© E. G. Kowch TASK PERFORMING JOB, TASK AND CONTENT ANALYSIS Once the Need is Known, we figure out the processes and tasks that may or may not allow the sub-optimal or “GAP” learning / performance situation (focus on the Task Analysis, the rest is extra information for your resource library) Most of the information in this section is summarized from a collection of the following sources: Kazanas, W., & Rothwell, W. (1998). Mastering the Instructional Process, (2nd Ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Dick, W., & Carey, L. (1996). The Systematic Design of Instruction. (4th Ed.). New York: Harper-Collins

© E. G. Kowch Tasks occur in an organization… how well do designers know that which surrounds our prospective instruction…. Ed Admin. 700 on one slide Is the administration / work flow integrated or hierarchical? Bureaucratic - or less than bureaucratic? Division of labor Technocratic - or less technocratic? Division of expertise and related power regimes Is the organization open or closed? Is the organization pro-change or change averse? Is this a learning community or a “production” community? Is there a cultural component that is important? Do clear values support the mission/goals/policies? Who leads? Employees Supervisors Committees After Sergiovanni, 1990, Drucker, 1997 Workplace Setting Analysis

© E. G. Kowch The Main Instructional Development Concern about the Work Environment is.. “The total surrounding context for the person or subject of interest”. Because The instructional design process is a change effort that is intended to meet or avert deficiencies in knowledge, skills or attitudes. (Kazanas, 1998, p. 103). Considering Organization resource constraints (time, money, people, $) and culture affect: 1. The length of time a project can take 2. Which media can be used 3. Which instruction & testing strategies can be used Workplace Setting Analysis

© E. G. Kowch Workplace Setting Analysis: How to Identify which factors matter.. Environments affecting ID development, delivery and application matter - especially if you are have a constructivist / inquiry designer epistemology. Focus on 3 environments: 1. Development Environment 2. Delivery Environment 3. Application Environment Workplace Setting Analysis

© E. G. Kowch Organization / ID Environment Assessment Characteristics Some High Performance Workplace Characteristics for Instructional Development (Work) Training and continuous learning Information sharing Employee participation Organization Structure Worker - Management partnerships Rewards systems exist and are understood Employee job security Supportive Work Environment (Dubois and Rothwell, 1996) Workplace Setting Analysis

© E. G. Kowch Setting Analysis Quality Check: As a Developer, Did I Get it Right? Was the analysis conducted? Was the analysis conducted at the proper time? Place? SWOT Analysis: Is instruction right for this organization? Strengths of this org for T & D Weaknesses of this org for T & D Opportunities for T & D Troubles foreseen with T & D in this context Designer Competency Check: Is the designer capable of explaining why they conducted a setting analysis and the reasons they chose to focus on certain features of the design, delivery and application environments? Workplace Setting Analysis

© E. G. Kowch Work Analysis in Context: Job, Task and Content Analysis in a Training Setting Needs Assessment (finds the gap) Learner Analysis (finds learner Characteristics) Organization Analysis (Identifies Training Constraints) Work Analysis (procedures in the Org.) Identify what worker does, how they do it, what mental and physical Requirements exist,what kinds of tasks are done, what Constitutes mastery or low performance, Create Perform. Objectives

© E. G. Kowch Job Analysis (Planning for one) (good for job-specific training/instruction needs) 1. Who will do conduct it? 2. Why do it? 3. How will the results be used? 4. Who depends on these results? 5. What data collection & analysis methods should be used? Job analysis

© E. G. Kowch Job Analysis (Implementing the Plan or Doing It) (good for job-specific training/instruction needs) 1.Do the plan steps (previous) to collect info. About jobs under investigation 2.THE RESULTS 1.A Job description 2.A job specification 3.A task listing Job analysis

© E. G. Kowch Task Analysis: Task Language 2 Types of Tasks: 1. Cognitive Task: (Mental performance). Unobservable performance. (Knowing cannot be observed by Kazanas… Do not follow a prescribed order. IE: Choose a personal computer. 1. Also called a “transfer task” 2. Goal: Find a personal computer. 2. Action Task: (physical performance). Observable performance. Action causes change. Often a prescribed order. IE: Change a light bulb. 1. A series of behaviors involving person/person or person/object interaction 2. A series of behaviors that changes the person in some way 3. A series of behaviors that accomplishes a goal. CRITERIA for evaluating an action task Task has a beginning and an end Task is performed in relatively short time periods Task can be observed Task can be measured Task is independent of other actions Task: A discrete unit of performance by an individual (typing a letter). TASK analysis

© E. G. Kowch Task Analysis Knowing what they do, how they do it, why they do it… A task analysis is an intensive examination of how people perform work activities. Tasks: A discrete unit of work performed by an individual, it has a beginning and an ending. Subtasks : the smallest step into which a work activity can be divided. Elements: a step within a step… separate time-motions Task listing: A list of actions done in work. TASK analysis

© E. G. Kowch Task Analysis: The Results 1. To determine the components of competency (competent performance) 2. To identify activities that may be SIMPLIFIED or IMPROVED 3. To determine exactly what a worker must 1. KNOW 2. FEEL 3. DO … t o learn a specific work activity 4. To clarify resources /conditions needed for job competency 5. To establish minimum standards (expectations) for each task appearing in a job description. There are many techniques for Task Analysis: See: Leshin & Pollock, Riegeluth, Dick and Carey, Smith and Ragan, Kazanas…. And so on… TASK analysis

© E. G. Kowch Task Analysis: 5 Steps 1.Identify Jobs or tasks to be analyzed 2.Clarify the desired results 3.Prepare a Plan to do the Analysis A.Implement the Plan B.Analyze the results 4.Break down the Task into component parts if need be. 5.Restructure the parts if necessary to achieve (learrning / skills) outcomes TASK analysis

