The importance of a preliminary analysis in the course production process Prepared by: Beatrice Ghirardini, Chiara Nicodemi, Fabiana Biasini Instructional Designers, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) September 2013

Why we need to plan I needed to improve my ability to encourage the participation of farmers during meetings, so I took this course on participatory approaches…. Sheila works with communities of farmers, and helps them prepare rural investment proposals for potential funding: …but during the course all I did was formulating sample questionnaires and surveys!

Through good design and planning. Why we need to plan We must actively engage the learners, by helping them acquire the knowledge they really need. At the same time, we must ensure that their learning experience has a clear purpose, with realistic objectives and measurable outcomes. How to achieve this?

The importance of a preliminary analysis A plan is like a roadmap to follow, which can help you prepare an effective course. For your own plan, you can adapt existing models (like the ADDIE) to match your needs. In any case, a sound preliminary analysis is critical for any type of learning intervention.

The preliminary analysis in a nutshell What key activities should the target audience perform to improve their performance? What do they need to know to perform those activities successfully? Who is the target audience?

Needs analysis What is the difference in current vs. desired performance? Is training is the most appropriate intervention? How can the performance gap be eliminated most effectively? Conduct a needs analysis at the start of any development intervention, to find out: Outcome of this analysis: general, high-level course goals.

Target audience analysis Target audience analysis is key: the characteristics of the learners will drive the course design and delivery. Outcome of this analysis: a detailed audience profile No way! The webinar starts at 3 AM in my country!! And most people in the course come from my time zone! How are we gonna do this… Key questions: previous knowledge and skills, geographical location, access to technology.

Task and topic analysis You do a task analysis to find out the job- related activities (tasks) that the learners must perform, and the knowledge/skills needed to perform those activities. Outcome of this analysis: a potential course outline and broad learning objectives You do a topic analysis to identify and classify the course content. It is typically done for those courses that intend mainly to provide information, more than to improve performance.

Example of a task analysis Knowledge needs Audience group Key activity Policy makers Formulate policies to strengthen food security The concept of food security The food security situation in the country Existing national policies How to formulate a national policy For example:

The outcome of a task analysis After the analysis, you and the subject matter expert organize the identified content elements into a logical structure to form the curriculum outline, which is the basis for the development of the content of the course. The concept of food security Why food security is important Reasons for food security Food security assessment Curriculum Outline Unit Lesson Unit Lesson Unit Lesson Unit Lesson Unit Lesson …… Lesson