Week 10 Blog

According to Morrison, Rosss, and Kemp (2007), designing good instruction cannot be done without first completing a Task Analysis. They state that a task analysis solves three problems for the designer:
1. Defines the content required to solve the performance problem or need.
2. Forces the subject-matter expert (SME) to work through each step, making steps more easily identified.
3. Designer can view the content from the learner’s perspective and gain insight into teaching strategies.
The methods and individuals involved in a task analysis will vary depending on the circumstances, but usually a designer works with a SME who can provide accurate information for the instructional unit. An instructor is often the SME and the designer in educational settings.
“A topic or content analysis is used to define the facts, concepts, principles, and rules that will make up the final instruction” (Morrison, Kemp & Ross, 2007, p. 78) This analysis identifies the content that is the focus of the instruction and the structure of the components. There are six structures; facts, concepts, principles and rules, procedures, interpersonal skills, and attitudes.
To analyze each task, the designer must perform a procedural analysis by identifying the steps required. This is done by “walking” through the steps with the SME in the task environment. For example, in nursing we would walk through the steps of giving an injection with a syringe, bottle of saline, alcohol wipe, and a manikin. The steps of this analysis answer three questions:
1. What does the learner do?
2. What does the learner need to know to do this step?
3. What cues inform the learner that there is a problem, the step is done, or a different step is needed?
Information can be recorded using outlines, tables, or flowcharts.
The critical incident method is used to analyze a process. This method identifies commonalities of various approaches in a process and can be combined with a procedural analysis to define content for the instruction. This works well for analyzing interpersonal skills and attitudes.

Instructional objectives:
• Help select and organize activities and resources to facilitate effective learning
• Provide a framework for devising ways to evaluate learning
• Guide the learner
These objectives are grouped into three domains; cognitive, psychomotor, and affective, and are organized/classified by various methods. Writing objectives is a lot more involved than I thought. I knew they were difficult and I plan on using this book to learn how to write them.
After writing objectives you must sequence the instruction to be presented to the learner. This must be done to help the learner achieve the objectives. The chapter discusses three sequencing schemes that designer can choose from. The first one is based on student-learning concepts and what the learner must logically learn first to be able to comprehend and move on. The second on is based on the “real world”, content that represents objects, people, and events being presented in an order consistent with how it must be performed. Third is concept-related sequencing meaning presented consistently with how a learner organizes the world conceptually or logically, such as content that is in a similar group or related in some way.
Next we must actually design the instructional strategies. This involves using research and modifying based on experience. Strategies should motivate learners to connect the already known information with new information. Jonassen (1988) uses four categories for generative strategies; recall, integration, organizational, and elaboration. Prescriptions are sequences and methods of instructions used to achieve a desired result. There are prescriptions for; instructional strategies, teaching facts and concepts, teaching principles and rules, teaching procedures, teaching interpersonal skills and teaching attitudes. Hope this helps, there was a lot of good information in these chapters that I think will truly help me at work. Looking forward to reading your blogs. Thanks, Tomi