WikiInfoLit Needs Assessment

Learners

Post-secondary and secondary instructional librarians, instructional designers, and instructors.

Gagne talks about "using a rational means of reducing the great diversity of individual learner characteristics" (107) and specifying a target audience helps with that. My target audience consists of people who have at least a bachelor's degree and probably more. They are all adults and I do not need to tailor instruction for earlier developmental levels. They can all be expected to be literate and capable of self-regulation for structured learning, and to have some comfort with it due to familiarity and past success. They can be expected to have developed a repertoire of cognitive strategies, and to have intellectual skills and verbal information that surpasses that possessed by most people who haven't completed college. I can expect that their jobs require them to be at least somewhat computer literate, although it's not safe to assume that they're capable of much more than using a document editor and web browser. However, I will probably not have to worry about extra anxiety and cognitive load due to the learning environment being computer-mediated. However there may be some anxiety or resistance from educators who have never taught or engaged in structured learning online before. For them, I can emphasize the self-paced nature of the learning environment, and the fact that they can review any of the material at any time (Gagne 120). They are all educators, so they will have some awareness, if not formally acquired knowledge, of educational theory and practice. Because of their career, they can be expected to have some motivation for learning the content of the course, whether intrinsic because they find educational topics interesting, or extrinsic because they hope that it will help them perform better in their career, or both. Because I can assume a relatively high level of motivation, discovery learning and problem based learning are good strategies (Gagne 124).

One disadvantage of my audience comprising highly educated adults is that they will have many detailed schemas about education, critical thinking, and information literacy concepts, and if those schemas are incompatible with the content of the course, they may miss the point or have difficulty with the course. On the other hand, the existence of those schemas, if they are compatible, will make them quick to pick up new educational concepts.

While I can assume that there is some level of prerequisite knowledge among my target audience, I need to be sure to specify the prerequisite knowledge clearly in the beginning so that none of the learners get in over their heads, and all of them have the option of seeking the prerequisite knowledge before they begin (or concurrently while they participate in the course.) It will be difficult to tailor instruction to the zone of proximal development (Gagne 125) when I am not with the learners, but these are all experienced learners, and I think if I offer them scaffolding options, they will be able to choose them for themselves and benefit from them.

Learning Environment

Asynchronous, unmediated online learning.
Wiki environment
- Unfamiliar to many.
  - Some academics seem resistant to new technology - say they are too burdened with research and teaching to learn to use new and complicated tools.
  - Extra cognitive load.

Organizational Context

SUNY Empire State College (but also available to other SUNY faculty and staff plus secondary and post-secondary educators)
Often little time for professional/faculty development. They may have to take this on their own time, and their attention to it will have to compete with their attention to work/life demands.
Relatively little priority placed on information literacy/critical inquiry infused throughout the curriculum.
Relatively little priority placed on inquiry-based or problem-based learning.
- Some affective learning objectives needed.

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