The Outline Design Specification (or ODS) defines the content and treatment for the course. This is a detailed document that contains the basic requirements for all aspects of the course. Once written, the ODS should provide a project manager and design team with all the information they need in order to start the detailed design process.
It should cover all the aspects below.
The overall training objective
This must be clearly written in behavioural terms, stating the:
- conditions given for the training, such as the use of workbooks or other reference material, where the course will be used, etc. This information will help the chosen designer plan their designs appropriately.
- performance, as an observable action
- measures of success, the type of assessment that will be made, such as a multiple choice test of 20 questions, a workplace assessment, etc.
Learning map
A learning map is a useful graphical representation of the modules in the course. It helps everyone involved in the project to see how the modules link together.
Module objectives
The overall objective should be broken down into its main enabling objectives, which will become the objectives for each module. They should be stated in the same way as for the overall objective.
Module content
This should summarise the results of the task analysis for the module, stating every aspect of performance and measure of success for each enabling task.
Proposed treatment for each module
This should state how the module will be presented, i.e. as a tutorial or simulation, the use of case studies, quizzes or tests, workplace assignments, etc.
Types of question to be used
This should list the types of questions that the instructional designer can use, such as multiple choice, multiple correct multiple choice, matching and labelling or free entry.
This is particularly important for computer-based courses, as increasing the number of types and complexity of questions has a marked effect on the programming time. In such courses the specification should also say whether graphical and audio options can be used within questions.
Description of the target group
This should provide as clear a picture as possible of the people who will be following the training. The description should include such things as job titles, age, gender, job experience, degree of computer literacy, etc. A good description of the target group helps the designer to prepare a design that is suitable for users.
Proposed graphical treatment
It may be too early to provide detailed specifications or examples of screens or graphics, but if any of these were available it would help. At the very least the design specification should specify what sort of graphical treatment is needed, such as whether cartoons are acceptable, the use of photographic images, line art, etc.
Timescales and milestones
Include a project plan that shows key dates and milestones for the project.
Roles and responsibilities
There are should, ideally, the a list of all people who are going to be involved in the project, both within the design team and stakeholders, such as project sponsors and subject-matter signatories.
Technical specifications
Tthis will probably be simple for paper-based
materials, and will be limited to the choice of software for developing the
materials. A key issue here is about future updating: you should always make
sure that the desktop publishing or word processing package to be used is
specified, otherwise you may find yourself having to update files created
using a package in which you have no expertise.
For computer-based courses there will need to be a detailed statement about
the hardware and software requirements for the project. This part of the specification
must define minimum specification for delivery computers, such as:
- minimum CPU speed
- hard disk space requirements
- memory requirements
- sound card specification
- CD-ROM drive speed
- video card specification (colours available)
It should also specify the authoring language to be used, and define program features needed, such as online help, book marking, record keeping, logging on restrictions, etc.
Spelling and grammatical standards
Develop a set of (or use existing) standards for spelling, capitalisation, punctuation, etc.
Make sure all designers working on the
project have an up-to-date copy of this and ask everyone to contribute to
the list. A project web site would be a good way of doing this.
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(C) Bryan Hopkins, 2005