The ADDIE model is a process used by training developers and instructional designers to plan and create effective learning experiences.| Image Source: Water Bear Learning 

Have you ever wondered how you can design amazing and brilliant training content? Do you always struggle with finding the most suitable course for your learners?

One of the most effective frameworks is the ADDIE model. This is a model that instructors, instructional designers and training specialists use to plan and create learning material. ADDIE is an acronym for the following phases: Analysis, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate.

This is a two-part article. Part 1 explains ADD and Part 2 will tackle IE.

Analysis Phase

This phase covers the goals and analyses of both the instruction and the learner. Doing this expedites or accelerates the instruction development. It will be helpful to talk to clients to understand their learning objectives.

Let’s say the client wants to be trained in public speaking. The first move is instructional analysis. We must lay out all the process to carry out the instructional goals. For our example, one must itemize the steps and even sub-steps to run the course, such as:

1. Know audience needs
a. Find out the occasion
b. What are they interested in
c. —

2. Select a topic
a. Check with your passions, expertise and interests
b. Check what is the need of the audience
c. —

3. Come up with message
a. Write out a one statement summary for your speech
b. Create the main points which support your statement
c. —

4. Draft the speech
a. Make an outline
b. Compose the draft
c. —

5. Deliver
a. Rehearse and refinement
b. Actual performance
c. –

Use a chart that shows the finished product which will guide the instructional analysis. Specifically, it outlines the steps that learners will follow to achieve the instructional goals. See example below.

Source: J. Clark Gardner – The ADDIE Analysis Phase

Designers and trainers must continually refine this. Afterwards, they proceed to the learner analysis. In here, we ascertain what the learners already know and have yet to know.

It will be easy if there’d only be one learner because we can just call and talk to him or her directly. However, if there would be many, we must do additional research, conduct more interviews or surveys.

To illustrate, if you have a friend who is part of a Toastmasters club and wants to further refine his public speaking skills, you can check what his gaps are. You can even add more intermediate or advanced sections for him. Not doing this sub-step squanders time and effort in teaching someone who already knows something about the topic.

Once this is accomplished, focus on the learning objectives. Designing good learning objectives revolves around a learner’s KSAs – knowledge, skills and attitudes (or abilities). A sample statement is:

“By the time a student finishes this course, the learner should be able to ____.”

Dick and Carey advocate the use of specific and strong verbs to define a student’s performance, which in turn is based on the finished instruction and learner analysis.

For example, when someone wants to make pizza, J. Clark Gardner gives sample objectives:

After the course, the student must be able to:

DESCRIBE how to make pizza dough from scratch.
DEMONSTRATE how to roll it out evenly.
SHOW to add sauce, cheese and pepperoni correctly.
EXPLAIN at what temperature the pizza needs to be caked and for how long.

Knowing the right objectives for your course aids exponentially in course design.

Design Phase

To design a quality course, one must choose the course format, then create instructional strategy and assessment strategies. J. Clark Gardner highly advises one to create the test first before the lesson. Besides, it is beneficial to assess a learner’s KSAs when composing instructional materials.

If you want to design good assessment questions or task instructions, take a look at these four areas:

After designing the assessments, it’s time to choose a course format. This means selecting the best media to present or conduct the course. These include:

Still with our example about the computer students, J. Clark recommends using a computer lab as the format for teaching students to use the PC. Once we’ve determined the course format, we can create the instructional strategy.

These are the means to communicate or instruct the learners. Take a look at these collections of instructional strategies:

There are factors that we can read through for the overall instructional strategy:

Once you’ve given this much thought, you can proceed now to developing the course.

Develop Phase

For a superb course, we must create a sample, make the course materials and conduct a run-through.

Creating a sample must involve your boss and client. Based on your instructional strategy, you are marketing or selling yourself through your “portfolio” of learning materials. For example, when I conduct a public speaking workshop, I share my sample speech, outline and even a video of me speaking. This boosts my credibility to the learners because they not only learn from my experiences but also absorb from my expertise.

To develop the course materials, one must have decided the instructional activities for the course. When you have elaborately thought through these during the design phase, incorporating them in the course and executing them should come easily. Remember to use that plus the sample instruction you composed as the starting point. If clients have comments for those, keep them in mind.

Next, review the session plan with the client and look for comments or suggestions. Then, do a run-through. This is a real-time rehearsal of the course where you will use all the created media and materials.

In effect, you are demo-teaching your presentation to your colleagues and/or supervisor, who serve as your test audience. You can time your run-through as well. Not only that, you must also prepare a feedback assessment in advance to find areas for improvement.

Next month, look forward to Part 2 where we will complete the process with the Implement and Evaluation phases.