Educational Design Methods

Annette Culley   © 2006
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When designing educational resources it is important to meet the needs and expectations of the students. One method to satisfy this requirement is to ask students what are their learning goals. The class of 2006 doing the unit "Educational Design Methods" with Professor P. Goodyear at the University of Sydney were asked to get into small groups and write down our learning goals. From the complete class list of goals we were then asked to make a one page summary of the class learning goals. This is part one of our first assessment task. The second part of this task was to do some research on learning needs analysis to come up with our recommendations for a better process of learning needs analysis. The third and final part of this assessment task was to justify our recommendations.

For more resources from my work on Educational Design Methods refer to my writing on Feedback and formative assessment in a Virtual Learning Environment

PART 1
Summary of learning goals  

  1. To describe, discuss and evaluate contemporary educational design theories.

  2. To overview and identify key approaches, & features of a range of contemporary instructional and educational design methods /models.  The aim of which is to be able to make rational decisions & choices when selecting the appropriate design approach to address learner’s needs.

  3. To apply these design theories and methods to:

                                                              i.      evaluate current designs/authentic case studies

                                                            ii.      Computer assisted/ technology-delivered learning environments such as on line courses.

                                                          iii.      The design, deliver and  efficient and interesting  educational resources  and programs that will improve achievement

                                                           iv.      The design of appropriate assessment strategies.

                                                             v.      Practical experience (listed below)

  1. To understand the roles and tasks performed by team members in an educational resource development team.

  2. To identify advanced software tools / authoring tools for educational media design.

  3. To gain practical experience

                                                              i.      Implementing  the features of one or more educational designs to project work

                                                            ii.      Working in teams on the design of a specific course or learning resource that meet learning goals.

                                                          iii.      using an authoring tool 

                                                           iv.      Of the implementation process.

I think the following three learning goals are outside the scope of this course. They are addressed in other units of study. Should they be covered in this course?  I do not think so.

  • Identify emerging technologies essential for the development of instructional models.                                                                      EDPC5015
  • educational theories and research in learning sciences and education that underpin current design methods                                             EDPC5021
  • Understand human learning theories in order to have a significant basis for instructional designs theory.                                                 EDPC5021

 

 

PART 2

Recommendations for a better process of learning needs analysis.

The purpose of a learning needs analysis is to work out what the gap is between where the students are at the beginning of the course and where they need to get to by the end of the course.  The content of the course and how it is conducted should start at the level of the students and aim to bring them up to the level required by the course outline, thus meeting the learning objectives.

 

1.       PERFORM A "GAP" ANALYSIS. Obtain a student profile by means of a questionnaire. 
This area was covered informally on the first evening by introducing each member of the class.  However a questionnaire or short assignment would cover this in greater depth. These guidelines would have directed student answers to pertinent areas such as their experience in education, design and technology. 

2.       IDENTIFY PRIORITIES AND IMPORTANCE.  Determine the student needs within the scope of the course.  The above learning goals are a mixture of needs and wants. 
The instructions given to students were:

·         “Submit a report that synthesises the learning needs of the group members”.

·         Put them in priority order. 

·         Pay attention to both (a) your individual needs/wants and (b) the EDPC5022 syllabus outline.
This process does give guidelines for determining goals but it is obvious from the student responses that the syllabus outline was not used by some groups; several of the goals are outside the domain/scope of the course. 
Provide some scaffolding for the task such as:

a)       giving students a hard copy of the syllabus outline or

b)       asking for goals in specific areas or under certain headings.

The initial face to face discussion in small groups, followed by an asynchronous forum, was a suitable medium for the task because it allowed for reflection and group work. Breaking into smaller groups made it possible to come to some sort of agreement without too much trouble.

3.       IDENTIFY OPPORTUNITIES AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
Generate and communicate the training recommendations or intention.
With the completion of the initial learning needs analysis it is then possible to simultaneously: a) pitch the tasks at the right level for the students,
b) design the tasks to meet their needs and wants and
c) meet the learning objectives.

4.       ONGOING ANALYSIS OF NEEDS.
These needs were written early in the course and reflect expectations at the time. It would be interesting to see how people feel about their needs now.  Have they changed?  Now in week 7 after fairly intensive reading on the subject I am sure participants have developed particular interests in certain areas that have most relevance to their work or that they feel some empathy with.   There are probably areas that individuals would like to investigate and research further.  This would mean that many of us would branch off into different areas.  However this may work well as a team effort if we can combine our individual interests into one project on a particular theme.  It may now be more appropriate to conduct further needs analysis by individual interview.

 

 

PART 3

Justification for recommendations made above.

 

The recommendations made above are made on the basis or my experience teaching and from my reading on Learning Needs Analysis.  I started with the recommended reading by Don Clark.  The method we used to discover training needs took a proactive approach. Clark gives a comprehensive list of needs assessment instruments that include Literature research, Interviews, Observations, Surveys and Group discussions.  The Survey/Questionnaire was recommended as the means of gathering information about the students, group discussion was used to gather information on learning goals and interview is recommended for ongoing needs analysis. 

 

I then did an Internet search on Learning Needs Analysis.  I found two useful sites.  The first one was the Learning Enterprise 2000 financed by the European Communities Leonardo da Vinci programme.  This discusses what are learning needs and how to define them.

In the article called “Needs Assessment: the first step” by  Robert H. Rouda & Mitchell E. Kusy, Jr. they suggest four steps to conducting an needs assessment which I used these loosely in structuring my recommendations. 

 

You will notice that I added one more step in the LNA.  In my teaching experience I have found that the expectations and needs of students can change as the course progresses.  Sometimes students have completely misinterpreted the course outline when they selected it.  As the course progresses students begin to see what the course is really about.   Their needs and wants only become evident once they have started the course.  A continual review of students needs is important if the course is to be relevant and interesting enough to keep student motivation high.

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