The ADDIE model is the generic process traditionally used by instructional designers and

training developers. The five phases—Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and

Evaluation—represent a dynamic, flexible guideline for building effective training and
performance support tools.
It is an Instructional Systems Design (ISD) model. Most of the current instructional design
models are spin-offs or variations of the ADDIE model; other models include the Dick & Carey
and Kemp ISD models. One commonly accepted improvement to this model is the use of rapid
prototyping. This is the idea of receiving continual or formative feedback while instructional
materials are being created. This model attempts to save time and money by catching problems
while they are still easy to fix. For example, the ADDIE model was used in the framework for
helping create new research topics in learning technology (Liu, 2008).
Instructional theories also play an important role in the design of instructional materials.
Theories such as behaviorism, constructivism, social learning and cognitivism help shape and
define the outcome of instructional materials.
Step Process
In the ADDIE concept, each step has an outcome that bleeds into the subsequent step.
Analysis > Design > Development > Implementation > Evaluation
[edit] Analysis Phase
In the analysis phase, the instructional problem is clarified, the instructional goals and objectives
are established and the learning environment and learner's existing knowledge and skills are
identified. Below are some of the questions that are addressed during the analysis phase:
• Who is the audience and what are their characteristics?
• What is the new behavioral outcome?
• What types of learning constraints exist?
• What are the delivery options?
• What are the online pedagogical considerations?
• What are the Adult Learning Theory considerations?
• What is the timeline for project completion?

[edit] Design Phase

The design phase deals with learning objectives, assessment instruments, exercises, content,
subject matter analysis, lesson planning and media selection. The design phase should be
systematic and specific. Systematic means a logical, orderly method of identifying, developing
and evaluating a set of planned strategies targeted for attaining the project's goals. Specific means
each element of the instructional design plan needs to be executed with attention to details.
These are steps involved in design phase:
• Document the project's instructional, visual and technical design strategy
• Apply instructional strategies according to the intended behavioral outcomes by domain
(cognitive, affective, and psychomotor).
 • Design the user interface and user experience
• Create prototype
• Apply visual design (graphic design)

[edit] Development Phase

The development phase is where instructional designers and developers create and assemble the
content assets that were blueprinted in the design phase. In this phase, storyboards and graphics
are designed. If elearning is involved, programmers develop and/or integrate technologies.
Testers perform debugging procedures. The project is reviewed and revised according to the
feedback received.
[edit] Implementation Phase
During the implementation phase, a procedure for training the facilitators and the learners is
developed. The facilitators' training should cover the course curriculum, learning outcomes,
method of delivery, and testing procedures. Preparation of the learners includes training them on
new tools (software or hardware) and student registration.
This is also the phase where the project manager ensures that the books, hands-on equipment,
tools, CD-ROMs and software are in place, and that the learning application or website is
functional.
[edit] Evaluation Phase
The evaluation phase consists of two parts: formative and summative. Formative evaluation is
present in each stage of the ADDIE process. Summative evaluation consists of tests designed for
domain specific criterion-related referenced items and providing opportunities for feedback from
the users which were identified
[edit] Comparison to Other Models
Peter Block also has a model, mostly used by consultants, that is comparable to the ADDIE
model. Block's steps measure up to the ADDIE model as follows:[citation needed]
Analysis -> Entry & Contracting, Data Collection & Diagnosis, Feedback & Decision to Act
Design -> Implementation
Development -> Implementation
Implementation ->Implementation
Evaluation -> Extension, Recycle or Termination
[edit] References
• Liu, G. Z. (2008). Innovating research topics in learning technology: Where are the new
blue oceans?.British Journal of Educational Technology, 39(4), 738-747.
• Molenda, M. (2003). In search of the elusive addie model. Performance improvement,
42(5), 34.
• Strickland, A.W. (2006). ADDIE. Idaho State University College of Education Science,
Math & Technology Education. Retrieved June 29, 2006.
The ADDIE Instructional Design Model
A Structured Training Methodology
The ADDIE instructional design model provides a step-by-step process that
helps training specialists plan and create training programs. The ADDIE
design model revolves around the following five components:
• Analysis

• Design

• Development

• Implementation

• Evaluation

These five stages of the ADDIE model encompass the entire training
development process, from the time someone first asks, "What do people
need to learn?" all the way to the point where someone actually measures,
"Did people learn what they needed?"

