Carson Learning Services

Instructional Design

Needs Analysis Curriculum Design Instructional Writing Game-Based Learning Library-Classroom Model

eLearning Design

Custom Design Rapid Design Design Toolbox

eLearning Products

eGames Generator QuickLaunch Generator

Company

Team Approach Contacts Clients News Publications

Instructional Design: Curriculum Design

The design and development phase of the instructional design process includes documenting the performance criteria determined in the analysis phase. Our curriculum design services include:

Develop goals and performance objectives
Perform a task analysis
Information and interaction design
Storyboarding

Our curriculum design phase consists of a 6-step iterative process to determine the most responsible performance intervention:

Step	Process
1: Omit non-value-added activities	Sample question we may ask in this step: What is better -- cooperation or competition? Can we build cooperative competition? Can we create serious fun?
2: Avoid unnecessary interventions	When there is not a lack of skills and knowledge, the gap may be a motivation problem. Approximately 60% of training interventions address motivation -- which may be a waste of valuable training time. Training may not be able to sufficiently address a motivation problem. Don't create training just for the sake of creating training.
3: Limit analysis	Usually we can get 80% of the information we need in the first few minutes of analysis. We quickly find out who needs to learn what. The client can assist us in making intuitive assumptions about needs, tasks, and learner characteristics. By combining the traditional ADDIE phases, precious time and budget can be saved. We modify as we go, and embed analysis in every step.
4: Survey the audience	Talking to as many people in the target audience can provide insight that may not come through otherwise. One group shouldn't dictate the problem without consulting the affected parties. One problem with traditional change management: many times the directives come from the top-down. Bottom up changes may be more sustainable!
5: Design metrics for monitoring negative consequences	Think about this: is your cell phone a problem or a solution? More than likely, it's both. Sometimes there are no problems or solutions -- in many cases the actual state and the ideal state both have advantages? Performers may look at the actual state as ideal because they are familiar with it. One question they may ask: who designed the ideal state?
6: Agree on metrics related to business strategies	We try to keep the process as simple as possible, and relate the solution to the business strategy defined.