Analysis 2: Task Analysis Week 3 One of the most important analysis that an instructional designer conducts is the task analysis to determine what actually has to be taught so learners have the skills, knowledge, and attitudes (SKA) to perform the job. The more you do this type of analysis the better you get. To conduct the task analysis you will rely heavily on SMEs, observations, and all the data that you obtained through your needs assessment.

Task Analysis Task analysis breaks more complex tasks into smaller more teachable parts tailored to the audience and organization. Task analysis is the process of breaking down more complex tasks into their constituent parts. Then, you sequence these tasks into logical units of instruction. Your analysis also helps you determine how to design instruction based on the knowledge type and learning domains of each of your tasks.

How to conduct a Task Analysis Define the tasks and sub tasks. Prioritize and sequence tasks. Break into chunks, units, or modules Specify the knowledge type. Identify the learning domain. Determine goals and objectives. Validate with an SME each step of the way! Performing a task analysis enables you to describe the task, identify entry levels for training, and sequence the instruction. The end result is understood as clearly as possible. The important content should be included and unnecessary content is excluded. When you further analyze the content into learning domains and knowledge types, you have guidance for writing goals and objectives and designing instruction. You work closely with SME throughout this analysis.

Defining Tasks Define the tasks and sub tasks. Prioritize and sequence tasks. Break into chunks, units, or modules Through interviews and observations with SMEs, you deconstruct the tasks necessary to perform more complex tasks by defining tasks and subtasks, prioritizing and sequencing the tasks, and then building logical units or modules of instruction. For example, if you are training new customer service representatives to provide certain levels of customer support before they pass on the calls to the appropriate specialist; you will need to determine exactly which call types the representative handles, and which ones they pass on to the specialist. Each call type that the representative handles must be defined, the most common type of problems and solutions must also be defined and procedures must be taught that train the representative in how to proceed with the customer. This is repeated until all of the customer service assistance is deconstructed for each of the support calls that they handle. You can see that once you figure out a few of the tasks, the other tasks often follow a similar pattern. You can see that this example can lead to many different types of training. For instance, the representative might require a set of questions to ask the customer to determine how to fix the problem. These questions might each lead to a decision that leads to another question or a possible solution. All of this must be identified, so instruction can be crafted to ensure mastery of content; and more importantly, the training should enable representatives to resolve customer service requests efficiently and accurately. Tasks are then sequenced into logical units. They might be procedural in nature (step-by-step) or hierarchical (tasks aren’t performed in a given order). Tasks are grouped into learning units or modules. This must be validated by an SME. Task analysis is iterative in nature often requiring multiple attempts to accurately analyze complex tasks. The instructional designer will also have to identify steps or tasks in the process that maybe unnecessary or inaccurate. It is important to not pass on misinformation to new learners.

Knowledge Types Concepts Procedure Rules or principles Cognitive task analysis Just like all of the materials in the universe are made up of approximately 118 elements and the human genome has 23 chromosomes, knowledge types falls into just a few categories. Concepts can be either abstract like democracy, or concrete like a triangle. To teach concepts, learners need to know the attributes of the concept like enclosed figure with three sides or majority rule and they must be able to distinguish examples of the concept from non-examples of the concept. Procedures build upon concepts, but have a process that must be done. In our example of the customer service representatives assisting with customer support, perhaps they must convey to the customer appropriate steps in a process to resolve a support issue. Rules and principles are more complex concepts and procedure that involve judgements or decisions. There might be simple judgements like if the customer replies yes or no to a specific question different actions are taken. However many rules and decisions are based on expertise and require more than a yes/no decision. This is where cognitive task analysis might be required. Cognitive task analysis is typically done by working with SMEs who explain their decisions on a variety of cases so the instructional designer can deconstruct the rules and principles that the expert applies to these decisions.

Learning Domains Cognitive Affective Psychomotor Interpersonal learning domains explained By identifying the learning domain of a task, the designer creates objectives, activities, and instruction to support the learning. Each domain has optimal ways of providing instruction. The cognitive domain includes the intellectual skills identified by Benjamin Bloom such as knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. The affective domain includes our feelings and attitudes. If we are teaching people to meditate, perhaps we want to include something in our training that calls for valuing the time spent in quiet meditation. The psychomotor domain includes those activities that require movement such as learning yoga postures. This would require participants to learn how to correctly and safely move into a posture. The interpersonal domain includes the skills required to interact with others. Customer service representatives would probably need to learn appropriate ways to respond to frustrated customers so issues are resolved and the customer feels positive about the interaction. Role playing is often used in teaching interpersonal skills.

Writing Goals and Objectives Learning outcomes Goals are broad statements that describe the purpose of a course. An example might be “understand the relationship between supply and demand.” These are generally at the course level. Objectives are specific and contain a measurable action, a condition where this action can be performed, and a standard of measure. If no standard of measure is provided, it is assumed to be 100%. An example is “when shown a print, the student will be able to classify the print as a woodcut, etching, or lithograph and explain the attributes of the print that lead to that classification with 80% accuracy. Learning outcomes describe what students can do or know based on completing a course or module of instruction. Learning outcomes and objective are tightly aligned, but objectives are more specific and used by instructional designers to specify the instruction. An example of a learning outcome is one from this class: “generate and organize audience appropriate instructional content.”

Validation of ANALYSIS SME Validation Sponsor validation Members of the development team SMEs and others as deemed appropriate should validate the analysis. The instruction is only as good as the task analysis. Thus, it is important that the designer accurately and completely conducts a thorough analysis.