The ADDIE Process

The ADDIE instructional design model forms a roadmap for the entire
training project.
Intulogy uses this popular instructional design model to help our clients
analyze their training needs, design and develop training materials,
implement training, and evaluate its effectiveness.
Sometimes, Intulogy works directly with a client's training specialists, who
have studied the ADDIE model in graduate school. However, we're often
contacted by directors and executives who know their company has a
training need, but they don't know much about the instructional design
process.
Intulogy's training specialists share a flowchart of the ADDIE instructional
design model with our clients. It helps our clients locate where they are in
the training project lifecycle, and it provides a common language for us to
discuss the project. Each page in the ADDIE section library offers a link to
this flowchart in the left-hand navigation bar.

Explore and Learn

In this section of the training library, you'll learn how Intulogy uses the
ADDIE instructional design model to help our clients meet their training
needs. We've blended a discussion of the theory with the experience of our
training specialists.
If you're interested in how the ADDIE model applies to corporate training
projects, check out our In the Workplace section.
You can explore the ADDIE methodology step-by-step by following the "next"
button or you can jump directly to the topics that interest you.
The grand tour of the ADDIE model begins with an introduction to the first
phase—the needs analysis.

The ADDIE Analysis Phase

The First Steps to Quality Training
Let's take a look at the first phase in the ADDIE instructional design model—
the analysis phase. Great training programs don't come together by
accident. They require planning and analysis. You'll produce the best training
if you first analyze three important areas:
• The business goals you want to achieve

• The material that must be taught

• The learners' current capabilities

In this section, we'll examine how the ADDIE analysis phase works.

The Value of a Needs Analysis

We're regularly contacted by clients that have important and urgent training
projects. Sometimes, a client will ask Intulogy to skip the analysis phase and
jump straight to training development. They'll say, "Let's get people writing
training materials now!" However, that can be a risky and very costly
approach.
Carpenters utilize the old adage, "measure twice; cut once." Even though
carpenters are talking about wood, and we're talking about training, we
share a common goal—do it right the first time. So, we could change the
carpenter's old adage to fit the ADDIE methodology. "Analyze fully; design
once."
The ADDIE analysis phase serves a major role in the quality assurance
process. It defines the project's needs and ways to measure its success. If
you skip the ADDIE analysis phase, you can easily introduce mistaken
assumptions into the project.
• Wrong focus—the course content may not address the company's business needs

• Too easy or too hard—the course could bore or frustrate the learners

• Incomplete, redundant, or inaccurate content—the course might not teach the correct
material

If you rush to development, you may not catch those errors until you launch
the course. At that point, it can be very costly to fix or redesign the course.
In essence, the training needs analysis is time well-spent.

Who Guides the Needs Analysis?

During the needs analysis phase, the training specialist may speak with
many people to learn about the project and its overall goals. Here are just a
few examples of individuals who can provide information:
• Project sponsors (executives or senior leadership)—who can discuss the business goals
and objectives

• Subject matter experts—who can describe undocumented knowledge

• Representative members of the target audience—who can demonstrate their current

skills and behaviors

It is often critical to work with anyone who will be impacted by or have

influence on the final training product.

Questions that Drive the Analysis

When you start your project with a training needs analysis, you collect
critical information about business needs, learners' capabilities, and course
content. Here are some of the questions that a training specialist may ask
during the ADDIE analysis phase:
• What are the business needs driving this training project?
 • What are the goals and objectives for this training project?

