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Instructional Design Activity: Needs Analysis

 

Overall Instructor Rating: Satisfactory

Ratings explanation:

  • Exemplary - A model answer in almost every way (this is given out very rarely).
  • Satisfactory - Very well done; you've met the expectations of the assignment. There are some minor problems, so read my feedback well.
  • Marginal Pass - You pass, but there are lots of issues to consider. Read my feedback very carefully and be sure you understand the points/issues I raise.
  • Not satisfactory, redo and resubmit - The assignment was not completed appropriately. I am concerned that you do not understand the process well enough yet. To get credit for the assignment, you need to redo it, most probably on another topic. Read and consider my feedback very carefully before redoing.

Instructor's Overall Feedback:

Amy, You seem to have a good understanding of the Needs Assessment process. I will suggest a few revisions that are not major. 1a. Your context needs to be more specific such as "State-wide Nutrition Education Program" 5a. Within this section, click on the blue link, which is titled "Descriptions of Types of Needs." Read this page and label each of the needs that you have created with one of these types (normative, comparative, felt...) I’d like to see you add one or 2 more specific needs. "20%Elementary students in Georgia need to reduce their weight by 10%” (and yes, I made that up) 5c. Explain why you ranked some needs above others. What is the rationale for the prioritization that you chose? 7a. For your instructional goals, it is best to get in the habit of using the "student will be able to..." (SWBAT) format that Lloyd suggests. You'll be doing this in future IDAs. Your goals should look like this: "Students will be able to provide information to others about living a healthy lifestyle." or "Students will be able to differentiate healthy food from unhealthy food." Your 2nd need should to be revised. This is more of an explanation of HOW you'll get students to be healthy rather than what the students will be able to (SWBAT) do after complete the program. Overall, I think you understand the big picture. Please email me if you have questions, Lindsay

 

1. Preliminary: Describe the context within which this potential instructional problem takes place. This will pinpoint where the problem is located. If instruction is deemed necessary, this will be the place where it will be designed and implemented.

a. List the context, also known as the "system of interest".

Your final response:

Health and nutrition course

b. Describe or show how the context relates to the bigger environment. Show how this context relates to other levels of the system within which it works.

Your final response:

The health and nutrition course is offered to all students in the public school system of Georgia. Within the course there are different delivery platforms, computer-aided instructional tools, a textbook, instructors, and participants with an interest (though it may be very little) in their own health and nutrition.

The instructor's feedback to step 1:

No specific feedback given on this step.

2. Symptoms of a problem. Write a brief description of some symptoms that make you stop and wonder if something is wrong.

Your final response:

Minority elementary aged children are more obese than their majority counterparts. They are not very well educated on the basics of proper nutrition and exercise in order to achieve a healthy lifestyle.

Using the evidence cited above, describe why you believe that these symptoms signal a problem. Keeping these questions in mind, describe the reasons for identifying these symptoms as problematic.

Your final response:

Obesity is a huge problem among children in the United States. If children are not well educated in proper nutrition and good eating habits then the obesity problem in children, especially minority kids who sometimes don't have the best access to proper health care either, will be a major problem that will be very hard to reverse.

The instructor's feedback to step 2:

No specific feedback given on this step.

3. Preliminary Problem Statement. Based on 1 and 2, write a preliminary draft problem statement. Your context should be the subject of the statement. This is just the initial pass -- the statement will be revised in subsequent steps.

Your final response:

The current system of education to provide information on proper nutrition and eating habits in children needs to be revised in order to prevent obesity problems within out society.

The instructor's feedback to step 3:

No specific feedback given on this step.

4. Verify the problem and determine specific needs. Two things will now happen concurrently. First, you need a systematic procedure to identify and collect data in order to verify that a problem exists. Second, you must identify information that the data sources may help uncover.

 

Data sources (who, what)

Information gathered

What did you find? (Needs)*

Example: Interview participants in course; administer class survey; administer test of understanding.

Example: Participant opinions on IDAs and course; Participant score on test.

Example: Participants believe there is too much jargon (felt need); Participants don't understand ID vocabulary as compared to other classes (comparative need); Participants don't score above national average (comparative need); Participants don't/couldn't see the relation between their work and the ID process)

Your final response:

internet research on obesity problems in minority students, scholarly articles on education in nutrition at the elementary school level, administer a survey of teachers of minority students to get more information on what percentage of their students in the classroom are obese, also get information on how to identify obese children

Your final response:

percentages of obese students, percentages of obese minority students, teachers who could identify at least half of their students as being obese

Your final response:

Not enough information available to students on nutrition, hard to understand concepts related to nutrition, relating the importance of being healthy to their everyday life, reasons for trying to get healthy

*Note: You are not required to gather data; you can draw on your experience or imagination to list the data you might gather.

The instructor's feedback to step 4:

No specific feedback given on this step.

5. Prioritize your list of needs.Which are most important? Why are they most important?

Prioritized needs

Reasons/evidence for priority

Your final response:

1. Reasons for getting healthy 2. Getting information to students about nutrition 3. Relating the importance of being healthy to their everyday life 4. Explaining hard to understand concepts related to nutrition

Your final response:

The students need to know why they are going to be learning about health and nutrition, they also need to understand concepts and be able to relate the information to their everyday life so that they can retain the information given.

The instructor's feedback to step 5:

No specific feedback given on this step.

6. Rewrite your problem statement. Take a moment to look carefully at the initial problem statement that you wrote. Revisit your prioritized needs and check if your problem statement is still accurate and appropriate.

Rewrite the problem statement here:

Your final response:

The current system of education to provide information on proper nutrition and eating habits in children needs to be revised in order to prevent obesity problems within our society.

The instructor's feedback to step 6:

No specific feedback given on this step.

7. Identify the instructional goals. The last step in Needs Assessment is to list a few goals of instruction. Remember, not all goals can be solved through instruction. The instructional goals you identify will be the starting information for the next steps in the instructional design process. List the instructional goals in order of priority.

 

Instructional goals by priority

Reasons for importance

Your final response:

1. Students will identify reasons to have an interest in their own health. 2. Students will be given incentive for learning about proper health and nutrition (cooking actual food and eating it.) 3. Students will be able to provide information to others about proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle.

 

Your final response:

Students need a reason to learn something and by explaining reasons that are valuable to themselves first then you have peaked their interest. My second goal is pretty important to reinforce the learning process by providing a hands on approach to students.

The instructor's feedback to step 7:

No specific feedback given on this step.