Using SOPs for Course Development – Proceed Cautiously

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As an instructional designer, I know that course development is heavily weighted on the relevance and accuracy of the provided content. Sometimes course content is developed directly from SOP’s (Standard Operating Procedures) or from departmental policies.

Using only SOPs for content development is unwise as there are unusually large gaps in what employees actually need to know or do in order to complete the process outlined in the SOP.  Some SOP’s may be woefully out-of-date and have no relationship to how employees actually do their job.

In order to create course content that is relevant, meaningful and impactful, Instructional Designers must conduct additional needs analysis that focuses on what employees need to know or do.

There are several high-level options for strategic job analysis:

  • Job Analysis – Is meant to determine the necessary tasks to complete a specific job
  • Criticality Analysis – Is designed to dig deeper into a specific task to determine where training is required
  • Task Analysis – Although this is also digging deeper into the tasks, a task analysis focuses on the training and skills required to complete the task.
  • Learning Analysis – Is the most simple and efficient analysis. An instructional designer uses the content available to define the training need and decides what the course will cover.