Instructional Analysis Assignment

Due for Peer Review Oct 6
Due Final Oct 13

Grading Rubric

For this assignment, you will conduct a needs assessment, goal analysis, or performance assessment to identify a potential instructional design unit.  Once you have demonstrated the instructional need for your unit, you will conduct a learner and context analysis. In education, learner and context analysis are often skipped, because many teachers believe they already "know" their students.  However, the learning characteristics of freshman vs. seniors, for example, are significantly different and do affect the way in which the instruction is designed.  In industry, learner and context analysis is even more critical, given the diverse population of learners and the probability that the instructional designer is not familiar with the target audience.

The deliverable for this assignment is a report with three sections:

2.1 Instructional Need and Goal Statement
2.2 Instructional Analysis (goal analysis, subordinate skills analysis, entry-level behaviors)
2.3 Learner and context analysis

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2.1 Identifying the Instructional Need and Goal

Your first step in the instructional design process is to determine if instruction is really needed to solve a performance problem. You should choose a 'real' problem. Think about the organizations to which you belong or your work environment. What tasks do you see people struggling with? In this section, describe your needs assessment activities and how you determined if instruction is the most appropriate solution to the performance problem. Sometimes, instruction is not the best solution, so you need to be sure before you say that it is.

Once you have identified an instructional need, write a complete goal statement that includes

• the learners
• what the learners will be able to do in the performance context
• the performance context in which the skills will be applied
• the tools that will be available to the learners in the performance context

 

Dick, Carey, and Carey, p. 26

                

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2.2 Instructional Analysis

Instructional analysis, which is also referred to as information processing analysis, goal analysis, or task analysis is probably the most crucial step in the instructional design process. The result of your analysis should be a flow chart that indicates the relationship among the subordinate skills and knowledge required to complete the goal. I have found that it helps to use Post-It Notes and write one skill or knowledge per Note, then arrange the notes in a schematic that indicates the chronology of steps. Keep breaking down the tasks until you reach entry-level behaviors. Note: this is time consuming and can be frustrating. If you are not familiar with the subject, you will have to enlist the help of a subject matter expert (SME). Determine if the skills or knowledge required are verbal information, intellectual skills (forming concepts, applying rules, or solving problems), or psychomotor skills.

  Dick, Carey, and Carey, Ch. 3 and 4  

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2.3 Learner and Context Analysis

Once you have identified why new or additional training is needed, you must now analyze the target audience.  Who are they?   What do they already know?  How are they similar/different?  In instructional design, as in technical communication, audience analysis is critical, for it shapes the rest of the design process. This section of your report should include the following information about the learners and how you did or would collect this information:

• entry behaviors
• prior knowledge of topic area
• attitudes towards content and potential delivery system
• academic motivation
• educational and ability levels
• general learning preferences
• attitudes towards the organization giving the instruction
• group characteristics     

Context is also important because it contains factors that can inhibit or enhance the learning experience. Keep in mind that learning does not take place in a vacuum, so you must evaluate the environment in which the instruction occurs. For example, will the students be in a classroom, online, or using a CD-ROM? Do they have access to a computer? What about lights? Noise? Seating? Context analysis will help you identify factors that affect the design and delivery of your instruction.

Context analysis includes two major areas: analysis of the performance setting and analysis of the learning environment. This section of your report should describe the following:

• performance setting
  • physical and organization environment where the skills will be used
  • special factors that may facilitate or interfere with the learners' use of the new skills
• learning environment
  • description of the extent to which the site can be used to deliver training on skills that will be required for transfer to the workplace
  • list of any limitations that may have serious implications for the project

Dick, Carey, and Carey, Ch. 5    

      

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Procedure:

1. Read Dick and Carey, Chapters 2 through 5.
2. Perform a needs analysis.
3. Write a goal statement.
4. Perform a goal analysis.
5. Classify goal statement.
6. Identify and sequence the major steps required to perform the goal.
7. Perform a subordinate skills analysis.
8. Identify entry-level behaviors.
9. Create an instructional analysis diagram (flow chart).
10. Perform a learner analysis.
11. Write a description of your target population based on your analysis.
12. Perform a context analysis.
13. Write a description of the performance setting and the learning environment and the implications for instruction.
14. Place it in your Google drive folder.