Context Analysis Examples
Learning & Performance Context Examples
Example #1: Getting Ready for the Art Market: Preparing a Successful Artist’s Portfolio
Career Environment: Higher Education
Contributed by: Almut Haboeck
The learning context for this class is an approximation of the performance context itself; i.e., the learning
context will incorporate authentic contexts in the instruction to facilitate transfer of skills and knowledge
to the performance context. Learners will complete an application for a job (e.g., at a university), for
participation in an exhibition in a gallery or museum, for an artist’s residency or grant money,
scholarship, or an artist’s exchange program, which is a real life task, i.e., the performance context itself.
The learning context differs from the performance context, insofar as the learning context will provide a
support system of experts and peers to the learners that otherwise would not be available to them. The
application, which the learner will create in this course, can function as the basic material for any further
job application that has to be revised and/or updated depending on the nature of the job.
The learning environment will be a simple classroom, which will be equipped with the necessary
hardware; i.e., a computer and/or slide projector. For one or two class periods, when technical issues
about images will be discussed, it is recommended to book the media/art lab, which is equipped with a
computer and the necessary software (e.g., Photoshop, which some learners might need if they decide
and are able to edit the images for the portfolio themselves) for every learner. Further learning spaces are
artist’s studios, as well as a gallery, and/or museum. The sites should be easily accessible to the learners
with disabilities (both campus classrooms and galleries and museums usually provide the necessary
access).
Learning itself will involve face-to-face meetings, group work in class and outside class (studio visits to
each other), and asynchronous group work (email exchange, exchange of ideas via a discussion board.)
While class time will be on a regular weekly schedule, learners will have to consider their own time
constraints and their colleagues’ time constraints when organizing studio visits with other peers. Also,
homework might require learners to visit a museum or a gallery. Such a visit would have to be organized
by students themselves due to transportation and time constraints. The instructor will make sure that
exhibitions in the museums and art galleries on campus will be available to accommodate student
schedules, and will resolve access problems if necessary.
Example #2: Fourth Grade Instructional Unit on the Native American Tribes of Tennessee
Contributed by: Elizabeth Bradley
Career Environment: K-12
The performance and learning contexts were analyzed by thinking about the resources available in the
classroom and then thinking about the classroom setup and the students’ preferred way of learning. Since
the designer is employed on-site where the learning will occur, the only assumptions that needed to be
made about the context were concerned with time constraints and the range of student abilities. These
assumptions have been confirmed by the Subject Matter Expert (SME), Mrs. _________, the lead teacher
in the designer’s classroom, who has been teaching 4th grade for many years and is highly qualified to
determine the validity, necessity, and time allotment of the content in this design.
The physical characteristics of the context will be almost identical to the performance context that
students will encounter during the next year they study Tennessee history, in the 7th grade. Computers,
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SmartBoards, TVs and DVD players, and textbooks will all be comparable; only the textbook will be at
the 7th grade level. In terms of continuing support for the instruction, the new learning will be valuable in
later school years with the 7th grade teacher. Socially, students will work in groups, since almost all of
their work at the school is done as groups competing against each other, and the knowledge will be
engaging and interesting so the students will want to share it and be praised in front of the group. The new
skills are relevant because they will be tested on it, and there are few constraints because the information
will only help the students.
The learning context’s physical characteristics are simple as well, since learning will take place in the
classroom. SmartBoards, computers, and books will be the primary equipment and resources available.
Learning will be synchronous, face-to-face instruction with a teacher. The site is convenient to all
learners, none of whom have any particularly special needs in terms of learning impairment.
A final context that is important to consider is the school’s philosophy and resulting curriculum, which
emphasizes student engagement and collaborative group work. Fortunately, the school’s curriculum
demands are not strict, which allows teachers to adapt curriculum to topics and subjects that are most
engaging for the students. The final design would, ideally, be built with some flexibility in terms of length
of time spent on any particular topic within the design, because it is difficult to predict which topics will
be most interesting and engaging for the students. Spending more time on the topics that are most
interesting to the students will put learning at a maximum, so long as all the other essential topics are
addressed.
