You can't Teach what you can't Describe: One Experience in Developing CTA Instruction

Although over the last several years researchers have demonstrated considerable success in applying CTA methods to design systems, few researchers have been able to articulate what it is they do when they conduct a CTA. If CTA is to continue to have an impact in design projects and CTA methods are to continue to be refined and improved, then we must develop a language that allows us to train others to conduct CTA and to compare and contrast different methods. This presentation will describe a project in which multimedia software was developed to train Navy Instructional Systems Specialists to conduct a streamlined CTA. Issues that arose in our struggle to describe CTA techniques and to instruct others in conducting CTA, as well as feedback we have received from those who have used the software, will be presented.