7 Learner Characteristics
Another step in the analysis process is to determine the various characteristics of your learners. Understanding your learners will help you make better design decisions.
Considerations for Learner Analysis
Understanding characteristics of our learners helps us make better design decisions. The more we know, the more likely we are to choose instructional strategies that will work for learners.
Wikiversity had a great tutorial on Learner Analysis including a template to help you do it.
If you are not in a position to actually interview a few students (either future or previous), then you will need to take your best guess at articulating who you think your learners will be. What you are doing by writing it down is articulating the assumptions you are making about your learners when you are making decision about the design.
Creating Personas
Understanding characteristics of our learners helps us make better design decisions. The more we know, the more likely we are to choose instructional strategies that will work for learners.
If you are not in a position to actually interview a few students (either future or previous), then you will need to take your best guess at articulating who you think your learners will be. What you are doing by writing it down is articulating the assumptions you are making about your learners when you are making decision about the design.
Persona Example: Jackie
Jackie works full time as a trainer for a non-profit organization that has about 500 volunteers. She is responsible for onboarding the volunteers.
After work she rushes home to ensure she has timetospendwithherkidsbeforetheygotobed.
After the kids are asleep she has time dedicated to complete her graduate studies.
Age: 35
Education: Undergraduate degree in Social Sciences, no formal instructional design training
