Instructional Design and Needs Assessment
Instruction design could be defined as an activity which is purposeful in behavior in which reflection on decisions to be taken in design plays a significant role. (Shambaugh, 2000) There are various models of instructional designs which are used in education of which a popular method is ADDIE model. The ADDIE model is a simple model used for design of instructions and can be widely used in several settings because of its systematic and generic nature. (Peterson, 2003) Almost all models have five areas namely: analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. (JHPIEGO's Instructional Design Process)
In the analysis phase, main centre of attention of the designer is focused on the target audience. The most commonly used analysis techniques are the needs assessments. The needs assessment is performed to understand the need of the audience. This is done by making a distinction between what information the students already have and what they need to know at the end of the course. During the process of need assessment, designers or instructors try to find out the standards and competencies which are necessary to lay a base while determining what students need by the completion of the course. Information may be made available from courses which were evaluated previously if the course had been taught earlier. (Peterson, 2003) The results of the needs assessments have inclusion of the statement of the difficulties involved and the most possible solutions to these problems. The process of instructional content analysis makes available a body of knowledge to be taught, skills to be learned and attitudes to be adopted. (JHPIEGO's Instructional Design Process)
In order to assess and analyze needs, a team performs one or additional needs assessments which includes training sector and institutional and facility analyses. Usually there is an assessment of the knowledge and skills of those who participate. The designer of instructions would either be involved or may not be involved in performing...
But the designer may use the data for assessment as the condition for the process of design. At the start of the course, the designer is responsible for seeing to it that time is adopted into the course schedule for performing assessment of the participant. The next step in the needs assessment process is to assess instructional content, while assuming that needs assessment data would show a gap between the current performance and the performance to be achieved, thereby showing the necessity of a training intervention. (JHPIEGO's Instructional Design Process) With the popularity of the internet, several courses are now accessible easily and can prove as a framework for teachers who are developing or teaching a course for the very first time. (Peterson, 2003)
Next is the design process whereby the instructor or designer should take into consideration the data which were available from the analysis phase, an important characteristic of the design phase is assessment, whereby designers will determine as to how aims and objectives will be analyzed and what types of assessment will be taken into consideration before the stage of implementation. In the third phase of development, instructors need to refer to the results of the last two phases and determine a product during the third phase. Thus this will be a production mode and instructors are to determine whether the students are to learn from the product developed and whether it can be further improved upon before the next stage of implementation. Next in the implementation process, instructors are to have an active part and must continue to assess, re-design and further improve the product with modifications made as and when necessary. Finally the evaluation phase is the final phase, whereby it needs to be determined whether the goals have been satisfied, the influence of the product and the future changes which would be essential. (Peterson, 2003)
Now we may understand as to the needs assessments which are necessary in the field of mathematics. Even…
