How To Analyze Instructional Goals Like a Pro

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SUMMARY

• Clear goals and objectives are essential in elearning for effective instruction.
• Initial steps involve defining, verifying, and analyzing goals to avoid confusion.
• Analyzing goals helps determine major steps, scope, and sequence for effective planning.
• Short and extended goal statements guide subsequent analyses, offering clear objectives.
• Ganya's five domains of learning categorize capabilities, aiding goal classification and analysis.
• The course comprises two parts: goal writing and analysis (part one) and writing clear learning objectives (part two).
• Part one completion leads to abilities: distinguishing instructional goals, generating measurable goal statements, recognizing key components, classifying learning outcomes, clarifying fuzzy goals, understanding goal analysis purposes, and distinguishing analytical approaches.
• Effective goal analysis ensures determination of major steps for goal completion, aiding in defining scope and sequence of instruction.
• Instructional goals can stem from various sources like front-end analysis, practical experience, or new instruction requirements.
• Complete goal statements provide additional context and tools.
• Learning capabilities classified into domains: verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, motor skills, attitudes.
• The distinction between domains helps with analysis and design, guiding instructional strategies.
• Analyze goals by determining major steps or by exploring simple-to-complex task examples.
• Begins with the simplest task representation and progresses through more complex examples.
• Presenting learners with a simple epitome of the whole task aids holistic understanding and motivation.
• Choose task versions based on simplicity, representativeness, frequency, and safety.
• Generally, aim for five to fifteen steps to achieve a goal.
• Goal statements should clearly outline learner outcomes and focus on the field of study.
• Goal analysis determines what learners need to achieve and guides instructional unit scope and sequence.
• Goal analysis aids in defining specific skills and knowledge for designing learning objectives.