• How will you define success for both the learner and the project?

• How will you measure that success?

• Who is the intended training audience?

• What do the members of the learning audience already know?

• What do they need to learn?

• What resources are already available?

The training specialist uses the answers to these, and any possible
combination of other questions, to write the course's performance
objectives.

Steps in the Needs Analysis

In this section, you can learn about the five steps that Intulogy's training
specialists perform during the ADDIE analysis phase:
• Discover any existing materials

• Define measurable business goals

• Conduct an instructional analysis

• Analyze learners and contexts

• Write learning objectives

Some of these steps can happen concurrently, but generally our training
specialists begin with the discovery process.

ADDIE Analysis: Discovery

Begin with the Discovery Process
When Intulogy's training specialists conduct a training needs analysis, they
begin with the discovery process. We ask our clients to share with us any
materials or documents that would be relevant to the training project. In
terms of the ADDIE methodology, the training specialist uses these
documents to understand the client's current situation and the training
project's context. So, the discovery process serves as the foundation for the
entire ADDIE model.

Collect the Information

We believe that the discovery process should happen at the beginning of the
ADDIE analysis phase. When our training specialists start on a project, they
ask the client to assemble the relevant documents for the project. Each
training project leads to a unique discovery process. Usually, the training
specialist asks the client a series of open-ended questions about existing
resources and documents, so that the discovery process becomes a
discussion between the training specialist and the client.
Intulogy's training specialists collect as much information as possible at the
beginning of the project. We believe that it's better to have plenty of data
than not enough.

Analyze the Resources

Our training specialists carefully analyze the documents that they collect.
They take notes and prepare their questions for subject matter experts. This
self-study process helps our training specialists quickly learn about the
project and its needs without placing a large time demand on the client's
subject matter experts (SMEs). Our training specialists will take these
questions to subject matter experts later in the ADDIE analysis process. We
know that SMEs are busy people, and we acknowledge that by making
efficient use of their time.

Confirm the Research

At the end of the discovery phase, the training specialists contact the client
and present a list of the documents they have received and reviewed. We
ask our clients to confirm that we have collected and reviewed the proper
resources for the project.

The Benefits of the Discovery Process

The discovery process collects key information at the start of the project.
• Ensures the training specialists have access to key documents and resources at the
start of the project

• Places learning and knowledge gathering at the front of the project

• Brings the training specialist up-to-speed on the project

• Reduces the time commitment required from the client's subject matter experts
(SMEs)

• Limits the risk that training specialists might move forward without critical information
 • Saves time and backtracking later in the project

• Serves as the project's first major quality checkpoint

A Sample Discovery Process

Let's consider an example where a client has asked Intulogy to create an e-
learning module for its sales team. The e-learning course will describe the
product's features, discuss the target audience, and present sales strategies.
The client has already delivered some of this information through an
instructor-led course, but the client feels that the material may need to be
updated. During the discovery process, Intulogy's training specialists might
ask the client for the following resources:
• Technical specifications and user guides for the product

• The existing classroom training materials

• Survey results and learner feedback from the instructor-led course

• Memos and paperwork about the training project

• Images (the client's corporate logo, photos of the product, etc.)

• Brand manual and/or e-learning style guide

• Technical specifications for the client's e-learning platform

ADDIE Analysis: Align with Business Goals

Define Measurable Business Goals
If a training project is to have long-lasting value, then it should be connected
to specific business results that you can measure. In this step of the ADDIE
analysis phase, Intulogy’s training specialists help clients identify the key
business metrics they want to improve through the project. Training projects
can't solve every business problem, but a good training project should be
able to articulate its goals in ways that can be measured.