Example #3: Compositing 3D Computer Graphics into a 2D Computer Graphics Software Environment
Contributed by: Anonymous
Career Environment: Business & Industry
The performance context for many of the learners for this instruction will be in their respective places of
employment. For current full-time students, the performance context is their future employment and/or
graduate school. The learning context for this instruction will be online where the learner will access the
instruction in a synchronous or asynchronous manner from their own computer. The learning context will
complement and support the performance context of graphic design professionals and students by
allowing them to work around their busy schedules and by utilizing their technical skills.
Description of the Performance Context
Physical Characteristics – Graphic design professionals will have access to computer workstations
capable of handling computer graphics but their computers may lack the full hardware requirements for
3D graphics. The biggest factors are sufficient memory, a capable graphics card and a fast processor.
While there are a variety of 3D packages, they can be cost prohibitive. A free, open source option is the
3D software program Blender. For the scope of this instruction, though, pre-built 3D objects importable
into a program like Photoshop Extended (CS3 or later) will need to be accessible so that no 3D software
needs to be purchased or learned. The learners will also be shown online resources to access additional
3D models after the instruction has ended.
Support – Following the instruction, an online resource will be available to learners as they go back into
their native performance environments. This online resource will help them to retain the knowledge they
gained in the instruction environment and also to show others the benefits of incorporating 3D graphics
into graphic design.
Social Aspects – Graphic design professionals can work alone or in groups depending on the size of the
organization. Students also can work alone or in groups depending on the project requirements. There
may be some resistance from older peers who are used to a certain toolset but the nature of graphic design
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is that the technology is always changing. The instruction will offer some sort of group collaboration to
help the learners to work with others on projects and to learn to solve problems they may encounter in
their native performance environment.
Relevance of Skills and Knowledge – Graphic design professionals and students can utilize 3D graphics in
visualizations of concepts, ideas, and products that don’t currently exist. They would be able to more
accurately portray these visualizations to clients through the use of 3D graphics.
Description of the Learning Context
The learning context for this instruction will be online where the learner will access the instruction in a
synchronous and/or asynchronous manner from their own computer.
Physical Characteristics – The instruction can cover theory and show passive examples and also give
instruction for self-paced hands-on instruction. A recap of the previous lesson can also be accessed for
retention. The students and professionals may not have 3D software on their own computers so the
asynchronous activities should incorporate pre-built 3D objects that can be imported into Photoshop.
Personnel or Time Constraints – As graphic design professionals and students are probably working or
busy during the daytime, evenings and/or weekends and online synchronous/asynchronous learning may
work best.
Compatibility with Learner Needs – The online instruction will be a lot more convenient due to the
learner being able to access the content from any Internet-enabled computer on their own time, at their
own pace, and in a familiar and comfortable environment.
Cultural Context Example:
Current trends in instructional design practices emphasize both learner-centered instruction and the
nurturing of communities of practice. When instruction is learner-centered, it is designed with attention to
the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs that learners bring to the educational setting, and can therefore
be termed “culturally responsive” (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, 1999, p. 120). A community of practice
is a sustained, collaborative social network of individuals who share a common set of values, knowledge,
and interests (Lave and Wenger, 1991). Both concepts are situated; that is, they are both impacted by, and
impact, the people, situations, and cultures involved. Because of this, the degree to which learning
environments are learner-centered and foster a community of practice (CoP) often reflects culturallydetermined values (Bransford, et al, 1999).
Two of Hofstede’s (2004) five cultural dimensions are helpful to illustrate this point: power distance (the
degree to which the less powerful members of society expect there to be societal differences in the levels
of power); and individualism versus collectivism (the degree to which people are individualistic or prefer
to identify with a group or organization). The degree to which an educational system is learner-centered is
often related to power distance. For example, a culture’s respect for authority figures may result in more
teacher-centered instruction. In addition, the success of communities of practice in a given culture may be
related to the degree of individualism versus collectivism in that society. Communities of practice could
be expected to thrive in those cultures with a strong emphasis on collectivism that value collaboration
over competitiveness.