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES

TRANSCRIPT

It's especially important in an elearning course to be sure that you have clearly defined goals and learning objectives. It's important in the beginning of the instructional design process to either A, define a goal statement or verify the accuracy and appropriateness of a goal statement given to you by your client, and B, analyze the goal and identify key components of the goal. If the goal is unclear, subsequent planning can become unclear and ineffective, and learners may have difficulties discerning the overall purpose of the instruction. It's also important to determine what your target learners must know and be able to perform the goal. This is a two part course on how to write course goals and learning objectives. In part one, you will learn how to write and analyze your goal. And in part two, we will focus on how to write clear learning objectives as well as the difference between a terminal and enabling objective. After completion of part one of this course, you should be able to distinguish approaches for identifying instructional goals. Generate a measurable goal statement. Recognize key components of a goal statement, classify learning outcomes. Clarify fuzzy goal statements. Recognize the purposes of conducting a goal analysis. Distinguish approaches for analyzing a goal and analyze your goal and generate identifying major components of the goal. The goal analysis process will ensure that you have determined the major steps necessary to complete your goal and that you account for these steps in your instruction. The results of a good analysis will help you define the scope and sequence of your instruction, including the number, nature and sequence of instructional units to be contained in your course or training program. An instructional goal statement may be derived from a list of goals from a front end analysis, from practical experience from someone else who is already delivering instruction, or from other requirements for new instruction. The scope of your instructional goal will determine the amount of instruction that will be necessary to achieve the goal. A relatively extensive goal may requires a series of workshops or a semester of coursework to accomplish less extensive goals may take anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks to attain key components. A short goal statement should include a brief description of the learner and targeted skills. In contrast, a complete goal statement provides additional information about the performance context and the availability of tools. Now we will depict the key components for both short and extended goal statements. Please note, the length of your statement has little to do with the scope of your instruction. A short goal statement is a description of the learner and what learners will be able to do. An extended goal statement is a description of the learner, what learners will be able to do in real life, context in which the skills are to be applied, and available tools for accomplishing the goals. Both statements are used to focus subsequent analyses. A complete goal statement may be used as a course description and for marketing purposes. Fuzzy goals do not specify what learners can do if they achieve the goal in measurable or observable terms. They typically contain abstract statements of internal learning outcomes like increased awareness to demonstrate understanding of and appreciation. The goal should be clarified if it is unclear what performances constitute accomplishment of the goal. The goal should also be stated in measurable terms. In other words, using concrete verbs that may be observed. If you can't measure the goal, how will you ever know you've achieved it? If you think you have a fuzzy goal be sure to clarify it. There are two steps in analyzing a goal number one: classifying the goal according to learning outcomes and taxonomy. And number two, identifying and sequencing major steps involved in performing the goal Ganya is five domains of learning is a great foundation for completing these two steps. It's believed that learning human capabilities may be classified into several distinct categories. For instance, Bloom proposes what is probably one of the best learned taxonomies that distinguishes between knowledge comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Others differentiate between cognitive, affective and psychomotor learning outcomes. While comparing these taxonomies it's important to note that most posit additional subcategories within each major domain. Gone yes five domains include number one verbal information. This is factual information that is stored or looked up. Number two intellectual skills. This is the capability to use symbols to organize, interact and make sense of the world such as reading, writing, distinguishing, combining, classifying and quantifying. discriminate, discriminate is to distinguish between two stimuli, forming concrete and defined concepts is to identify stimulus as well as members of a class having common characteristics and demonstrate meaning of the class of objects, events or relations. Applying rules is applying principles and following procedures responding with regularity over a variety of situations. Solving Problems applies the combination of rules to solve real or intellectual problems. Number three is cognitive strategies. This is the capability to govern or direct thinking, learning and remembering. Number four is motor skills. This is the execution of movement in organized motor X. And number five is attitudes. These are the mental states that influence the direction and degree of effort. It has been recognized that the distinction between the domains may be somewhat artificial in real life. The achievement of most goals requires a combination of intellectual and psychomotor skills and verbal information and or attitudes. For example, playing basketball requires players to shoot, dribble and pass which are psychomotor skills. Know the rules, which is verbal information. Develop a game strategy, this is the intellectual skill, apply the game strategy, which is the cognitive strategy and have a strong desire to win. That's the attitude. However, the distinction between domains facilitates both analysis and design. Classification of the intended goal helps designers select the appropriate analysis technique for identifying major steps and the learning objectives. During the design phase classification of the goal and related objectives help designers determine the appropriate instructional strategies. To promote goal achievement. There are three ways to analyze your goal. After defining and classifying your instructional goal, your next task is to analyze it and depict either a the major steps necessary to achieve or perform the goal, or be simple to complex examples of goal performance. These steps may then be used to determine the nature and number sequence of instructional units, lessons or modules in an elearning course to be included in the course of the training program. This will also help you with analyzing your learning objectives. There are three fundamental ways to analyze an instructional goal including a a topic or content area approach, be a stepwise approach and see an elaboration approach. I will briefly summarize the content or topic and then the stepwise approach and further discuss the elaboration approach. The content approach to goal analysis identifies the major topics to be covered in an elearning course or training program. The content approach focuses on knowing and is typically how subject matter experts define the scope and sequence of an online course or training program. Let's do an example. generated from an advanced college level biology course it's divided into 12 units or modules, each covering a topic related to physiological psychology. When goals are analyzed in terms of what learners are expected to know, and online courses or training programs are divided into topics or modules, learners typically concentrate on one particular module or unit without considering the contents of the other units. The Instructional Materials and Resources specified for a unit or module is used in one block of time, rather than different points throughout a term or program and once the class or team or individual moves on to the next topic, the first one is often forgotten. With a content or topic approach to goal analysis and elearning course design. learners often fail to see the relationship between topics or how the skills and knowledge covered in one unit relate to another or to real life.