Envision the Successful Project

We believe that it’s important to align each training project with your
company's business goals. When you define what success will look like,
you’re more likely to achieve those results. So, if the training project will be
successful, how will it affect people and how will it impact the company's
bottom line?
 • Vague business goal—we want to teach a new process to our team members

• Specific business goal—we want to improve team member productivity by encouraging

them to use best practices

• Highly specific business goal—we want to improve team member productivity by 5%

through increased adoption of these three best-practice procedures

It's easy to write training around vague business goals, but it's difficult to
measure their impact on your company. It's also nearly impossible to
measure their return on investment. When you map the project to specific
business goals, you ensure that the project focuses on measurable results.
You'll also be able to present your project in a way that will appeal to your
company's senior leadership and even the company's CFO.

Choose Achievable Goals

Intulogy's training specialists help clients select achievable goals for their
training projects. We believe that clients should set the project's business
goals, since they know their needs best. We encourage a dialogue between
the following groups:
• The project's owner

• Senior leadership or executives who are supporting the project

• Other stakeholders involved in the project's success

During the discussion, our training specialists share their knowledge and
their experience with training projects. We guide the discussion and
encourage the participants to address the tough questions:
• Is the proposed goal realistic?—neither too high nor too low

• Will the project have enough time for development and implementation?

• What internal elements will need to support the project?

• Have those elements committed to the project?

The project's goals must match the client's commitment to them. We've
seen companies set high training project goals that became unrealistic—
because the project didn't receive enough time, resources, or cultural
support.

Be Willing to Scale
Let's imagine that a pharmaceutical company wants to update its training
program for newly-hired account managers. Intulogy's training specialists
ask the client to define success. The project owner talks with the senior
leadership, and they agree that ideally the program needs to focus on three
product lines. A successful project would improve key performance metrics
by 15% for each line.
However, the company intends to hire a new class of account managers in
ninety days, and the new course must be ready within that timeframe.
Intulogy's training specialist recognizes that the project's goals exceed the
time available to create the course. So, the training specialist shares this
information with the client. The client then can choose between the following
options:
• Reschedule the hiring date for the new account managers and allow more time for
course development

• Add additional training specialists to the project

• Reduce the scope and focus on a 15% improvement for one product line

• Update the training for all three product lines but set a lower performance metric goal

Each of these choices comes with trade-offs that go beyond the project's
success. These options will affect the client's business and the bottom line.
Our training specialists offer advice that help clients make informed
decisions about their training projects.

Analyze Learners and Contexts

What Do Learners Already Know?
During a learner analysis, the training specialist examines the learners as a
group. Sometimes this step is called a training audience analysis or even just
an audience analysis. In this step, the training specialist examines the
learners' current knowledge and capabilities. What do the learners already
know and have the ability to do?
The training specialist uses the information from the learner analysis to
create a course that focuses on your learners' actual needs. If you don't
conduct the learner analysis, you'll have to make assumptions about the
learners' current capabilities. Sometimes, if you are very familiar with your
audience, you can make informed guesses. However, some assumptions can
lead to unexpected surprises when you launch the training project.
How Audience Analysis Works
Imagine that an instructional designer is creating a new-hire course for
delivery drivers in the package delivery industry. The training specialist
spends weeks designing and developing a course that covers the following
topics:
• How to collect packages from customers

• How to stack packages in their truck

• Which forms to use

• How to provide customer service

• How to handle undelivered packages

Now, imagine that the course goes live. On the first day of class, a large
portion of the class asks, "When do we learn how to drive a delivery truck?"
In this example, the instructional designer didn't analyze the learners'
capabilities and assumed that all of the learners would have commercial
drivers' licenses. Because that assumption wasn't accurate, the course
leaves a key learning issue unaddressed. The course would need to be
redesigned to fit the company's hiring practices.

Keep Learners Involved

You want a course that challenges but doesn't overwhelm your learners. If
you don't take time to study the learners and their contexts, you could make
a course that bores learners because it's too basic. You could also create a
course that's impossibly difficult for a group of learners—because it might
assume that learners know more than they really do. It is not only important
to know what material you're going to teach, but also what your learners
need to be taught.

