Getting Unstuck
Mager's The Performance SystemWhen I look at the tasks I brainstormed while writing about enticing teenagers, I feel stuck. That’s when I reach for the instructional design job aids I keep in my planner: Mager’s The Performance System, and Practical Management’s Design Sequence. 
Design Sequence job aid
Now, I can start to extract order from chaos. My list goes from this:
- How do you make a class on managing your money exciting to a teenager?
- Change the course name
- Consider a window shopping field trip
- Make sure students have money and some sort of bank account
- Break down main learning objectives/draw skills hierarchy
- Fill out a final student performance worksheet
To this:
| Brainstormed List | Organized List |
|---|---|
| How do you make a class on managing your money exciting to such a teenager? | Determine/test relevance i.e., analysis: target population |
| Change the course name | Experiment/test course name i.e., design/development: try out/revise |
| Consider a window shopping field trip | Get as close to real life tasks as possible i.e., analysis: task |
| Make sure students have money and some sort of bank account | Determine prerequisites i.e., design/development: describe learning environment |
| Break down main learning objectives/draw skills hierarchy | Determine learning objectives i.e., design/development: derive instructional outcomes Draft skills hierarchy |
| Fill out a final student performance worksheet | Complete Final Student Performance worksheet i.e., analysis: performance, content |
From this, I can tell that my next actions should be:
- Do a target population analysis
- Do a task analysis
- Draft a skills hierarchy
- Do performance & content analyses, document on Final Student Performance worksheet
- Derive instructional outcomes
- Describe the learning environment
- Try out/revise the course name
(That is, analysis tasks, then design tasks, then development tasks, etc.)
Of course, I’ve found that committing to more than about three tasks doesn’t make sense because so many things change in the course of time and/or completing the earlier tasks, but at least having gone through this process, I feel confident I’m working on the best three tasks.