Task Analysis is just that.

Today my project group did two presentations. We first presented on Online Learning. Then we led a class discussion on our assigned article about Task Analysis. I have to admit that the presentation on Online Learning was most enjoyable to study and prepare for. The article however was a snoozer to read and we really wondered if we would have any thing intelligent to say about it, let alone interesting. As we prepared our discussion and talked about what the article was trying to say, we concluded that a bunch of "Average Joe" Instructional Designers wanted to be quoted for their profound model on task analysis. However, no matter how you state it, the essential goal of task analysis is the the same - to gather information about a process that will lead to an outcome. How this information is gathered differs slightly from guru to guru, but in my opinion it was nothing to write about as profound discovery of the latest and greatest ID theory.