Design for Learning- Principles, Processes, and Praxis, 2021a

information to determine whether there is a gap between the current
state and the desired state. This gap yields the need. Needs analysis
is the process of further investigating the situation to understand why
this gap exists in the first place. The data that is gathered during the
needs assessment is analyzed to determine what is contributing to or
causing the gap (Kaufman & Guerra-Lopez, 2013).
Needs assessment and needs analysis provide an opportunity for an
instructional designer to develop instructional materials that can have
a meaningful impact on their learning audience. In more cases than
not, when instructional designers are brought onto a project, the
solution (need) has already been decided:
We need to design an online degree program
We need to design a safety course for incoming employees
We need to design a team training course for the hospital staff
If you look closely, you will see that each of the above-mentioned
statements contained the word need. Whether it is your client or a
supervisor, the need has already been decided. Another caveat is that
there are a lot of times where the need has been decided with no
needs assessment ever having been conducted (Peterson & Peterson,
2004). Oftentimes when this occurs, the instructional designer begins
work on their tasks only to find that they have a lot of unanswered
questions:
Why are the learners experiencing this problem?
How will they use the instruction after training takes place?
How will we know if they are implementing what they have
learned in their actual jobs?
How do we know that the instruction we have designed is doing
what it was meant to do?
Has the organization tried this type of instructional method in
the past?
What is the rationale for proposing online instruction?
Design for Learning 85