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The design process is like going on a journey. It provides a roadmap guided by three essential questions:

1. Where are you going?
   Identify needs, which may include the learning context and audience.
2. How do you get there?
   Start with writing goals and learning objectives, then focus on assessments, learning activities, and instructional materials/content.
3. How do you know you’ve arrived?
   Evaluate whether learning outcomes and design have been successfully met.

Getting Started

Before you begin the course design process, you will need to determine what the gap or problem you are trying to address with your course is and how it fits into the bigger curriculum picture. It is also helpful to determine what tasks are necessary and who the learner or your audience for your course is to better design and facilitate a learning experience. Analysis is essential to the instructional design process as it helps to decide goals and objectives for the instructional event and select and organize activities for instruction (Brown & Green, 2020). Below, you will find questions and steps to consider for conducting a Needs, Task, and/or Learner Analysis. After you have conducted the appropriate analysis as necessary, proceed to the course mapping resource for a quick overview on the backwards design process. 

Needs Analysis

Purpose: Establish the problem or gap and determine your proposed solution.

Steps:

1. Determine what purpose(s) need to be addressed to solve the identified gap.
2. Identify sources—who should be involved, what kind of information is needed, and where it can be found.
3. Select tools—such as interviews or surveys—to collect relevant data.
4. Conduct the needs assessment in stages (if needed), and collect/analyze the data.
5. Use the findings to guide decision-making.

Questions to Consider:

• What problem exists or what change is being requested?
• Who is being asked to change?
• What is currently taking place with those individuals?
• Who identified the problem or is requesting change?
• Where will the solution take place?
  Is instruction the most appropriate method?
• What is the intended solution?
• What evaluation strategies will you use to determine success?
  How will you refine them?

Task Analysis

Purpose: Gather information about content and/or tasks needed for effective instruction.

Task analysis helps determine:

• Learning goals and objectives.
• The steps and cognitive processes involved in skills or tasks.
• Types of knowledge involved (declarative, procedural, structural).
• Which tasks or goals should be prioritized and taught.
• The logical sequence of tasks and how they should be learned.
• How to design instructional strategies, activities, and environments.
• The best media and technology for delivery.
• How to create assessments and performance evaluations.
• Evaluation strategies to measure task analysis success and ways to refine them.

Learner Analysis

Purpose: Understand your learners’ needs from multiple perspectives:
physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and cultural.

Questions to Consider:

• Who is the intended audience?
• What traits do they share?
• What differences exist among learners in the group?
• What is the range of learner abilities?
• What motivates their participation?
• Are there non-instructional needs to address for effective learning?
• What would make instruction effective, efficient, and appealing?
• How are cultural, physical, and neurodiverse needs being accommodated?
• What evaluation strategies will you use to determine success, and how will they be refined?

References

Brown, A. H., & Green, T. D. (2020). The essentials of instructional design (4th ed.). Routledge.