Task Analysis Methods for Instructional Design

Rating:
Summary: Practical and readable
Review: If you are put off by silly grammatical errors and absurd typos, then don't buy this book. It doesn't appear that anyone edited or proofed the material before it went to print. I bought the version that was copyrighted in 1999. I'm not sure what the authors were thinking, but I'm fairly certain it wasn't about their readers. I decided I could use it in my teaching, but probably not as the authors intended.

Rating:
Summary: Look Before You Leap
Review: If you are put off by silly grammatical errors and absurd typos, then don't buy this book. It doesn't appear that anyone edited or proofed the material before it went to print. I bought the version that was copyrighted in 1999. I'm not sure what the authors were thinking, but I'm fairly certain it wasn't about their readers. I decided I could use it in my teaching, but probably not as the authors intended.

Rating:
Summary: Practical and readable
Review: The information contained in this book is very practical. Also, in contrast to some other task analysis books it is very readable. It does have some minor errors as another reviewer has pointed out. But I feel that the information contained is very good and I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: A thoughtful, useful methodological tour
Review: This isn't an easy book to work through. It doesn't artificially simplify the field, doesn't give us the One True Method for task analysis, doesn't adopt One True Strategy for Instructional Design.

Instead, the book surveys a wide range of alternative approaches, provideas many references to different segments of the literature, and plenty of interesting insights.

I'm a Professor of Software Engineering (who also has a Ph.D. in Psychology). I focus my research on the teaching of software testing -- as a field, we are still in the early stages of curriculum development. The equivalent of a full semester in testing will soon be an ACM/IEEE requirement for a B.Sc. in Software Engineering, and so we need curriculum development in testing NOW. I find this book useful in my work and as a thought-provoker that I lend to my graduate students. It doesn't tell them what to do. It gives them enough information (and pointers) to help them think about why they should prefer one alternative over another.