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IDD Analysis Worksheet

Filling out this worksheet should help you to organize your initial insights and analysis about
your Instructional Design Document (IDD) topic.
As you fill in information in response to the prompts in this worksheet, you will be working
toward creating your final IDD.
Note: For each section of this worksheet, be sure to refer to the IDD Outline, Section II,
subsections A, B, and C, for more information about what will be required in the final IDD.
Note: Except for the first table, and for any notes about information that does not apply to your
specific project, I’m expecting to see sentences and paragraphs.
Note: Be sure to turn in your worksheet in MS Word. This makes it about 10 times easier to
provide feedback on your assignment.

Brief Introductory Info

Provide information in this table to give the briefest idea about your topic.
Your Name Joan Miller

Your IDD Topic
Organization (Where the learning
solution will be implemented)
Learners (Target Audience—it’s
possible that you’ll have both a
primary audience and a secondary
audience)
Citizen Science “bioblitz” Leader & Volunteer Training
The California Academy of Sciences
Primary: Volunteer leaders, potential leaders, volunteers
Secondary: Policy Makers and Managers
PLEASE NOTE: I make some distinctions between
“volunteer coordinators” and “volunteers.”

Needs Assessment
Data Collection. Briefly describe how you collected data about your situation. Possible methods
include: interviews, observation, surveys, reviewing work products or reports. You may include
questions and raw data in an appendix.

First Source
The primary source of data collection is and will be through interviews with the scientists

at the California Academy of Sciences who run their Citizen Science department. A review of

past trainings for their bioblitz events will be performed to find out what was taught, who was

taught, and what stumbling blocks and other issues were encountered during their webinars and
IDD ANALYSIS WORKSHEET 2

conference calls with volunteer coordinators and volunteers. (I have asked if they have

recordings or documents I can review from previous training sessions and am awaiting their

reply).

Second Source
Secondarily, an online survey with past volunteer coordinators who have been trained by

the Academy will be designed and collected, followed by a few targeted follow-up phone

conversations to clarify results from the survey. The focus will be to hear from the learners

themselves what difficulties they’ve had not just with the training, but in transferring what they

learned to the actual field events (such as the Snapshot Cal Coast event, a 24 hour bioblitz along

the California coast). What difficulties have they encountered in preparing or training their own

group of volunteers? A second survey directed at past volunteers may also shed light on what

issues they might have had that affected their performance during past bioblitz events.

Third Source
It may be relevant to interview the employees at the Academy who designed iNaturalist;

a social network, website and app that is used for collecting and sharing biological data from

citizen scientists worldwide (and is the data collection hub for Snapshot Cal Coast). The

interview would aim to find out if they feel that the volunteers and volunteer coordinators could

utilize the site better if they had better orientation or training on the site, or the process of

collecting data for it.

Fourth Source
Literature and scholarly articles about the history of bioblitzes and what makes for a

successful bioblitz event will be reviewed.

IDD ANALYSIS WORKSHEET 3

Problem or Opportunity. Based on the data you collected, describe the issue you want to
improve, whether solving a problem or taking advantage of an opportunity.

Here’s Where We’d Like to Be

We’d like the bioblitz volunteer coordinators to be more self-sufficient in setting up their

local bioblitz events so that the Academy scientists who support the program can spend less time

training them in time-consuming webinars and conference calls. The Academy team enjoys

doing some webinars, but would like to me more targeted in what they spend time teaching. We

would like to expand the number of small teams that participate and encourage confident

individuals to lead small bioblitzes during Snapshot Cal Coast. We hope to empower people

who have not participated in (or lead) before, but might be connected to the coast, to adopt a site

and participate by forming teams of their own.

Here’s Where We Are Instead

Coordinators are unsure about technology and if they will be successful. Due to a lack of

knowledge about how to set up and run bioblitz events, as well as lack of knowledge on how to

collect data and share it on iNaturlaist, California Academy scientists are spending an inordinate

amount of time training their volunteer coordinators. A lack of time and bandwidth for Academy

facilitators and volunteer coordinators is also a factor.

