IDAT 211 - Needs Analysis

The first stage in designing a learning tool is to define the needs analysis of the learners to identify the knowledge already held and the knowledge to be gained by the tool, as well as defining the specific audience for the tool and how the tool will be approach this audience.

Audience and Skills
The subject for our learning tool is music theory, and in particular the basics of music theory that are learnt at the beginning of any musical learning.  By producing a tool for this stage of learning we will be providing a supporting factor to standard music learning that will aim to develop understanding more efficiently.  Firstly we must define the target audience of the learning tool based on the type of knowledge we wish to provide.  The majority of people who would be learning the basics of music theory are children at school who are either learning an instrument or have music lessons as part of their curriculum.  In particular this covers students aged 11-14 especially those in the transition between primary and secondary school in years 6 and 7.  In this age range learners should have a basic knowledge of instruments and will also have taken part in musical pieces, often as singers, but will not have looked particularly closely at musical theory.  It is also common at this age for students to decide to individually learn a musical instrument and so the tool will act as a support for these students in their first years of learning theory. Therefore most of this audience have very little knowledge of music theory and so this tool will aim to improve this.

Expectations and Goals
In using the tool students will aim to increase their knowledge of music theory beyond that which they already have.  In completing the learning provided by the tool the students should have achieved a complete understanding of grade 1-2 music theory and should be able to apply this to various problems.  In participating in the use of this tool users will have a number of expectations for the product which are listed below:

• Easy to use
• Engaging
• Explain a range of theory
• Be useful
• Be fun
• To improve their knowledge

As well as the users themselves there is also the question of the expectations of the possible tutors who will be involved in getting the students to use the software, such as setting particular tasks and applying relevant supporting material.  The expectations of these users are below:

• Improve students knowledge
• Give some method of rating understanding
• Support current practical work
• Provide challenges
• Provide help
• Engage the student in the learning

Our tool therefore has to match all of these expectations for it to be a success. 

Need and Demand
In order to do a needs analysis you also have to look at the need and demand of a product.  Our tool does not have a particularly high need value, but in providing a tool such as this it allows for a better balance in knowledge throughout students of a certain age.  This makes the level of understanding more measurable and so the development of this knowledge later on is likely to be more fair and successful for all students.  In terms of demand this is likely to be quite high if accepted as a viable learning tool as most schools teach music and musical tuition is also very common.

Delivery Format
Being that this is a e-learning design project the method for which the tool must be delivered needs to initially be digital in some form.  However there are still a number of options as to how the material is presented digitally.  These include virtual reality, augmented reality, screen based, projected and dome projected.  We feel that out of these delivery formats the most appropriate for the tool is screen based i.e via a computer monitor.  This is because the tasks and learning will be based on the individual and so this method is the most accessible and usable for this.  Although VR or AR could be used individually we felt that these would be too complicated for learners to get involved with and would also be less accessible.  In particular learning could begin much more quickly with a recognised and familiar environment i.e a screen based interface, and so the tool would be more efficient. 

To summarise our tool will be a screen-based music theory learning tool which targets students between the ages of 8 and 14 who are studying music.  The aim of the tool is to increase the learners understanding of music theory up to grade 1-2 standard and should meet all the expectations both of the learners and the music tutors involved.  Ultimately the tool should be able to allow for a more standardised understand of music theory throughout students making further development of this easier and more efficient for all concerned.