referred to as meta-cognition or "students" knowledge about their own cognitive processes and their ability to control these processes by organizing, monitoring, and modifying them as a function of learning outcomes
      • Affective Strategies - are those strategies that learners use to "focus attention, maintain concentration, manage performance anxiety, establish and maintain motivation, and manage time effectively".
    • Attitudes
      • A mental state that predisposes a learner to choose to behave in a certain way.
      • Very few instructional materials attempt intentional instruction in attitude change or attitude formation
      • The way in which instruction is conducted may positively influence learners both toward content being taught and toward learning in general.
    • Psychomotor Skills
      • Must be physically practiced to be learned
    • Learning Enterprises
      • A purposive activity that may depend for its execution on some combination of declarative knowledge, intellectual skills, and cognitive strategies, all related by involvement in the common goal.
    • Note - Categories are not straight jackets
• Conduct an Information-Processing Analysis
• Conduct a Prerequisite Analysis
• Write Learning Objectives