Conduct an Instructional Analysis

Give Learners Clear Directions
Have you ever used an online map service to create a set of driving
directions? When you enter your starting point and your destination, the
service provides a series of step-by-step instructions that will guide you to
your goal. Training is no different; you need a roadmap and directions.
• Your learner analysis provides your project's starting location
 • Your company's business goals provide the destination

• Your instructional analysis provides the step-by-step instructions that take learners
from start to finish

When Intulogy's training specialists look at a training project, they identify

what people will need to learn to achieve the company's business goals. The
learners might need new knowledge, skills, or behaviors. Intulogy's training
specialists conduct an instructional analysis to determine how to guide
learners from their current capabilities to the course's goals.

Create an Instructional Analysis

During the instructional analysis step, a training specialist might conduct a
task analysis and create a competency map for learners. These tools help
the training specialist define what learners must be able to do once they
have completed the course.
Think back for a moment about the online roadmap. You can't just walk out
of your front door and instinctively know how to travel to a new place. Worse
yet, imagine if you printed out a set of online directions that were missing an
important turn. You might get lost and frustrated; you might even give up
and never arrive at your destination.
For learners, training is a journey; they rely on you to provide them with an
accurate set of directions. An instructional analysis ensures that the course
will:
• Cover all information and steps that learners will need to know

• Exclude information that learners already know

• Exclude information that learners don't need to know

The more accurate the instructional analysis, the easier the journey will be
for the learners.

Think from a Learner's Perspective

If you ask an expert to create a list of steps for a task, they'll probably omit
many steps they instinctively perform. An expert can take the right actions
without consciously thinking about each step. When a training specialist
conducts an instructional analysis, they watch the process with fresh eyes.
They look for "unstated" knowledge and steps that the expert never
consciously thinks about.
Imagine you want to teach someone how to write and send a letter. You
probably learned this skill when you were in grade school, so you don't
consciously think about all of the mundane details it takes to mail a letter.
You're an expert now; you're intuitively capable of those tasks. You'd
actually have to stop and think about each step that you perform.
• Write the letter, including the introduction, body, and closing

• Address an envelope properly and legibly

• Affix proper postage to the envelope

• Deliver the envelope to the post office

That's a basic task analysis, but there are some assumptions here that could
cause problems for someone just learning how to send a letter:
• The list never tells the learner to put the letter in the envelope.

• The list never tells the learner to seal the envelope.

• How does the learner determine proper postage?

• Where should the postage stamp be placed?

Now, consider all of the complex tasks involved in writing a proposal,

navigating your company's in-house proprietary software, or meeting
compliance requirements. If a learner doesn't know about a step, it could
mean the difference between success and failure. The instructional analysis
makes sure that the course content exactly matches what learners need to
know.

Write the Learning Objectives

What is a Learning Objective?
At the end of the analysis phase, all of the data collection and analysis
comes together into a cohesive, concise document that describes the
course's learning objectives.
There are several different styles of learning objectives, and each uses a
specific linguistic formula. However, learning objectives generally contain the
following elements:
• An observable task that a learner will be able to perform at the end of the course

• The conditions utilized to perform the task

 • The criteria that will be used to measure a learner's success

Here's an example of a learning objective: "At the end of the course, the
learner will be able to process three sample customer orders within fifteen
minutes without any errors."

Check the Course's Destination

The learning objectives serve as a major quality assurance checkpoint in the
ADDIE instructional design methodology. In many ways, the learning
objectives are like the "destination check" that you hear when you board a
commercial airline flight.
The flight attendant might announce, "This is Flight 5371 to Austin, Texas."
If you're not heading to Austin, you've got a chance to get off the plane
before they close the doors and push away from the gate.
In the same way, the learning objectives announce the course's destination.
The training specialist will use these learning objectives to build the course's
instructional design—including content, activities and tests.
After Intulogy's training specialists write the learning objectives for a course,
we present them to the client. We ask the client to review the learning
objectives and assess whether their training needs are properly understood
and represented.
If your course doesn't have a clear set of learning objectives, you will run
into two risks.
First, the instructional designer will have to guess the course's goals and
learning objectives. That's like telling an airline pilot to fly to California. A
competent pilot could fly the plane safely to any of a dozen major airports,
but what's the best destination? Vague objectives lead to imprecise results.
Second, when you don't have clear learning objectives, your learners are like
passengers who board a plane and just hope that it will take them to the
right city. Will the course actually meet their needs and help them achieve
the company's business goals?

