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As with so many other skills, one of the best ways to learn how to build individualized instructional tutorials is to build one!
Choose an instructional outcome
The first step is to decide what you want to teach. This might seem a little backward—usually we like to start by finding out what people need to learn. But for your first foray into tutorial-building we'd like to keep the "overhead" low, and let you work with content with which you are already familiar.
So that's the first criteria:
- Choose a topic in which you are already a subject matter expert, or for which you have easy access to an expert, so that you don't spend a lot of time researching content.
If it is work-related, make sure no one is depending on getting it by a certain deadline, or in a particular format, that may conflict with course schedules and requirements. Better to choose something non-work related. It could be something you're learning from this or another EDTEC course. It might relate to a sport you play, a hobby, or some other interest you have.
- Choose a topic that is interesting to you.
That might seem obvious, but it's kind of important. You're going to need to work on this for several weeks, and if you lose interest in the content after just a few days, it'll be harder to stay excited about the work. If in doubt, choose something that has interested you for a long time—there's no reason to think that this project will suddenly kill a life-long interest.
- Choose something that folks need to store in long term memory, rather than something they can reference from, say, a job aid.
Suppose you wanted to do something for backpackers. You might like to do a tutorial on what to pack for a trip, but you could argue that a job aid might serve that purpose more effectively. But what about knowing how to act in case you meet a grizzly versus a black bear versus a mountain lion (they call for very different responses, as I understand it). Or, when lost, how can you keep yourself going in a single direction rather than in circles? Or recognizing common poisonous plants? If I remember my woodcraft days, there are lots of these kinds of tasks or responses that are helpful to know without referring to a job aid (hungry bears don't like to be kept waiting). These you want in long term memory, so they're there when you need them.
- Choose an instructional outcome that will be useful to others.
"Useful" means valuable—to someone. Is there an audience who will use and appreciate your tutorial? No fun making something that no one will ever use. Your audience could be other EDTEC students, school teachers or pupils, military or other government personnel, or corporate workers or managers. They might be instructional designers, writers or editors, mathematicians, automobile mechanics, junior lifeguards, amateur equestrians, police officers, dieters, chefs, or biologists.
This next one is trickier, but vital.
- Choose an instructional outcome that involves a handful of sub-tasks.
If you decide to teach something too simple—remembering a single fact, for instance—your tutorial may be done almost before you've begun. Pick something that involves learning several facts, or several ways to discriminate a concept, or several steps in a procedure, or applying several rules, and so forth.
- Consider the pros and cons of doing a software tutorial.
Tools like Captivate have made software tutorials commonplace, but that doesn't mean that most folks know how to build good ones. If you've never done one, they are a staple in the current repertoire, and good to have a good one in your portfolio. On the other hand, software tutorials are enough different than other types of tutorials that you may limit your horizons a little if that's all you know how to do.
- Consider something you could deliver on a mobile device.
While it hasn't exactly taken over the marketplace, lots of people are trying to figure out how to do good mobile elearning—why not be the one to show 'em?
All this leads naturally to the next step, which is to...
Conduct a task analysis
Outline the sub-tasks or sub-ideas involved in your topic.
The sample tutorial for this project illustrates nicely how to build in adequate richness. The sample tutorial is on ordering numbers—fractions in particular. It involves learning four different rules—one with two sub-rules—for ordering fractions:
- When the denominators are the same, the larger numerator indicates the larger fraction.
- When the numerators are the same, the smaller denominator indicates the larger fraction.
- When the numerator is larger AND the denominator is smaller, the fraction is larger.
- Round fractions to the closest "benchmark" fraction arranged on a number line.
- When two or more fractions have the same benchmark, see whether they are on opposite sides of it.
- If two or more fractions are on the same side of the benchmark, use rules 1, 2, and 3 above to compare their distances from the benchmark.
Each of these six rules and sub-rules involves at least one presentation frame and two or three practice frames. The whole lesson, including an introduction and close, consists of about 25 frames. This is on the high end of what you should be aiming for. As a rule of thumb, identify at least three sub-tasks or sub-ideas your learners will need to know and practice in order to accomplish the overall outcome.
This takes some careful thinking, but don't continue until you're comfortable you've got about the right scope for your project. If it's too big, you'll get bogged down in repetitive design and development. If it's too small, you won't have enough to really get a feel for the design and development process.
See the Extend section of this module for more information on conducting task analyses. And here's a nicely done cognitive task analysis [pdf] by course participant Dominique Turnbow, that goes on to include outcome classification as well (see module 2 for guidance on that activity).
Feedback on your task analysis?
One important reason for doing a task analysis at this early stage is to ensure that you have scoped out your project appropriately -- not too small, not too large.
- If you're in the on-campus section, post your task analysis on your assignment page and bring 2 hard copies to class. The instructor will meet with you to review it.
- If you're in the on-line section of the course, post your task analysis on your assignment page and who will review it and respond to you via email.