Introducing ADDIE
ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Develop, Implement, Evaluate) as an instructional design model has been around for a number of decades. It has proven to be a successful guideline for building effective learning solutions. It’s an effective framework for developing engaging digital materials that align to business and learner needs. This makes it an excellent model for eLearning. This blog breaks down the ADDIE model relative to the eLearning design process, overcomes challenges of the process, and shows how it still is an effective system for developing interactive digital learning materials.
Learning design initiatives must align with a company’s overall business objectives as well as individual learner needs. Learning should be effective in helping achieve the company goals, through developing and enhancing the knowledge of its people. ADDIE focusses on upskilling an organisation’s people while optimising its return on investment (ROI). At The Learning Rooms we use ADDIE to identify the business goals, evaluate the current competency of learners, and design innovative eLearning content to bridge this gap and achieve those goals.
Breakdown of ADDIE
We can break ADDIE down into five stages:
- Analysis
- Design
- Development
- Implementation
- Evaluation
Analysis
The first stage is Analysis. The ID identifies the instructional problem (the business’ needs relative to the learner’s primary area of weakness). Factors relating directly to the learning content and the environment of the learner are considered. This stage identifies the intended audience for the training. It looks at their characteristics, and what is needed for the new behavioural outcome to be achieved. Determining the style of language to be used, the level of complexity and detail required for the content, and understanding the learners individual goals upon completing the course are all vital steps during Analysis. Learner analysis can be conducted through surveys, workshops, and interviews, as well as more informal discussions.
Next, a plan is put in place to solve the problem. Learning outcomes are designed which bridge the gap in knowledge that an organisation’s people may be experiencing. The instructional methodology outlines how we will enable the learners to achieve these learner outcomes.
The final key element of the Analysis stage are the technical considerations of the learning environment. Which learning technologies are required to deliver and develop the course, such as the learning management system (LMS) to host the course, for example Moodle? What tools will be used to develop the course? What access to technology such as headphones will learners have?
The Learning Rooms utilises a range of tools, including Articulate Storyline, to develop its courses. Online learning can be a new process for some learners. However, with well-designed content the learner’s attention can be retained through active learning. They can engage with the content, make decisions and work through the course receiving positive and/or corrective feedback. These are all standard features of The Learning Rooms’ eLearning courses, developed to the highest possible standard with cutting edge technology.
Design
In the design stage instructional designers map the appropriate learning and behavioural outcomes to a course structure. This involves:
- Storyboarding interactive course content
- Writing scripts for video
- Designing User Interface and User Experience
An eLearning course will be storyboarded during this stage. This is where the course and training materials begin to take shape. An initial feel for the training will develop. With so many exciting technologies available in eLearning, IDs have a great opportunity to create captivating, interactive and engaging tasks. The Learning Rooms have a wide range of eLearning tools available to best suit the range of content types that we are experienced in delivering.
Storyboarding also involves writing the learner instructions and developing a voiceover script that introduces the on-screen content. The narration and on-screen text stimulates the learners’ auditory and visual senses, reinforcing the material they are consuming. A strong script is vital in supporting the activities a learner will carry out, both for establishing and developing key concepts and delivering instructions.
The design of the eLearning course is constantly refined during the Design stage. The Learning Rooms has a three stage process for this part of Design:
- Gathering ideas from the course sponsor
- Providing prototypes and design concepts
- Refining how the course will look based on feedback
The instructional designer can guide and recommend particular elements to the course sponsor. However, it is important that they are happy with the course and content design before signing off and moving to development of the course.
While there is always an element of real life experience that can be difficult to capture in online training, The Learning Rooms builds realistic scenarios into course content, challenging learners with situations that they would face in the workplace.
Development
Developers then create the eLearning course based off of the technical documents, storyboards, and any prototypes previously developed. Any supportive learning materials such as graphics, quizzes, and videos that were outlined in the Design stage are sourced, captured and developed. The process of review continues through this stage, and revisions are made based on feedback from SMEs and sample learners. Debugging is also a necessary step during the development process. This involves testing the course on the devices, platforms and operating systems defined in the specifications. This ensure compatibility across the range of devices required.
Instructional designers write and develop the template for the eLearning course. The developers will bring it to life. The Learning Rooms have a specialised team to develop our eLearning courses to the highest standard, with innovative and dynamic course features tailored to each project. This stage of production involves a number of reviews from both The Learning Rooms team and the Subject Matter Experts. It is important to focus on the visual elements of the training at this stage. Much as the instructional material itself, as an eLearning course’s effectiveness is as reliant upon its aesthetic and usability as it is the course content.
Implementation
The Implementation stage of ADDIE is where the course is launched and learners are enrolled. However, before learners can take the course the facilitators must be trained so that they can provide appropriate support and feedback to learners. The course is made live and learners are given access to the materials. The learning materials must also be marketed to learners to encourage them to start their course, demonstrating to them the benefits of completing the training.
Evaluation
When the course draws to a close, the Evaluation stage allows both the instructional designers, the SMEs and all stakeholders to review the overall success of the eLearning project; whether the business’ goals have been met, how well the content was received, as well as the operation and use of learning technologies. Some of this can be evaluated immediately, with short term results such as the learner’s initial reaction to the training accounted for (smile sheets), the achievement of learning outcomes set out in the training (assessment results), and the SME’s initial thoughts on the training relative to the learner’s experience through interviews. There are also the longer-term effects that training can be measured against. These include the transfer of learning to on-the-job performance, the overall impact training had on the organisation, and the tangible return on investment measured by the company.
Overcoming the challenges of ADDIE
ADDIE has been an effective instructional design process since the 1970s. As eLearning has come to the fore of modern learning and development, it has been the backbone of many course development projects. ADDIE typically has a linear structure as a learning model. The Learning Rooms utilises a tailored version of ADDIE. Constant reviews and discussions taking place during the design and build of an eLearning course. Content, multimedia, and learner experience are continually tested and improvements are made. This allows us to create courses that are aligned with organisation and learner objectives.
Conclusion
eLearning is a diverse medium to provide training to an organisation’s people. It’s becoming more popular alongside classroom based trainers to create a blended learning environment. While the content of traditional classroom or textbook based courses remains the same, eLearning tools such as interactive quizzes, scenario based exercises, and videos that bring problems to life and enable learners to solve them in a safe and realistic environment, creates an engaging and bolstered learning resource for trainers and organisations.
The Learning Rooms utilises an experienced and expert-level team to develop these eLearning courses using the ADDIE model, and have found it to be the most constructive method to develop digital learning resources. During the Analysis and Design stages, our team of instructional designers work in tandem with subject matter experts to put together the most effective learning path based on the company’s business needs and where their people’s current knowledge is. During Development, these documents are used to build captivating content designed to the highest standard, both from learning materials and the overall user experience. Instructors are given the requisite knowledge to deliver the course to the learners during Implementation, and the resulting outcomes are reviewed and measured during Evaluation, tracked against the learning objectives.
Over many decades ADDIE has proved itself as an effective learning design model, and The Learning Rooms combines this along with our cutting edge eLearning multimedia to create modern, efficient and result orientated digital learning experiences. The Learning Rooms Instructional Design course covers all aspects of writing your first eLearning course.
