Analysis and Design - Part of the Flow

Analysis and design are extremely close as part of the instructional design process. Without an analysis, one really can't go confidently forward with the design. The analysis provides at least a portion of the roadmap so the designer knows where to go. I don't think an analysis has to be overly involved; in fact, there are times when an analysis is little more than asking what is needed and when it is needed. But even with such a short time for analysis, the designer can get a feel for the outcome of the learning and some clues on how to proceed with the design. I don't think that the analysis, once complete, is never revisited. Sometimes questions come up in the design process that require the designer to go back to the analysis portion again. Goals and objectives can be tweaked and revised as needed, since the content (to me) is like any creation -- it can evolve into something vastly different than what was originally intended, and revisiting the analysis can help make sure that the creation is still valid and desired.

The Information R/Evolution described in the video drives the way that most of us will obtain information that is used in the analysis, and it may guide the design, depending on the topic, the purpose and the audience. Most of us will use the Internet as a starting place for our research, and we'll come across websites, blogs, networking sites, wikis, and other online resources. If we know that our audience falls in what is known as a heavy Internet-using demographic, the instruction could be designed that way. It could be more exploratory in nature.