Learner and Context Analysis
Analyze your learner population. Although you do not have to
prepare and administer tests and questionnaires to complete this assignment,
you should gather whatever information you can. Among the sources of information
you might consider are formal or informal interviews with members of the population
itself, formal or informal interviews with teachers, parents, and others who
have dealt with the population, existing records, and others. Also, analyze
the context, using interviews and observations to gather information. Unless
you come up with a better way of presenting your analysis, it should be in
the form of a table, as shown below.
Category
|
|
Data
Source
|
Characteristic
|
Implication(s)
|
| Learners |
|
|
|
|
|
Entry Behaviors |
|
|
|
|
Prior Knowledge |
|
|
|
|
Attitudes |
|
|
|
|
Motivation |
|
|
|
|
Education and
Ability |
|
|
|
|
Learning
Preferences |
|
|
|
|
Attitudes toward
organization |
|
|
|
|
Group
characteristics |
|
|
|
| Context |
|
|
|
|
Performance
|
Support |
|
|
|
|
Physical Aspects |
|
|
|
|
Social Aspects |
|
|
|
|
Relevance |
|
|
|
Learning
|
Compatibility with workplace
|
|
|
|
| |
Ability to simulate workplace
|
|
|
|
| |
Adapt
to Delivery Approaches?
|
|
|
|
| |
Design
and Delivery Constraints
|
|
|
|
Note that a key part of
this table is the Implications column. The entries here
should answer the question "So what?"
Try making a sentence out of the last two columns
like this: "Because I know [Characteristic]
about the learners, I will [Implication]."
The implication should discuss some way in which
the instructional design or delivery will be
different because of what you know about this
characteristic. An example: "Because I know
that the learners all score very high on tests of
verbal ability, I will design the instruction for
a higher reading ability than I would otherwise,
and I will design it so that it has less
structure." Another useful mental exercise
is to imagine a set of learners that are exactly
the opposite in this characteristic of the one
that you are describing. How would you design and
deliver the instruction differently for the two
groups.
This table in RTF
format for download and use with a word processor.
This
table in DOC format for download.
Learner and
Context Analysis Grading Criteria