Understanding learner needs

When designing learning events/experiences, we are designing for our learners. Therefore, we need to have some insights into our learners' needs, prior knowledge, skills and expectations to assist us in planning. Traditional conceptions of instructional design have focused explicitly on the knowledge and skills to be learned. However, contemporary models of learning design extend beyond just content considerations and take more learner-centred approaches in the design of learning events. This includes understanding learner motivations and expectations and how the learning experience will be useful to learners after it has ended.

Why?

Considering learner needs when designing the learning experience provides some assurance that it will achieve not only the desired outcomes, but also that it will facilitate learning. Learner-centred experiences are adaptive to learner needs (Hoidn, 2017) and characterised by the provision of choice, formative and summative assessment and opportunities that foster and support higher-order thinking, collaboration and motivation. Therefore, to create a learner-centred environment, you will need to have a good sense of who your learners are.

How?

Contemporary approaches to learning design, while still considering the fundamental question of what it is that learners need to learn, also take into consideration the skills and experiences that learners bring with them, as well as their values and motivation. For simplicity, we have included here a list of questions for you to consider as you think about your learners.

• Who are you your learners?
• What skills/knowledge do the learners possess?
• What skills/knowledge/behaviours will learners need to demonstrate?
• What are the learner’s expectations/values/motivations?
• Why are/would learners take part in this learning event/experience?
• How do your learners prefer to learn?
• What learning enablers/constraints might you need to consider (e.g., learner location, travel time)?

When answering the questions, you will want to consider where you might obtain data to guide your responses. Depending on your context/audience, you may be able to obtain some information from existing data sources, such as higher education or other industry reports, feedback surveys, teaching and subject evaluations, and Academic Quality and Standards or institutional data sources. Alternatively, you may need to obtain new data, which may involve conducting surveys, focus groups or some other form of data collection from your potential learners.

In some instances, obtaining comprehensive data prior to developing and facilitating a learning event may not be possible. For these cases it is important to reflect on what is known about learners, or that which you believe to be likely/true based on available information/sources (e.g., you may draw on your experience/data from a previous cohort as a reference point). It is especially important in these instances to be mindful of and document any assumptions and plan for ways you can capture data throughout the development and/or facilitation of a learning experience to continue to build your understanding of learners (and challenge assumptions). For example, you could use a survey, polling tool or even just a show of hands to collect learner information before or during a learning event to assist you in planning or adapting your approach. Perhaps, you may want to consider how to incorporate some of these questions when evaluating your learning event so that this information can support subsequent offerings of the learning event.

Once you have the responses to the questions above and any relevant data about the learners, you then need consider what this means for the learning experiences you want to design. For example, given learner pre-requisite knowledge, are there topics that need to be addressed as part of a learning experience or do additional supports need to be provided? Does this information provide any insight into the length of time required for learning activities, the mode(s) of delivery, or the types of resources used? Where technology is concerned, are there specific technologies that would work best for the learners, or if new technologies need to be considered, will there have to be time devoted to training the learners in the technologies to be used?

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