Sub-Badge 1: Gap analysis

Challenge 1: Conducting a gap analysis

Criteria for successful completion of this challenge: This challenge focuses on conducting a gap analysis to describe the nature of a learning or performance problem and propose a potential instructional and/or non-instructional solutions and strategies. Gap analysis is a process of determining the gap between actual situation and desired situation as well as the root causes of this gap. Reflection must address: How did you determine or identify the learning or performance problem, including data sources you used? How did your artifact demonstrate your competence in each of the performance statements?

Examples: Performance Assessment and Design and Develop HPT Solutions and Evaluation Plan (EDCI 528); Design Document 1 (EDCI 572), Project Plan (EDCI 569 if taken in Spring 2021 or later). 

Reflection

In EDCI 572, I fully developed a learning module that would supplement the training of newly certified yoga teachers. This module came into being because of the gap analysis I did as part of the Design Document 1 (DD1) assignment, which justified the need. The attached artifacts are both the DD1 documentation and the gap analysis presented as a graphic. The ability to identify gaps and needs is central to instructional design because these are necessary components to all properly designed learning experiences. Understanding a gap and how to methodically fill it will showcase an instructional designer’s capabilities of understanding big-picture needs and delivering the steps necessary to achieve the terminal objective.

Because the gap analysis for this learning module was done as part of the DD1 process, other tasks were completed that included determining entry skills, writing an instructional goal, and creating a goal analysis diagram. The artifact supports the competency because it is the section of the assignment that required a gap analysis, and the gap analysis presented here has been vetted by EDCI 572 faculty through the full DD1-DD3 process.

The gap analysis identified the following need: A training module that is delivered workshop-style and walks newly certified yoga teachers through the process of designing a 1-hour class from scratch that is safe and methodical, and that has an intended, purposeful goal as determined by the teacher. This need exists because not all yoga teacher training programs actually teach their students how to design a class from scratch; it is ironic and highly unsatisfactory for newly minted yoga teachers who desire to hit the ground running after receiving a certification. From DD1 and the gap analysis I performed, the module was designed and developed to scaffold knowledge and activities in order to accomplish the terminal objective. The gap analysis was integral to the entire process.

I am a subject-matter expert (SME) in the teaching of yoga, with over 12 years of teaching and yoga class design experience, and I have informally interviewed countless new and veteran yoga teachers over the years about the quality of their yoga teacher trainings to prepare them for the real-world conditions of designing yoga classes. Further, I have mentored a new yoga teacher for the express purpose of helping her learn how to design classes from scratch because her yoga teacher training program did not teach her this skill. The overall need for the workshop was born out of that mentor-mentee relationship, and throughout the design process during EDCI 572, I honed my ability to formally state this need through the gap analysis instead of just acknowledging a basic need, like “new yoga teachers need more training because they are not prepared to teach publicly” and designing from there. The gap analysis is a very important step in reflecting on and determining what needs to be designed and developed. It is part of the A step in ADDIE.

Because of my background teaching university-level writing for over 15 years and designing curriculum, as well as designing curriculum for training and professional development for tutors and corporate staff, the general concept of the gap analysis is not new to me because all of teaching is identifying what hole needs to be filled; however, until EDCI 572, I had never formally performed a gap analysis, though I have filled many knowledge gaps with instruction. I am much better prepared for all future learning design now that I have been through Dick and Carey’s model.

The experience of completing DD1 for EDCI 572 was a very important learning opportunity for me to walk through a highly formalized process like the Dick and Carey model. Each step in the model walked me, as an instructional designer, through a scaffolded process that opened up new opportunities for reflection, justification, and creation. I am encouraged by the work I did on the yoga workshop, as bolstered by the DD1 foundation and the gap analysis I did. Now that I have taken a learning module from gap analysis to design, development, implementation, and evaluation, I am much more confident in my abilities as an Instructional Designer, and I will take that confidence with me each time I take on a new project.

Artifacts

• The Design Document 1 showcasing all aspects of this competency have been met.

• The Gap Analysis Graphic showcasing all aspects of this competency have been met.