Next Steps
Once we've confirmed the courses learning objectives, the training
specialists will be ready to proceed to the next phase of the ADDIE model—
instructional design.
ADDIE Instructional Design Phase
The Role of Instructional Design
Once a training specialist has written the course's learning objectives and
confirmed them with the client, it's time to begin the instructional design
phase. During the design phase, the training specialist plans what the course
should look like when it's complete.
At the end of the instructional design phase, the training specialist produces
an instructional design document for the course. In many ways, this
document is similar to an architect's blueprints or a software engineer's
design document. The instructional design document describes the course's
content, but it doesn't contain the course content—just like a blueprint isn't
a house and a software design document isn't the actual software.
In this section, we'll explore the ADDIE instructional design phase and the
steps that a training specialist takes to build the instructional design
document.

Create an Instructional Strategy

At the start of the instructional design phase, the training specialist should
have a pretty good idea of what the learners will already know when they
start the course (through a learner analysis). The training specialist should
also know what learners will need to learn during the course (as stated in
the learning objectives).
How do you create a course that helps people move from what they already
know and gain mastery of the new material? That's the question that the
instructional design process answers.
During the instructional design phase, the training specialist reviews the
course's learning objectives and considers the following questions:
• How should content be organized?

• How should ideas be presented to learners?

• What delivery format should be used?

• What types of activities and exercises will best help learners?

• How should the course measure learners' accomplishments?

The answers to these questions help the training specialist produce the
instructional design document. This document describes the course structure
and its instructional strategies.
During the instructional design phase, the training specialist does not create
course content. The actual course content and training materials will be
created during the training development phase.

Steps in the Instructional Design Phase

There are basically three steps in the instructional design phase:
• Plan the instructional strategy

• Select the course format

• Write the instructional design document

We will examine each step in more detail in this section, beginning with the
instructional strategy.
Instructional Strategy
Developing an Instructional Strategy
At this point in the instructional design process, the training specialist makes
important choices about the course's structure and its methods. Overall,
these choices combine to form a comprehensive instructional strategy to
help people achieve the course's learning objectives.
When instructional designers create instructional strategies for courses, they
draw upon theoretical knowledge and practical experience. There are many
different ways to sequence and present content to learners. It's the
instructional designer's responsibility to choose the correct instructional
strategies for the course and the learners.
On this page, we'll take a look at three issues that instructional designers
consider when they devise an instructional strategy:
• How will course material be grouped and sequenced?

• What instructional methods and tactics will be used to present material?

• How will assessments measure a learner's success?

These three issues often overlap with each other; a choice in one area may
affect the other areas.

Grouping and Sequencing Content

The training specialists must decide if any of the course's learning objectives
should be grouped together. You can't teach everything at once, but
sometimes it makes sense to put related topics together for the learners.
These related topics can form the basis for a course module.
Once topics have been grouped together, the training specialist has to
organize the content into a course structure. The content inside of each
group needs to be sequenced and then the groups themselves need to be
sequenced together to form the course structure. Here are just a few of the
many possible sequencing options:
• Step-by-step

• Part-to-whole

• Whole-to-part

• Known-to-unknown

• General-to-specific

As you can see, there are many different ways to organize and present
course material. The instructional designer chooses the structure that makes
the most sense for the learners and the course content.

