Instructional Design Week Three and Four
Educational Philosophies and Needs Assessment

This Week February 4, 2013

Using the overall steps in this ID model, please develop answers to the question in this template on instructional goals and be ready to discuss your answers on Monday, February 4, 2013.

This week, we'll:

• Learn to define needs assessment and how to write instructional goal statements
• Discuss each class member's educational philosophies

This week. you will identify an authentic training need in your organization. Evaluate training courses provided by your employer or talk to your coworkers, your boss, his/her boss to find potential knowledge or performance gaps. Is there a problem with existing training? Are changes occuring in your organization that might provide opportunities to design new training? For example, has your company acquired new software or hardware, which is not being used productively because relatively few people know how? Perhaps you are particularly skilled in something and would like to design a short workshop to teach this skill to others in your organization who need it.

Then, write an instructional goal statement that describes the learners, what these learners will be able to do in the performance context, the performance context itself, and the tools that will be available. The needs assessment and goal statement are the first two elements of assignment 2. The goal statement only is due in Dropbox Monday, February 4.

Here is a goal analysis that identifies the major steps in conducting a performance analysis, conducting needs assessment, and writing clear instructional goals.

Caveat: Please heed the words of Dick and Carey on p. 24:

"Before you select or identify and instructional goal, remember the criteria listed in this chapter. It is particularly important (1) that you have the expertise to deal with the subject matter, (2) that learners are available to you to help evaluate and revise the instructional materials, and (3) that you have selected a goal that can be taught in a reasonable amount of time."

Learning Objectives

• Describe the purpose of a needs assessment and the conditions under which it might be required
• Identify an instructional goal that meets the criteria for initiating the design of effective instruction.
• Describe the process for clarifying fuzzy goal statements

For the purpose of this course, we recommend you conduct a fairly informal needs assessment.This course will be much more relevant to you and you will be more valuable to your organization if you identify a real performance need that can be solved with training.

Once you have identified a training opportunity in your organization, it's time to write an instructional goal. The goal statement should be fairly broad, since it represents the learning goal for your entire instructional unit. Make sure to include a verb describing what learners should know or be able to do at the end of the instruction.

I suggest you follow the procedure for clarifying "fuzzy" goals, as described in your text (see especially p. 31). However, don't spend too much time on it at this point. Instructional design, although presented in a linear fashion in your text, is really an iterative process. You may find that next week, once you have conducted an instructional analysis, you will go back and refine your instructional goal.

Try the practice exercises on p. 31-32. Look at the answers if needed.

Suggested Reading

1. Chapter 1 of your Dick, Carey, and Carey text
2. A literature review on needs assessment (Watkins et. al Part 1 and Part 2)
3. Needs Assessment Rouda and Kusy
4. Front End Analysis George Mason U. Instructional Design Knowldege Base
   
5. Quick Reference Chart for Analyzing Performance Problems Mager and Pipe

Assignments

1. Read Chapter 2 of the Dick & Carey Text
2. Review Assignment 2 for details. You are only required to complete section 2.1 by February 4.
3. Place your philosphy in your shared Dropbox folder (shared with me) by January 28, 2013.
4. Prepare 2-3 slide presentation/summary of your philosophy in class on Monday, January 28 (no more than 3 slides) -- try to make this as visual as possible (very light on text; see if you can create a visual model of your philosophy

Online Class Discussion

Monday, February 4, 8-9:30 p.m., Eastern time via Webex. I will send you the email login so that you can enter the class discussion.

Agenda:

• 8:00-8:10 Introductory discussion
• 8:10-8:45 Each student presents 2-3 slide presentation of your educational philosophy; try to make this as visual as possible (very light on text; see if you can create a visual model of your philosophy
• 8:45-:920 Discussion of Needs Assessment, Goal Analysis, and Assignment 2
• 9:20-9:30 Preview of next week

Please email me with any questions.