Needs Analysis

1
Needs Analysis

• Analysed opportunities and constraints in using
  CIT
• i.e. analysed the needs or requirements
• Put simply, the goal is to describe the gap
  between where the students are and where we want
  them to be, before we can design the bridge they
  can cross.

2
Sources of needs analysis(more of later?)

• Learning technology integratione.g. Stoner,
  Laurillard, Conole Oliver
• Instructional design e.g. Gagné , Shuell
• Curriculum design e.g. Taba
• Action research e.g. Kemmis McTaggart
• Training needs analysis e.g. Peterson
• Learning needs analysis
• Systems analysis for software development e.g.
  Yourdon

3
A needs analysis

• Tasks some or all of
• Review the current course, if any
• Analyze the stakeholders especially students
• Analyze the subject domain
• Analyze the learning outcomes
• Analyze the teaching/learning activities
• Analyze the constraints and resources
• Analyze the evaluation methods needed

4
Stakeholder analysis

• Who are they? Who cares?
• What will they want from the intervention?
• Are we prepared to give it them?
• They include
• The tutor, programme assessment
• Students
• Colleagues
• The department
• The QA office, the QAA
• The university

5
The students

• What relevant knowledge and skills?
• How varied are they in knowledge and learning
  styles?
• How well can they learn? What study skills?
• What motivation and interests, attitudes to
  teaching/learning methods?
• What obstacles to their learning, such as
  anxiety, colour blindness, lack of
  concentration, computer access?

6
The subject domain

• In commercial training needs analysis only task
  performance counts
• In higher education emphasis is on the knowledge
  underpinning performance, and generic cognitive
  skills
• We may need to represent the knowledge domain,
  the context of learning activities and outcomes
• So we might use knowledge elicitation and
  knowledge representation techniques

7
Knowledge elicitation

• Informal interviews with experts.This reveals
  their view of the domain.
• Observation of actual performance of expertise
  done in a natural context.
• Verbal protocols in an assessment situation.A
  protocol provides a framework for capturing the
  knowledge in a skilled performance.

8
Knowledge represented as
Semantic net
have
living things
movement
ako
have
animals
respiration
have
ako
growth
mammals
plants
ako
ako
not have
ako
dogs
humans
movement
orchids
ako
ako
whippets
female humans
ako class is A Kind Ofisa individual Is A
isa
isa
Danny
Julia
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Pyramid of learning outcomes
to be
able to
to be
to be
to be
to be
able to
able to
able to
able to
to be
to be
to be
able to
able to
able to
to be
to be
to be
able to
able to
able to
Pre-requisites
to be
to be
able to
able to
10
TLAs traditional

• Acquisition reading, lectures
• Practice - exercises, problems
• Discussion seminars, tutorials
• Discovery field trips, practicals
• Assessment essays, exams

11
TLAs Laurillards teaching strategy

• Four aspects of TLAs
• Discursive discussion of goals and conceptions
• Adaptivestudents relate feedback on their work
  to their conceptions
• Interactiveacting to achieve a goal and receive
  feedback
• Reflectivereflect on their actions in the light
  of conceptions

12
TLAs Laurillards Conversational Framework

• In more detail, 12 activities of which 10 are
• Receiving information
• Describing own conceptions (verbally, writing..)
• Correcting misconceptions from feedback
• Re-describing improved conceptions
• Performing tasks
• Receiving feedback on tasks
• Improving performance of tasks
• Reflecting on performance to improve conceptions
• Reflecting on conceptions to improve performance

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TLAs Kolbs cycle

• four stages of learning from experience

concrete experience
reflective observation
active experimentation
abstract conceptualization
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TLAs Robert Gagné The nine instructional events

• Use LT to support
• 1. Gain attention
• 2. Tell learners the learning objective
• 3. Stimulate recall
• 4. Present the stimulus, content
• 5. Provide guidance, relevance, organization
• 6. Elicit the learning by demonstrating it
• 7. Provide feedback on performance
• 8. Assess performance, give feedback and
  reinforcement
• 9. Enhance retention and transfer to other
  contexts

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TLAs Shuells Learning Functions

• 1. Expectations must be set
• 2. Motivation must be gained and maintained
• 3. Prior knowledge needs activation
• 4. Draw attention to important items
• 5. Encoding help remembering, give personal
  meaning with diagrams, examples
• 6. Comparisons encourage with diagrams, charts,
  questions

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Shuells Learning Functions - 2

• 7. Hypothesis generation, encourage thinking of
  alternative actions
• 8. Repetition guided practice or reflection,
  multiple examples or perspectives
• 9. Relevant feedback and correction
• 10. Evaluation of feedback as basis of next
  activity
• 11. Monitoring - check for understanding
• 12. Integration provide ways to combine,
  integrate, synthesize, with graphics, multimedia

17
Constraints resources

• Learning technology availability
• When deadlines, time available
• Who is available to do what
• How tools and resources available
• Other costs

18
The evaluation in outline

• Summative evaluation, what will count as success?
  (from Kirkpatrick, four ripples)
• What happened in use? Did learners, teachers use
  it? Like it?
• Were learning outcomes achieved?Was student
  performance improved?
• Were the outcomes transferable to real
  situations?
• What were the wider effects? On students, staff
  departments, institution

19
Criticisms of needs analysis

• The unit of analysis is too small. Decomposition
  emphasizes elements but not their integration or
  application - does not encourage constructivist
  learning, synthesis, generic skills.
• Hierarchies of objectives (or content) are too
  simple for the richer interrelations of real
  domains.
• Instructional strategies can become just the
  integration of small items of learning.
• ?