Choosing Methods and Tactics

In the instructional design phase, the training specialist has to decide how
the course material will be presented to the learners. Specifically, we're
looking at the types of activities and exercises that will be in the course.
Here are just a few examples of different types of learning activities:
• Group discussions

• Modeling

• Scenarios

• Mnemonics

• Drills

• Applied practice

If you want to teach someone how to type on a keyboard, you might

recommend rote drills and applied practice. However, if you want learners to
develop interpersonal skills, rote drills offer limited value. Role play scenarios
and group discussions would probably be more effective learning activities.
Generally, the course's activities and exercises must fit with the type of
learning people will be asked to do.

Designing Assessments
At the end of the needs analysis phase, the training specialist created
learning objectives that defined measurable tasks and criteria for success.
Now, in the instructional design phase, the training specialist creates
assessment tools that will measure the learners progress.
If you have a driver's license, you probably completed two types of tests
before you received your license. You completed a written test that
measured your understanding of street signs, laws, and procedures. You
probably also performed an on-the-road test where someone observed your
driving skills. The two tests measure different capabilities.
You could be very knowledgeable about traffic laws and procedures but a
poor driver behind the wheel. Similarly, you might be good at driving the car
but poor at recognizing street signs and safety procedures. You have to pass
both tests before you can obtain a driver's license.
The course's assessments should measure a learner's progress towards each
of the learning objectives. The types of assessment must fit the learning
objective.
Selecting the Course Format
Choose the Class Type
In the ADDIE model, the training specialist chooses the course's delivery
method during the instructional design phase. This seemingly simple choice
will affect almost every aspect of the design document and the final course
content.
The course delivery format should mesh with the learners' needs, the
content, and also the client's business goals. Some types of course material
can be easily presented through job aids and self-study materials, but other
courses work best when learners come together as a class under the direct
guidance of an expert instructor.
The course delivery method impacts how learners experience the course and
its content. If the training specialist chooses the right delivery method, it will
make the learning process easier for the learners. However, if the delivery
format doesn't fit the content and learner's needs, then the course will have
very limited success.
Course Delivery Options
In the corporate training world, there are many different course delivery
options for the instructional designer to choose from. Here's a list of some of
the choices and links to other pages where we discuss these formats in more
depth:
• Instructor-led courses

• Paper-based self-study materials

• Synchronous e-learning

• Asynchronous e-learning

• Job aids

Ideally, the training specialist selects the class type during the instructional
design phase. However, sometimes companies will select the delivery format
even before conducting a training needs analysis. When a company pre-
selects the delivery format, the training specialist may face a greater
instructional design challenge. We'll take a closer look at that situation on
our instructional design in the workplace page.
Once the training specialist has chosen the course format and devised an
instructional strategy, then it's time to write the instructional design
document.
Instructional Design Documents
The Role of the Design Document
At the end of the instructional design phase, the training specialist writes an
instructional design document. This document provides more than just a
simple course outline; it provides a high-level overview of the entire training
solution.
A training specialist's instructional design document provides detailed
instructions on how to build the course, but it doesn't contain any actual
course content; it's similar to an architect's blueprint or a software
engineer's design document.
Generally, an instructional design document will perform the following tasks:
• Describe the overall learning approach

• Identify instructional media choices

 • Cluster and sequence objectives

• Describe course exercises, activities, and assessments

Together these five elements create the overall instructional strategy for the
course. A short course might have a very simple design document, but
complex and lengthy courses can have very detailed design documents.
The instructional design serves as a major quality assurance checkpoint. The
training specialist and the client discuss and agree to the design before
development begins. It's a lot easier to adjust the design than redevelop
materials later in the project.

Benefits of the Design Document

Intulogy's training specialists use the instructional design document for four
main purposes:
• Check that the design concepts are cohesive and complete

• Present the proposed training solution to the client

• Invite feedback about the design

• Provide instructions to other training specialists who may work on the development
phase of the project

Instructional design documents may also contain additional project-specific

elements. For example, if the course has an e-learning element, the
instructional designer might describe the interface's appearance and
functionality.
Let's take a closer look at each of these four main purposes in greater detail.

