Analyzing the Intellectual Objective

Each type of instruction requires the gathering of skills required to meet the objectives. However, intellectual objectives are the most complicated and often need much more detail. They require decision making and the instruction must include all the information needed to make informed decisions.

Each objective has steps the learner must complete to meet it. Each step is evaluated to determine what skills are required to successfully complete it. Skills include the rules, concepts, attitudes and choices that support completion of the objective step. Then each skill is evaluated to determine what sub-skills are needed. Working backwards, the sub-skills are documented to the point where the skill is an entry behavior. The training will not include entry behaviors, so the training needed is then evident.

Tip: Asking, "What mistakes might the student make while performing the task?" is one of the best ways to get to the underlying skills to complete a particular step.

Identifying the steps and skills that a competent person would perform can be outlined by an expert. However, the expert is not necessarily the ideal person to identify the sub-skills. Ideally other people are brought in to assist in providing details the expert may perform without thinking about.

Hierarchy Approach
The skills and subordinate skills become the driving force behind the instructional design and warrant thorough documentation. An hierarchy approach is usually used to document them. The diagram above demonstrates the documentation of an objective with three (3) steps. The second step shows three (3) skills. The first and third are simple skills that do not require any additional information to complete. The second skill shows two (2) sub-skills needed to successfully it. The numbering, going from bottom to top, demonstrates the dependencies to the reader. Statements of sub-skills, including decisions, should include verbs indicating what the learner should be able to do.

The sub-skills can continue much farther than the example shown here and it is important to thoroughly document them. It is a lot of methodical work, but forms a solid base for all the instructional pieces.