Before starting to design any type of learning materials or activity it is essential to define clearly what the learning must do. In other words, what the people who will use the materials should be able to do when they have finished learning.
This map shows you what this part of the process covers.
Deciding what the learning materials must do is a key activity and must be approached systematically. This section looks at key considerations.
When are learning materials needed?
What are the factors affecting how well people do things, and how learning can contribute (or not) to ability to perform.
Who is involved?
How do you decide who is involved in a particular activity? It is important to realise that in most cases different groups of people all have direct and indirect contributions to what happens.
What are the people involved like?
What learners are like, in terms of their age, interests, educational attainments, etc., has an important effect on the design of appropriate learning materials. It is therefore important to develop a profile of potential learners.
What is the current performance?
What are people doing at the moment? If you need to design some learning materials there must be some problem, such as poor quality, low sales performance or they will be unable to carry out a new task in the near future.
What performance is desired?
What do you want people to be able to do? What new task do people need to be able to do and what are the desired levels of performance?
What are appropriate solutions?
Is learning the answer to the problems identified? It may be the answer, but in most cases it is only part of the answer. In some cases it is not even a solution.
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(C) Bryan Hopkins, 2005