© E. G. Kowch Step One: Identify the Task to be Analyzed by identifying the KIND of task Procedural: observable action processes (people & machines) Example: Filling a gas tank Process: partly observable, bound to a particular process (people & people) Example: Equitable hiring practices Troubleshooting: observe an outcome & trace it back to the observable action that led to the outcome ( people & machines or people & people) Example: I always get 2 copies of from her. Mental: Unobservable cognitive tasks (abstraction, compare/contrast). Sequences may be predictable. (person) TASK analysis

© E. G. Kowch Step 2: Clarifying the Desired Results Ask yourself: What do you want from this task analysis? Watch that your level of detail is not too fine. Jackson (1986) suggests: 1. Find a task input 2. Find a task output 3. Figure out the steps between! Results can be: application of an intellectual skill (comparison), a cognitive strategy (memory), verbal information, motor skill or attitude. TASK analysis

© E. G. Kowch Step 3: PLAN to do the Task Analysis 3 Questions to guide your Task Analysis Plan 1. Who will do it? 2. What task performance will be examined? 3. How will I collect & Analyze data? Remember the TIME and $$ it will take to analyze a task. Will INSIDE ID people or EXTERNAL ID people do the analysis? Sources of Information to consider when Planning a Task Analysis Performers (master, average, low) Nonperformers (managers, people affected, resource people, SMEs, future performers) Documents (reference by performers to do tasks (manuals, online guides often list the tasks quite well…often…) Environmental features: The conditions of instruction and learning TASK analysis

© E. G. Kowch Steps 4 and 5: IMPLEMENTING the Task Analysis 1. Break the job down into its component parts 2. Compare the parts with correct performance criteria. 3. Restructure the parts to create an improved task performance OUTLINE THE TEACHING AND LEARNING REQUIREMENTS To summarize: To design OJT, Do a task list Analyze the task list Use the task list to become the basis for performance objectives Generate the instructional intervention to improve GAP tasks. TASK analysis

© E. G. Kowch Another approach to Task Analysis: CONTENT Analysis We are still looking for a way to design instructional interventions that improve performance or learning…. This is the process of braking large bodies of subject matter or tasks into smaller instructionally useful units. Can be called “Chunking”. Focuses on the information or knowledge requirements rather than on sequences or procedures --- FOCUSES ON EXPERTISE OR EXCELLENT PRACTICE, then “backs out” the criteria for an optimal task: Åssumptions: Learners must know before they can do Work tasks might not be a good basis for instruction-- do all tasks boil down to a single set of tasks? Different instructional content might apply for different tasks. CONTENT analysis

© E. G. Kowch 6 Step Content Analysis 1.Identify the subject 2.Identify what subject experts know 3.See how people perform the mental activity by: 1.Asking them 2.Observing work related activity 3.Using other methods 4.Conduct a lit search on the subject 5.Develop a model of the subject 6.Describe the subject There is an idea that if you study the content of a mental process or job, you will likely find an order or sequence that dictates what part of the content must be known before others, and known well for subsequent learning to occur. CONTENT analysis

© E. G. Kowch Content Analysis Step 1: Identify the Subject (ie: teaching writing skills). use databases Step 2: Investigate what Expert performers (master teachers) know use interviews, questionnaires, observations, docs, internet to explain what a subject is and how it relates to the work, and how they would orient a new person to the work. Step 3: Investigate how people perform the activity Check mental performance by job shadowing, other methods (see Leshin). Clarify what knowledge is applied in what setting, how people organize that knowledge.. Sit with performers while they work. Step 4: Conduct a lit search on the subject: ID research too. Step 5: Create a model that fit the subject onto a performance plane… flowcharts, events networks, graphic models organize information visually. You want to know what is done, when, and how well it must be done to design interventions for performance improvement. (Dick and Carey, 1994). Step 6: Describe the subject in a way that will facilitate learning by others. Present what must be known my experts. THIS IS GROUND FOR SETTING PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES. NEXT. CONTENT analysis

© E. G. Kowch JUDGING WORK ANALYSIS ASK YOURSELF Was the work done properly? (often you will be handed this work) Wrong analysis = wrong design Was the purpose of the analysis clear at the end of the study? Was the job, content, task described well enough that you could understand what it “takes” to do the job? Did ways to improve job performance (tasks, content) jump out for you? Did you identify WAYS to instruct others (say new people) on how to do the job? What constraints affected the analysis? ($, time, people, organization) What necessary resources were unavailable? How cooperative was the organization (measure of learning capacity). WORK analysis

© E. G. Kowch Competency Assessment Another kind of Thinking about Performance Particularly skills-based performance Supplants Task Analysis today at times Competency can mean Knowledge Skills Attitude Competency is a degree of excellence in performance, using exemplars as excellence criteria. Competency assessment is the process of discovering the competencies of exemplars. Competency models are derived from competency assessment. They can be created for job categories, departments or organizations. Organizational competencies can be defined too.

© E. G. Kowch Competency Assessment Is popular as it is a more holistic way to approach training, as minute tasks and processes are less of a focus. A focus on knowledge, skills and attitudes is thought to be enough for the complex work world today. It is a model of intangibles (Kazanas). Approaches include borrowed (from another org.), process driven (doing a content and task analysis on a specific org. unit), isolating characteristics of exemplar performers and … verifying the model. MINIMUM competencies are assessed via focus groups with both expert and non experts. There are trends driven approaches, and rapid assessment approaches where outputs, competencies roles and quality requirements from work functions, responsibilities and behaviors emerge. Gaps are filled by working on the gestalt by using behavioral interviewing in the group. (Delphi).