Context and Learner Analysis

Brown and Green (2016) introduce several types of analysis relevant to course design: Needs analysis, task analysis, and learner analysis. For this course, we will focus on two types of analysis, context and learner.  Context analysis asks you to consider the relevant dynamics that are outside of the learner.  This is often focused on the organization or larger context in which the intervention is taking place.

Besides identifying the problem that needs to be solved, or the change that needs to be implemented, instructional designers must work to understand their target audience. Who is the intended audience for the instruction? What common traits do members of the learning group possess? What are the differences among learners within the group? What is the motivation for participating in the instructional event? Do the learners have non-instructional needs that must be met so that they may focus on the instructional strategy?

Conducting a learner analysis helps us answer these questions and construct a course that our learners will actually use. In some ways this process overlaps with needs analysis. We may identify through our needs analysis the instructional need and content, but if we don't also consider the needs of the learners when delivering this content, we set up everyone (including ourselves) to fail. Consider this video:

 As an example, below you'll see a mindmap that I created when thinking through the contextual and learner analysis for a course that I am designing.