This Is the Gap We’d Like to Fill (The Difference Between What Should Be and What Is)
We’d like the coordinators to feel comfortable setting up bioblitz events, recruiting

citizen volunteers, training their own volunteers, and performing/recording observations in the

field. We’d also like to consolidate the training into a single online course to increase access,

speed up training time, and increase shareability of resources.

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Cause(s) of the Gap. Explain what’s causing the gap. You may not have all three of the major
causes shown below. If not, indicate which ones don’t apply to your project. For those that apply,
write a few sentences to describe the cause.
Note: A lack of training is not a cause for a performance gap. A lack of knowledge & skills is a
cause that can be solved by training (or some other learning solution).

Lack of Knowledge and/or Skills

The suspected performance gap, that is, the main issue causing the training sessions to

take too long, is likely due to a lack of knowledge and skills on the part of the volunteers and

volunteer coordinators. All volunteers may not have an adequate science background to

successfully

Lack of Motivation
A lack of motivation does not apply to this project as the bioblitz coordinators and

participants are all volunteers. Why bother volunteering for something if you aren’t motivated to

do it? The California Academy scientists who organize these citizen science events are paid to

do so, and love their jobs as well as the whole concept of involving citizens in science, so there is

no lack of motivation on their part.

Issue(s) in the Organization or Environment

I am not sure whether there may be issues regarding the organization or environment at

the California Academy of Sciences. I believe there are funding issues and that the Citizen

Science department runs on a shoestring budget (thus their excitement over having a training

website designed for them for free).

Initial Solution(s). Briefly describe your initial ideas for removing the gap. We’re studying how
to do instructional design in IST522, so we’re hoping that there’s a gap in knowledge and/or
skills that you will want to close with a learning-oriented solution. Many times, there are other
gaps that you should consider (or point out to someone in your organization), even if you will not
try to conquer them with your IDD project.
IDD ANALYSIS WORKSHEET 5

Learning Solution
A training website will be developed for the learners (see “Learner Profile” below) to

initiate (or remind) them how to run a successful bioblitz, including: how to recruit and motivate

local volunteers, how to train volunteers to make scientific observations, how to pick a field site,

a review of coastal ecology, how to use iNaturalist to record and share observations, how to help

volunteers ID species, how to find and recruit other potential partners and team leaders, how to

promote your event using social media, how to run the event and what gear is needed, and how

to follow up with your participants.

Other Possible Solutions

Goals for Your Project. Organizational goals often include things like saving money,
increasing customer satisfaction, improving quality, increasing the percentage of students
reading at grade level, decreasing the dropout rate, or providing personnel who have reached a
certain level of fluency in key languages. Learner goals are less formal and precise than learning
objectives. Often, they are not particularly measurable. For a learner goal, we’re looking for a
broad statement about what the learners will learn. See Piskurich, pages 130 to 131, for
definitions and examples.

Main Organizational Goal(s)

The main organizational goal is to save time on the part of the scientists who work at the

California Academy, whose budgets and time are stretched to the limit with multiple projects and

their own scientific research. These scientists would also like to improve the quality,

participation in, and visibility for all of their Citizen Science initiatives.

Main Learner Goal(s)

Working together, we can learn a lot more about our coast. Through our training for and

participation in the Snapshot Cal Coast program, our volunteer coordinators will learn to connect

people of all backgrounds to the outdoors, and to inspire everyone to protect biodiversity while at

the same time generating invaluable data that scientists can actually utilize.
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Learner Analysis
Data Collection. Write a sentence or two to describe how you collected data about your learners.
Possible methods include: observation, interviews, focus groups, surveys, and reviewing work
products or reports. (You might, at this point, have only one source, or you might have more than
three. The headings are there to provide structure for your answer.) You may include questions
and raw data in an appendix.

