Analysis

       

 

How do you determine the solution to a performance problem?

  

  Recognize the Analysis Phase as a critical step in the ISD process.  
       
 

This module contains seven lessons and an assignment. By the time you complete this module, you will have learned and applied the 6 stages and 10 steps of a comprehensive analysis.

  

Imagine this!

  

The Acme Problem Solver Organization (APSO) is keen to help people in need, so much so that they sometimes forget the details of the people they serve. Case in point:

 

Rachana, a senior training consultant with the APSO, is informed that farmers in Gondwanaland cannot sell their rice. She is familiar with rice production and assumes that farmers must be producing low quality rice. Rachana believes that the problem can be solved by training extension agents, who in turn can train farmers to improve their rice grain quality. She hires a team of people to develop a series of lecture style and Web based training modules on grain quality for the extension agents. After months of development time and US$100,000 later, the training is ready for delivery.

The extension agents are trained and dispersed throughout the region to train farmers. Imagine their surprise when they find that the quality of rice being produced is already high. Further investigation reveals that, rather than poor rice quality, it is a combination of government poicies, politics and lack of farm-to-market roads that is preventing the farmers from selling their rice.

  

As this example illustrates, lack of up-front analysis of the situation resulted in the wrong solution to the problem. Training is often assumed to be the solution to many problems that, in fact, cannot be solved by increasing human performance. To avoid this common trap, it is necessary to invest in a thorough analysis before significant time and resources are committed to a particular solution.

Getting it right from the start

 

Analysis is the first phase of any instructional design project. It contains 6 major stages:

  1. needs analysis
  2. audience, resource & constraints analysis
  3. delivery system selection
  4. problem and instructional goal(s) statements
  5. content analysis; and
  6. instructional analysis.

To perform a proper analysis, you first determine if training is the solution to the problem you are trying to solve (needs analysis). Once this has been determined, and if training has been proposed, the rest of the analysis phase establishes the

  • who (audience, resource and constraints analysis)
  • how (delivery system selection & instructional analysis)
  • why (problem and instructional goal statements); and
  • what (content analysis)

of the training program. Although designers agree that the Analysis Phase is the most important phase, it is often the most neglected.

Many even see Analysis as a waste of time and money. In the long run, it saves time and money because the right training tool is applied to the right situation, and the outcome is a satisfactory course for all concerned.

 

 

Next lesson

  

In the next lesson, you will identify the components of a proper needs analysis.