Who is your audience?

Identify who will be using your learning product. What are their characteristics, attitudes, and circumstances that could affect how well they engage with, and respond to, your proposed training? Knowing your audience helps you tailor your instructional product to meet learners’ specific needs, preferences, and characteristics.

Follow these steps when conducting a learner analysis:

1. Restate the Learning Goals:

Restate the learning goals that were defined during the Learner Analysis. This helps maintain focus on what learners must be able to do after completing the instruction.

2. Define the Target Audience:

Identify your learners, and be specific. The size and characteristics of your audience will be determined by the problem that you plan to solve.

Narrowing a target audience:

• • Educators (too broad)
  • Higher Education Faculty (still too broad)
  • Higher-ed Faculty who teach online (better)

3. Determine Audience Characteristics:

What could affect your target audience’s ability to meet the objectives of your instructional product? Identifying the characterisitcs of your audience enables you to tailor the instructional product to meet learner needs. For example, a single parent with a high school education who works two minimum-wage jobs to support four children may not be able to complete an instructional product that’s designed for retired college professors.  Answer the prompts below to analyze your learners.

Personal Characteristics

• • Age range?
  • Education level?
  • Marital status?
  • Family status?
  • Income/pay?
  • Number of concurrent jobs?

Knowledge

• • Level of knowledge about the topic?
  • Level of knowledge about the problem?
  • Are they aware of the problem?

Attitude

• • Attitude toward the topic/problem?
  • Attitude toward training and learning?
  • Attitude toward technology/internet?

Ability

• • Physical ability to use your instructional product?
  • Intellectual ability to use your instructional product?
  • Available time to use your instructional product?
  • Access to your instructional product?
  • What circumstances/barriers could affect their ability to participate fully?

4. Create a Learner Profile:

Summarize your findings into a concise learner profile that highlights the key characteristics, preferences, and needs of your target audience. Refer to the profile throughout the instructional design process to ensure that you stay focused on the needs and capabilities of your audience. These profiles are often called “personas.”