First Source
Members of the Citizen Science Department at the California Academy of Sciences were

interviewed about their typical learners. See “Learner Profile” below.

Learner Profile. Describe your typical learners (they will often possess a range of knowledge,
skills, and other characteristics). Include additional information if you have a secondary audience
for your learning solution. Most important will be information about relevant experience, prior
knowledge (what they already know about your topic), tool skills, aptitudes, attitudes, and
motivation for learning what you want to teach them.
Note: Please do not make generalizations based on learning styles or generational differences
related to your audience. (These will not help you to make design decisions.)

What Work or Study They Are Doing Now

The volunteer coordinators and volunteers are a mix of parks interpreters, docent

coordinators, professors, educators, tribal leaders, Audubon Society leaders, activists, students,

advocacy organization leaders, and volunteer coordinators for other organizations.

Prior Knowledge About This Topic

The learners are primarily college-educated professionals and many of them work for

non-profits that focus on marine science education. They have strong connections to the coast

and oceans, protecting them and teaching people about them, but they do not all have science

backgrounds. Many citizen scientists return to attend multiple bioblitz events.

Tool Skills
All learners have observation skills, but need some encouragement to use them. Many

Snapshot Cal Coast volunteers have coastal ecology experience, and most have phones or
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cameras to record observations with, but they need iNaturalist training, as well as training to

improve their intertidal exploration skills.

Expected Aptitude or Barriers to Learning

The volunteer coordinators are a mix of scientists, educators and policy makers. Some

fulfill two or even all three of these roles. They have prior connections to the coast, but not

necessarily to science. The volunteers are usually science literate, since most groups mobilize

from a known pool of community volunteers that enjoy nature and ecology. There is a wide

range of ages in the volunteer pool, with most older than 40. Given that the age range skews

older, there may be some barriers to learning the iNaturalist social network platform. Those who

are not familiar with the scientific process, data collection or marine ecology will need to learn

more about those subjects prior to collecting data in the field.

Motivation for Learning About This Topic

Bioblitz events are typically run by volunteer leaders and contributors who are interested

in biodiversity, so the motivation is high. Also, these events typically take place over a 24 – 48

hour period so it’s a high energy, highly concentrated event which most find to be very

motivating.

Other General Characteristics That May Impact Their Instructional Experience

Prerequisites or Entry Requirements. If applicable, note any requirements that your learners
must meet before they are eligible to take the learning solution that you will offer. (If not
relevant, say so.)

Prerequisites (Courses)
Not relevant.

Entry Requirements (Everything Else)

Not relevant.
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Context (Workplace/Environmental/Setting) Analysis

Data Collection. Write a sentence or two to describe how you collected information about the
context of your situation. Possible methods include: observation, interviews, surveys,
organization records. You may include questions and raw data in an appendix.

First Source
An interview of the Citizen Science department scientists at the Academy gave the

context of this learning environment. That is, the learning will take place largely online, with a

follow-up webinar for questions.

Numbers & Locations. How many people are in your target audience, and where are they?

Number of People in Your Target Audience

There will be from fifteen to twenty-five coordinators, and anywhere from fifty to one

hundred or more volunteers during the next Snapshot Cal Coast event this summer.

Location(s) of People in Your Target Audience

The coordinators and volunteers are located up and down the California coast, with

events typically happening in the following counties and regions: Del Norte, Humboldt, Sonoma,

Marin, San Francisco Bay Area, San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa

Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego.

Work Setting Logistics, Resources, Constraints. This might include instructors, equipment,
classrooms, and technology availability.

Classroom Instruction Considerations (If Applicable)

Not applicable

Online Instruction Considerations (If Applicable)

Learners will need to have access to a computer and the internet to take the training, as

well as for a possible follow-up webinar or conference call to ask follow-up questions. The
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Citizen Science team at the Academy have not found computer access to be a problem in the

past.