During the summer of 2005, the Faculty Development Institute (FDI) at Virginia Tech, along with several
other campus entities, entered into a contractual agreement to provide faculty development services to
about 60 faculty members from a large Saudi Arabian university. The conference presenters were hired to
design and facilitate a three-week workshop for 30 of those faculty members on the topics of instructional
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design and the International Computer Driving License (ICDL). The workshop presented an excellent
way to foster collaboration between the two universities and cultures, and to encourage the development
of a global community of practice.
However, issues of cultural difference began to impact the design of the workshop almost immediately.
For example, the Saudi Arabian university maintained separate men’s and women’s campuses, and for
that reason, requested gender-separated classes during the workshop. The designers, both women, had
intended on using the highly successful faculty development model used at Virginia Tech, which featured
multiple presenters and a learner-centered design. They were unsure whether to retain only male
presenters for the men’s class and women presenters for the women’s class. Communication with the
foreign university administration was complicated by issues of power distance, and clarification of these
cultural issues was difficult.
In an effort to conserve paper, the designers placed all supplemental resources on a web server which
could be accessed by learners once they returned to their home university. Once the instruction began,
however, the designers discovered that the lack of handouts was interpreted by the learners as an inability
on their part to provide sufficient, worthwhile resources. The learners expected that as authority figures,
the instructors would provide a wealth of handouts, and the lack thereof made them question the worth of
the workshop.
On the other hand, efforts to teach about and foster a community of practice among the visiting faculty
were quite successful. The strong collectivist values held by the learners resulted in a willingness to help
each other and a desire to collaborate on workshop projects. The workshop designers learned that when
the cultural background of instructional designers differs greatly from that of their intended audience, a
great deal of reflection and introspection is required to avoid erroneous assumptions concerning the
cognitive structures of the learners (Driscoll, 2005; Thomas et al., 2002). The workshop designers
realized it was probable that the learners would, in fact, have quite different cognitive structures from
their own, resulting from dissimilar life experiences and prior learnings. Knowing this, the designers
sought to use subject matter and instructional strategies that would foster relevance and transfer, and to
consider their own cultural biases throughout the design and implementation process.
The workshop designers were in agreement with the premise that “the designer’s world view cannot be
divorced from his societal context; therefore, it becomes critically important that the designer becomes
introspective in his [or her] approach when designing instruction” (Thomas et al., 2002, p. 44). As a
result, they made attempts to educate themselves about Saudi culture in advance, and once the workshops
began, they regularly interacted with the learners to ensure that they were not operating under faulty
assumptions. Despite cultural and administrative barriers to effective communication which hampered
attempts to make the instructional materials culturally sensitive, the designers gained a rich understanding
of Saudi university culture, gained an appreciation for the alternative perspectives that are inherent in
international work, built a deeper understanding of their ID craft, and made many wonderful new crosscultural friendships.
Final evaluation results indicated that the Saudi faculty were very satisfied with the instruction, and later
communications indicated that many had transferred the concepts learned in the workshop to their
professional practice. Additional details on the evaluation results, the strategies used, and the designers’
cross-cultural experiences will be shared during the conference presentation.
References:
Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L., & Cocking, R.R. (Eds.) (1999). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience
and school. Available: http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=9457.
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Driscoll, M.P. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction. (3rd ed.). Boston: Pearson.
Hofstede, G. (2004). Cultures and organizations: Software of the mind. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Powell, G. (1997). Understanding the language of diversity. Educational Technology, 37(2), 15–16.
Tessmer, M., & Richey, R.C. (1997). The role of context in learning and instructional design. Educational
Technology Research & Development, 45(2), 85–115.
Thomas, M., Mitchell, M., & Joseph, R. (2002). The third dimension of ADDIE: A cultural embrace.
TechTrends, 46(2), 40–45.
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Now try out your skills by completing this context analysis scenario exercise.
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