Needs Assessment in ELT Materials Design

By Prof. Jonathan Acua Solano

Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Twitter: @jonacuso

Instructional development is a complex process that, when appropriately applied,
promotes creativity during development and results in instruction that is both effective
and appealing to learners (Gustafson & Branch, 2002).

As the quotation by Gustafson & Branch states (2002), when instructional
development or design is appropriately applied, instruction will be effective and engaging
for students (Laureate Education, 2013). At the beginning of any instructional design
process where one aims at working on some sort of hybrid, blended and/or online
instruction, it is crucial to analyze the intrinsic traits and needs of ones learners, the
ultimate users of ones instructional development. Failing to analyze student
characteristics can yield the wrong outcome and no learning at all; it is like beginning
with the wrong premise and arriving at the wrong conclusions thought the reasoning
seems fairly rational. This is why, while identifying and meeting student needs is vital, it
is also important to consider instructional and industry needs to determine how (ones)
course can support broader institutional goals and help (ones) students enter the
workplace prepared to excel in their field (Laureate Education, 2013).

To demonstrate the importance of knowing ones students and their eventual
working needs, and as part of my experiential instructional design training to prepare
students for the workplace and keeping in mind effective and engaging instruction at a
course at Universidad Latina (Costa Rica), I have labeled here three important
instructional goals ELT Materials Design and Development students (majoring in English
Language Teaching or ELT) are meant to have acquired by the time the course is over.
What seems to be important here is the metal exercise that requires the instructor in
deciding what the entry-level abilities that learners have when they step into ones
physical or virtual classroom are. Additionally, the exit profile needed by students once
the course is over- is also outlined, so all effort is geared towards the achievement of the
instructional goals.

Lets see the metal exercise materialized in the following chart below that specifies
what needs to be carefully planned and then designed.

Course Instructional Goals Entry Level Abilities Exit Profile
ELT Materials
Design and
Multimedia
To have a solid
knowledge in
the
creation/design
of EFL activities
for language
skills
Understanding
of the four skills
in language
learning
Lesson planning
training
To have student
teachers ready to
design and use
language
activities in class
To incorporate
their activities as
part of their
lesson planning
To understand
the theoretical
background for
accurate
language
activities
To use Google
Sites to create
an interactive
ePortfolio that
can be used
with their
current or future
students
Knowledge in
blog design and
posting
Former training
on how to use
blogs for
education
To prepare
student teachers
to create their
own site in
Google as an
ePortfolio
To promote
autonomous
learning among
students by
creating
interactive tasks
To use multi-
media and
freeware to
create/design
EFL material
Possible basic
background on
html, movie
maker, Office,
etc.
Use of freeware
such as iTunes
PDF creation
To instruct
students how to
embed
documents,
videos, etc. onto
their ePortfolios
To help them
develop their
understanding of
hosting platforms
such as youtube,
Scribd or
Slideshare
To train students
on how to create
their own
interactive
material in
various free
online platforms

As noted along this simple needs assessment exercise, several actions need to be
taken by the teacher to facilitate the learning outcomes for this particular course. It is
important to note that in the case of students who lack entry abilities, teachers must
supply additional readings or multimedia resources to try to mitigate the lack of training
or previous knowledge. Even, perhaps, instructors must model some of actions that need
to be taken to guarantee success.


Gustafson, K.L., & Branch, R.M. (2002). Survey of instructional development models:
Fourth edition. Syracuse, NY: ERIC Clearing house of Information & Technology

Fauser, K., Henry, K. & Norman, D. (2006, February 4). Comparison of Alternative
Instructional Design Models. Retrieved on 2014, August 17 from
https://deekayen.net/comparison-alternative-instructional-design-models

Laureate Education. (2013). Hybrid & Blended Learning: Module 5, Content Design.
Retrieved on 2014, April 5 from
http://global.laureate.net/portal.aspx#!home/faculty

Linkedin Corporation. (2014). SlideShare. http://www.slideshare.net/?ss

Scribd Inc. (2014). http://es.scribd.com/

YouTube, LLC. (2014). https://www.youtube.com/



Pronunciation
Development
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BIN-06 Pronunciation 2
BIN-04 Reading Skills 1 Reading Skills
Development BIN-08 Reading Skills 2


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