Task Analysis Hit Me on the Drive Home

I recently came across David Merrill's paper on developing task-centered instructional strategies, when I was researching something else entirely. I found his ideas quite fascinating, but a little difficult to absorb and apply initially. But, they have been growing on me and I have been trying more and more to apply these principles in all the work I do.

When I was driving home in the evening, like always, my mind was doing its own thing in the background and then I had a bit of an epiphany. I built on it all the way home, and kept building through the cooking and the eating and the digesting.

At sleepy time, I finally had something concrete that I felt I could actually use.

So here I am, well past sleepy time with my 'proprietary' tool for task analysis. I am hoping it will help me extract the concrete and tangible from the uncertain and the ill-defined. The intention is to arrive at the learning objectives and the instructional strategies in a rigorously scientific manner and to have that rigor guide me through the training program.

I am putting up the tool with this post in case any one else has been looking for something this kind. If you use it at any point, please feel obliged to critique it :)

The file is here.

If you use it, please let me know how it worked out for you.