Introduction

The next section of your design document is the Instructional Analysis. The instructional analysis process usually results in a flowchart depicting the steps, substeps, and subordinate skills required to attain your goal. It is developed from your goal statement in a process that involves describing the skills indicated in the statement, breaking them down into smaller steps, and then identifying any other relevant skills that might be necessary to achieve the goal.

Dick and Carey break the instructional analysis step into two parts: Goal Analysis and Subordinate Skills Analysis. Goal Analysis involves identifying and sequencing the major steps and substeps required to perform your goal. Subordinate Skills Analysis involves identifying the subordinate skills and entry behaviors needed to perform each of the major steps you identify.

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More Information

Multimedia Design Document: Sections 3

The third section of your multimedia design document will contain your instructional analysis flowchart. Here are some guidelines to help you develop your flowchart.

Step 1: Determine Goal Steps

Now that you have a goal statement, you should break the goal down into steps. First try to identify the major steps associated with accomplishment of your goal. It may help you to write them down in bulleted form. Once you have identified the major steps, determine if some or all of these major steps can be made easier to understand by breaking them down into a series of smaller substeps. Throughout this process, ask yourself if the sequence in which these steps occur is important.

Use this information to create an initial instructional analysis flowchart for your goal. Dick and Carey provide some diagramming conventions starting on page 67 of their book that may assist you in this process (e.g. rectangles for goal steps, diamonds for decision steps, etc.). We have also provided a review of diagramming conventions within this course site.

There are several good programs that can assist you in drawing flowcharts. The most convenient solution might be for you to use the drawing tools available in Microsoft Word. If you turn on the Drawing toolbar you will see that you can draw the necessary shapes and connectors right in your Word document using the AutoShapes. You can easily add text to a shape by right-clicking on it and selecting "Add Text". However, these tools are not full-featured and can be a little difficult to use. If you are interested in using a flowcharting program, here are some suggestions. Most of them allow you to download a 30-day full-featured trial version.

  • Inspiration - Good program that is used by many teachers.
  • Edge Diagrammer - Another good one.
  • SmartDraw - Yet another good one.
  • Visio - Excellent program. Unfortunately, they only offer a trial version on CD, which means you'd have to wait for it to come in the mail.

When creating your flowchart, especially if you are using one of these third-party programs, make sure that it will not be too big to fit in your design document. If need be, you can use landscape mode in Word just for the page you put the flowchart on. To do this move your cursor to the end of the document, and then go to "File/Page Setup...". In this dialog box select the "Paper Size" tab. On this tab, under "Orientation" select "Landscape", and then next to where it says "Apply to" select "This point forward". This will change the next page of your document to Landscape mode, and allow you to insert a wide image on the page. You can then follow the same procedure to change it back to "Portrait" for the next page.

Step 2: Identify Subordinate Skills

Once you have a flowchart identifying your goal steps and substeps, it's time to identify any relevant subordinate skills and entry behaviors. If you recall, the subordinate skills include any prerequisite skills or knowledge that are required to be able to adequately perform the steps in your goal. The subordinate skills are not steps or substeps on the way to the goal; they are the supporting information that learners need to be able to perform those steps. In order for learners to accomplish a specific step associated with your goal, it may be necessary for them to learn something or develop an ability to do something before receiving instruction on that step. For each step and substep in your goal analysis, is there anything the learner must know (knowledge) or possess the ability to do (skill) before receiving the instruction associated with that step?

When you have identified any subordinate skills, revise your instructional analysis flowchart to include this information. You may need to shift things around in order to make room for the extra boxes.

Step 3: Identify Entry Behaviors

Finally, to complete your flowchart, you should identify which skills on your chart will be treated as entry behaviors. For each of the subordinate skills you include in your flowchart, determine if provisions for the acquisition of this knowledge or skill will be included in your instruction. If so, treat it as a subordinate skill. If not, treat it as an entry behavior. When you have a good idea of which skills should be included in your instructional program, and which ones will be considered entry behaviors, add a dotted line to your flowchart indicating where the dividing line is between the two. All the skills listed above the line will be included in your instructional materials, and all the skills below the line will be ones learners will have to already possess before they are exposed to the instruction.

You should now have a completed Instructional Analysis flowchart that includes the instructional goal, a list of the main steps required to accomplish that goal, the subordinate skills required to accomplish each of the main steps, and a line separating the entry behaviors. If you created your flowchart in a program other than Word, you will need to insert the flowchart into your design document. All of the various flowcharting programs have ways do this, either by cutting and pasting or by exporting the flowchart and then importing it into Word. Remember that you can change the page orientation in Word if your flowchart is too wide to fit in Portrait mode.

The completed flowchart will become the third part of your multimedia design document. Label this section Instructional Analysis.

Submitting Sections 3 of your Design Document

Section 3 (Instructional Analysis) should be added to the design document you started creating earlier. Once again, this document should be typed up in Microsoft Word. At the top of the document you should have the title "Multimedia Design Document". Underneath that should be your name, email address, and the date. You should save the document on your computer with the name "mmanalysis". After you have saved your file, go to the student interface and submit your assignment for grading. Click here if you need additional information regarding submission of your assignment.

Assignment: Instructional Analysis
Points:
30

Grading Criteria:

  • Flowchart identifies the major steps associated with the accomplishment of the goal. (10)

  • Flowchart identifies any substeps below the main goal steps. (5)

  • Flowchart indicates the proper sequence for the goal steps and substeps. (4)
  • Flowchart identifies the subordinate skills required for each goal step and substep. (5)

  • Flowchart includes a dotted line indicating the cutoff point for entry behaviors. (4)

  • Completed flowchart inserted into Design Document. Follows proper diagramming conventions. (2)