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References 1

• Bostock S.J. 1996 A critical review of
  Laurillards classification of educational media
  Journal of Instructional Science 24,71-88
• Gagné R M and Medsker K L, The conditions of
  learning training applications 1996, Harcourt
  Brace
• Harmon, P. and King, D. 1985 Representing
  knowledge New York Wiley
• Kirkpatrick D L Evaluating Training Programs
• Kemmis S McTaggart R 1988 (eds) The Action
  Research Planner 3rd ed. Deakin University Press
• Laurillard D. Rethinking University Education,
  1994 Routledge and second edition 2002
• Marshall, I.M., Samson, W.B., Dugard, P.I.
  Scott, WA Predicting the development effort of
  multimedia courseware Information and Software
  Technology 1994 36 (5) 251-258
• Oliver, M. and Conole, G. 1998 A pedagogical
  framework for embedding CIT into the curriculum
  ALT-J 6 (2)

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References 2

• Pederson, K. Expert systems programming
  practical techniques for rule-based systems 1989
  London John Wiley
• Peterson, R. 1992 Training needs analysis in the
  workplace London Kogan Page
• Shuell, T. 1992, Designing Instructional
  Computing Systems for Meaningful Learning, in P.
  Winne M.Jones (eds) Adaptive Learning
  Environments foundations and Frontiers, New
  York Springer Verlag
• Stoner G. A conceptual framework for the
  integration of learning technology, chapter 3 in
  Implementing Learning Technology, LTDI,
  Heriot-Watt 1996http//www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/ltdi/imp
  lementing-it/implt.pdf
• Taba H. 1971 The functions of a conceptual
  framework for curriculum design 134-152 in R.
  Hooper (ed.) The Curriculum context, design and
  development Open University Press

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Learning technology frameworkse.g. Stoner, LTDI

• Analysis and evaluation
• Determine course objectives
• Collect data on students, course, resources,
  policy
• Evaluate extant system
• Identify potential courses of action
• Selection of Learning Technologies
• Generate alternative solutions
• Evaluate alternative against course objectives
• Choose the technology and mode of use

23
Action research

• Cycles (spirals) of interventions each consisting
  of
• Plan
• Act
• Observe
• Reflect
• Relevant for 3 reasons
• It is in the EFFECTS documentation and background
• Participant projects are action research
  (loosely)
• In Keele workshop on learning technology project
  planning, lifecycles

24
Traditional curriculum designe.g. Taba 1971

• Learning objectiveswhat is the purpose?
• Contentwhat is the subject?
• Methodswhat are the learning experiences?
• Evaluationhow are results (student
  performances) to be assessed? Teaching/
  Learning activities might involve IT

25
Training needs analysis

• Identify task-specific performance objectives.
• Identify the gap between actual and desired
  performance?
• Is it a training problem?
• Analyze the knowledge, skills, attitudes needed
  for the performance, to bridge the gap.
• Identify constraints e.g. time, equipment
• Maybe suitable for computer based instruction

26
Learning needs analysis

• In education as opposed to training, emphasis is
  on the knowledge underpinning performance, not
  just the observable task performance
• Analysis involves subject knowledge acquisition
  and representation
• Related to methods used in knowledge engineering
  e.g. developing expert systems
• Maybe suitable for developing hypermedia

27
Systems analysis (E Yourdon Modern Structured
Analysis 1989)

• Inputs are
• initial project charter
• user policy and
• constraints
• Modelling processes develop this into a clear
  specification
• Statement of purpose
• This feeds into
• the design activity,
• cost/benefit report and
• acceptance test specification (evaluation)

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Time dependency

• Initiation
• Analysis of requirements, review of solutions,
  selection
• Design
• Implementation
• Evaluation

29
The evaluation in outline

• Maybe, formative evaluation as part of the
  development e.g.
• Quality review using checklists for content and
  usability
• By experts or peers, walkthroughs
• Pilot tests
• Observations of use, automatic logging

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Maier and Warren 2000

• Section 3.3.1 Planning resource based
  environments
• Learner model - academic needs, expectations, IT
  skills, variety
• Pedagogical model - values and philosophy,
  learning outcomes, how to achieve them, how to
  assess
• Domain model- level content, learning
  outcomes, cross references, resources needed
• Implementation model - select technology to
  deliver
• Evaluation model - how to evaluate