Instructional design/Learner analysis
< Instructional designLesson Goal
Instructional designers in higher education settings will use learner analysis to gather information about learners' personal and educational experience, motivations, attitudes, and the skills and experience with which they enter the learning experience. This will result in instruction that is tailored to individual learner needs and increases mastery of learning objectives.
Audience
This lesson is directed toward instructional designers of online or hybrid courses in higher education settings.
Key Learning Objectives
Participants will meet the following objectives after completion of this module:
- Using the Learner Analysis Worksheet, the instructional designer will identify at least two design implications associated with each set of learner character groups.
- Given a sample design scenario, the instructional designer will align which learner profile best matches the design choices.
Learning Experience
This lesson chunks content into progressive steps based on the concepts and procedures required to conduct a learner analysis. First learners are introduced to the concept of learner analysis. The second step is to explore learner analysis worksheet based on five different learner characteristics. Learners will check their knowledge at the end of each section. At the end of the lesson, learners will receive a summary of the performance.
Lesson 1 will lay a foundation for the lesson. A few opening questions will be presented to the learners to arouse interest and bring focus on lesson content to be presented. This will be followed by a rationale that explains how the lesson might benefit the learner and the importance of mastering stated learning objectives. Lesson goals and objectives will be presented in a colorful graphic that is visually appealing. In addition, tasks to be completed in the lesson will be displayed in a colored textbox. This will be consistent for tasks on all lesson pages, so learners can identify tasks easily. After completing a short quiz, learners will then be directed to get started and move to the next lesson via a link. This link will also have a consistent look and feel on all pages.
Lesson 2 will focus on conducting a learner analysis. Learners will begin by being introduced to four characteristic groups that comprise a learner analysis (Demographics, Cognitive and Prior Knowledge, Physiological and Affective and Social). Learners will be asked to download a Learner Analysis Worksheet for use in the end task for this lesson. Learners will be guided through pages that address each of the four groups. Each page will cover the characteristics, sources for gathering data and design implications. A short quiz will assess learner comprehension to use their newly acquired skills to choose possible implications for the course design based on data provided. Also, given an example of an implemented design scenario, choose an appropriate learner profile to match. Learners will receive immediate feedback on quiz performance.
A summary of main components of performing a learner analysis will be given, in addition to a short discussion on how they are now better prepared to develop stronger designs based on their new knowledge.
Consider This...
Scenario One: J.B. is designing and teaching a freshman biology course for a state college. Weeks are spent designing what J.B. considers the ideal hybrid biology course. On the first day of class, J.B. jumps right in with an easy interactive online frog dissection to get them warmed up, including a questionnaire about what the students are seeing. Quickly into the project, students begin to complain. J.B. discovers half the students have never done a dissection in real life before, much less used this online tool. For most students, this is their first hybrid class. Most are unfamiliar with frog anatomy, making answering the questions impossible. So many students need help that J.B. is unable to get to them all before class is over. Only two students have made it through more than 50% of the questions before the end of class. Furthermore, J.B. receives several complaints from students and parents when they discover how much the extra equipment, lab coat, and textbooks will cost. Nearly half the students drop the class in the first week.
Scenario Two: D.W. designs and teaches another section of freshman biology at the same state college. Prior to designing the hybrid course, D.W. pulls the transcripts for the students in the class and reviews the purpose statements they turned in with their enrollment applications. D.W. can see that most of the students are not majoring in science and are taking the course only to fulfill their science requirement. D.W. also notices that many of the students are relying on financial aid packages to attend school. Therefore, an effort is made to limit costs by relying on free online resources and designing the class in such a way that the only equipment the student will need is their computers. D.W. selects resources written for those new to biology and sends out a letter to enrolled students prior to class with a summary of the topics that will be covered and informs them that all readings and other lecture materials will be provided online for free. The class is designed with beginners in mind. On the first day of class, D.W. explains the syllabus and presents students with a non-graded pre-test to gauge their current knowledge about the topics being covered in the class. The rest of the class is spent orienting students to the LMS for the online portions of the course. Adjustments to the lesson plans are made according to the results of the pre-test.
If you have designed instruction in the past, did you conduct a learner analysis? How did conducting an analysis, or failing to do so, affect the teachers and the students in the above scenarios?