In comparison to the content or topic approach, the stepwise and elaboration approach to goal analysis concentrate on what learners are supposed to do rather than now, they provide instructional developers with an unambiguous description of what exactly someone should be doing when performing the goal. Starting the design process by determining what learners are supposed to be able to do as a result of instruction is in sharp contrast to first identifying what topics or content areas are necessary to achieve the goal. The stepwise approach identifies and sequences the major steps necessary to perform a goal. To identify and sequence major steps. Ask yourself what learners need to do in order to perform the goal. Your goal statement may already include a short description of the major steps. Each step may represent a physical activity or a mental step and the description of each step should include a measurable verb. These steps will be helpful in determining the learning objectives for the elearning course as well. A goal analysis results in a flow diagram or visual display that clearly identifies and illustrates the relationship among the major steps. In comparison to the stepwise approach, the elaboration approach to goal analysis begins by identifying the simplest epitome of someone performing the goal. It's also referred to as the whole task or simply as the task. After identifying the simplest epitome of the whole task, the analysis progresses through more complex examples of the goal being performed. In other words, elaborates on the goal or whole task. Take for example, someone preparing a spaghetti dinner. The simplest epitome of the whole task may include the use of pre-made noodles, bottled spaghetti sauce, frozen garlic, bread and packaged salad with some already grated parmesan cheese. The next most complex iteration of making a spaghetti dinner may focus on adding some fresh ingredients to the bottle spaghetti sauce and preparing the salad and garlic bread with their basic ingredients. More complex examples of the goal may include making the sauce all the way up to the pasta, noodles and salad dressing from scratch. Training and Education often focuses on complex cognitive tasks. By first presenting your E learners with a simple epitome of the whole task, they may begin to understand the task holistically and start to acquire the skills necessary to complete a real life task for the very first lesson. being presented with an acquiring the skills necessary to accomplish a real life task at the beginning of an elearning course or training program, in turn may be more motivating than simply learning the first step of a task. The holistic understanding of a task also results in the formation of a stable cognitive schema to which more complex capabilities and understandings may be simulated. This is especially valuable for learning complex cognitive tasks. To identify simple to complex examples of the goal analysis, ask yourself and or work with a subject matter expert to determine what is the simplest epitome of someone demonstrating or performing the goal. Your goal statement may already include a short description of the whole task, identify the simplest example of the whole task that is fairly representative of the goal and describe the conditions that distinguish it from other versions or examples of the task. When elaborating a whole task, I also suggest that it may be helpful to start by identifying some of the major versions of the task and the conditions that distinguish when one version is appropriate versus another. Thinking of different conditions helps to identify versions and thinking of different versions also helps to identify conditions. Therefore, it is wise to do both simultaneously. Or alternately, ask the subject matter expert to recall the simplest case of the whole task she or he has ever seen. The simplest version will be a class of similar cases, then check to see how representative it is of the task as a whole. There is no single right version to choose, it's usually a matter of trade offs. The very simplest version of the task is usually not very representative of the task as a whole. The more representative of the simple version the better because it provides a more useful schema to which learners can relate subsequent versions. You may want to use some other criteria in addition to simple and Representative such as common which is how frequently performed the version of the task is and safe, which is how much risk there is to the learner and or the equipment. After identifying the simplest epitome of the whole task that is fairly representative of the goal, work with the subject matter expert if applicable to identify the next simplest version that is more representative of the goal. In general, the next simplest or more complex version will require learners to address additional variables and or more difficult conditions. Continue to identify progressively complex versions of the whole task Until instructional time runs out or the learners have reached the desired level of expertise. A question that may arise as you analyze your goal is, how large should a step be? Or how much should it be included in one step, there are no easy answers. In general if instruction is intended for young students, each step in a goal should be rather small. An instructional goal for older students may be broken down into larger steps. In general, it's recommended that you identify between five to 15 steps to achieve your goal. instructional goal statements should contain a clear statement of learner outcomes and D limit the field of study. When developing a goal statement, attention should be given to the importance or relevance of the elearning course by associating course content with authentic needs and our proficiencies and instructional goal statements should be written in terms of what is expected from students painting a picture of what you want your students to know and be able to do at the end of your course. Analysis of the goal includes the classification of the goal and by either identifying the major steps necessary to perform the goal, or by identifying simple to complex versions of the whole task being performed in real life. A goal analysis illustrates the relationship between the major steps or whole task examples. The purpose is to identify and communicate what learners need to be able to do to accomplish the goal and to determine the scope and sequence of instructional units to be included in a course or training program. This information will be used to help you identify the specific skills and knowledge that will then be transformed until the learning objectives for your instructional unit.