Instructional Design Plan: Needs Analysis Section
EDIT 705, Instructional Design, May 8, 2002

 

Introduction
Datatel, Inc. provides Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) administrative software to institutions of higher education, along with training and education solutions that complement the software solutions . The specific software applications include a Student Information System, a Financial System, a Human Resources system, and an Institutional Advancement/Fund-Raising system. Software training and education is currently delivered either face-to-face in one of the company’s three regional training facilities (Fairfax, VA; Dallas, TX; San Francisco, CA), or at the client’s institution. In recent years, revenues from classroom-based training and education have been declining, because fewer and fewer clients have been enrolling in the various offerings. On-site training at client institutions has also been declining. With clients not attending classroom training nor contracting for on-site training, it seemed that clients were reducing training expenditures. Anecdotal information from field consultants suggested that in addition to the problem of tight budgets, clients were afraid to travel to our training centers after the events of 9/11. At the same time, our software products have become more complex and demand a well-trained user for successful implementation.

To ensure continued client success, which in turn promotes client satisfaction, and to protect company revenue streams, the Corporate Executive Team approached me, Director of Product Marketing, with this problem. Following a briefing of my team members, an idea that immediately came to mind was to deliver education and training offerings via distance learning. The charge from the Executive Team was to explore the potential of distance learning offerings and come up with solutions that would expand upon rather than replace our current classroom offerings. Classroom offerings were (are) very profitable because they require only one instructor for about 20 participants. Moreover, the instructor need not incur billable travel and lodging costs, while covering more clients than would be possible when travelling from site to site. With these ground rules, my team set out to explore opportunities for distance learning training offerings.

Needs Analysis
Approach used for gathering information
Although our charge from the Executive Team had clearly defined parameters, we also knew that the “if we build it, they will come” approach was no way to launch an offering. A Needs Analysis had to be conducted.
We began by reviewing the call records of our Technical Support division covering the past 12 months. Technical Support provides telephone assistance to clients experiencing problems with our software and it documents, among other things, the types of user errors occurring most often. An analysis revealed that clients were making the greatest number of errors (58%) during the implementation of our Web product. Errors were especially prevalent when clients tried to customize the pre-packaged Web forms, delivered with our product, using our Software Development Kit (SDK).

We then conducted individual interviews among the Technical Support representatives who had documented those user errors. The reps stated that a good portion of the calls they received was not the result of software failures (called “bugs”), but rather to lack of user knowledge on how to perform the function they were seeking to perform. The individuals making these errors were the System Administrators and Application Programmers who were trying to customize the Web forms. Whenever Tech Support would recommend consulting services to learn Web form customization skills, the clients stated that their institutions had neither the money nor the time to expend on staff training.

Targeting our regular points of client contact for technical issues – database and system administrators, and programmers – we then conducted a Web-based survey of our clients to assess the level of interest in and demand for software training and education via distance learning. In addition to closed-end questions about learning environment requirements, the survey included two open-ended questions aimed at understanding in-going attitudes about distance learning, as well as the types of courses they would like to see offered via distance learning. The survey generated a response rate of 37%, which was higher than our usual rate for online surveys and represented a variety of institution types (community colleges, 4-year privates, 4-year publics, specialty schools), sizes, and geographic regions. The results of the survey indicated that:

• Clients were very interested in training and education via distance learning, primarily to avoid travel and lodging costs, as well as time lost away from the office;


• Technology and tools training for deployment and maintenance of the Web forms, particularly at the advanced level, was mentioned most often as the type of training desired;


• Respondents were interested in unmediated Internet-based training, for ease of use and convenience

Need for instruction
Knowledge base requirements
According to our corporate Best Practices, the knowledge base for the IT professional charged with deploying and maintaining our Web-based ERP applications includes:
• Basic knowledge of Web programming using HTML, XML, JavaScript, and metadata conventions as documented by IMS, SCORM
• In-depth knowledge of Datatel software application programming using our software development toolkit (SDK)
• Basic knowledge of the Web-based application code generation process
• In-depth knowledge of application data dictionaries

Optimal performance objectives
Given this knowledge base, the IT professional should then be able to:
• Write a functionality requirements document for the customized Web form
• Modify the HTML templates delivered with the Web-based ERP application suite
• Move SDK custom source code needed to build Web-based application workflows
• De-bug customized Web-based application workflows

Actual performance
Based on the research data and Best Practices requirements cited in this document, the most common problems associated with deploying and maintaining the Web-based ERP applications software are:
• Purpose of customization is unclear
• Depth of SDK programming skill is too shallow
• Step-by-step process for HTML template modification is not followed
• Customized Web-based application workflows are not bug-free
• Customized Web forms do not function properly on the institution’s Web site

The gap and proposed instruction for filling the gap
The gap between optimum and actual Web-based ERP application deployment and maintenance is a skills gap that can be filled only through instruction on and practice with the SDK tool and the Web-based application templates. The learners are SDK developers and Web developers working in the IT department at our client institutions. The learners have a strong general programming background, but have only a basic knowledge of our SDK development environment and our HTML templates. A detailed discussion of the learners is given in the Learner Analysis section (section 3) of this document.

Learning goal
Learners will customize a pre-packaged Web form by using the Forms Modify function in the SDK, generating the HTML code in the appropriate template, testing and debugging the custom workflow, then integrating the customized workflow into the institution’s web site.

Factors influencing the environment
• There is strong corporate commitment to offering training and education to our clients via distance learning
• The Internet is the delivery vehicle preferred by both clients and by Datatel
• Any distance learning offering must not replicate and thus, not cannibalize, the existing classroom-based offerings
• All learners have PC and high speed Internet access at work, with 56K modem access at home
• All curriculum development will be done by Datatel staff
• A homegrown instructional delivery environment will be built