Check the Design Concepts and Content

The course's instructional strategy should allow the learners to achieve the
course's learning objectives. Once the instructional design document has
been written, the training specialist can take a step back and look at the
whole design, not just individual pieces. The design document makes it
easier to spot areas that have unresolved questions or need additional
information.

Present the Proposed Solution

Intulogy's training specialists will present the instructional design document
to the client. Often, we'll schedule a meeting or conference call to walk
through the course design and explain our choices.
Our instructional designers base their choices on adult learning theories and
methodologies, but we ask them to explain their choices in language that
makes sense to non-specialists.
If you're not a training specialist, your eyes might glaze over if someone told
you how each learning objective links to Robert Gagné's Nine Events of
Instruction or Keller's ARCS Model of Motivation. You just want to make sure
that the instructional design choices will actually fulfill the learning
objectives. We use clear and comprehensible language to explain the choice.

Invite Feedback about the Design

After our training specialists present the instructional design, we ask for
feedback from the client. We often collect suggestions from project leaders,
leadership champions, subject matter experts, and other stakeholders.
The instructional design document specifies what the final course will be like.
It's important to build consensus and agreement before starting course
development.
Sometimes, when we walk through the instructional design with the client,
we hear someone say, "oh, we really should add . . ." or even "that's been
changed . . ." However, that's exactly the feedback we're looking for. It's
much easier to revise the instructional design than to revise a fully-
developed course.

Provide Instructions to Other Developers

Large training projects often require more than one training specialist. For
example, an e-learning project may require a full team of training specialists
—instructional designers, graphic artists, storyboard writers, editors,
programmers, and voice talent. The instructional design document guides
the complex project and allows everyone to be involved with the project's
goals and structure.
The instructional design document is part of the ADDIE methodology, but it's
also a real-world tool that guides projects and provides a high level of
quality assurance. We'll take a closer look at real-world instructional design
documents on our instructional design in the workplace page.
Once the client and the training specialist have agreed on the instructional
design document, it's time to start creating the course materials. In the next
section, we'll look at the ADDIE training development phase.
ADDIE Development Phase
Successful Training Development
On the surface, training development seems simple—training specialists
create the course materials, yet what separates a great course that fulfils its
objectives from a weak course that misses its mark and puts people to
sleep?
Here's what our training specialists have learned through experience. A
successful development phase draws upon the information collected in the
needs analysis phase and the decisions made in the instructional design
phase.
If the team has done solid work during the first two phases of the ADDIE
methodology, then the training development phase should proceed smoothly
and quickly. The training specialists and client have agreed on the course's
purpose, structure, and content. Now it's easy to focus on writing the
materials.
In contrast, if there are unresolved issues from the first two ADDIE phases,
then problems usually start to appear in the training development phase.
You might see missed deadlines, weak and off-target materials, and even
substantial cost overruns.

Steps in Training Development

In this section, we'll look at the ADDIE model's training development phase.
We'll focus our discussion on the high-level steps that are common to most
training projects. If you're looking for specific advice on how to format a
leader's guide or how to create an e-learning template, this section probably
won't help you. Instead, we look at the strategic processes that Intulogy's
training specialists use to create training materials for our clients:
• Create a prototype

• Develop the course materials

• Conduct a tabletop review

• Run a pilot session

Since there are many types of training projects, the development phase
often adapts to fit the project and the client's needs. One project might
devote a lot of time to prototyping, while another session may devote more
time to tabletop review and pilot testing. In many situations, it's a matter of
matching the right quality assurance steps to the project. Our training
development in the workplace page explores these choices in greater detail.
However, our step-by-step review of the ADDIE methodology continues with
a discussion of prototyping.
Developing a Prototype
The Value of Training Prototypes
A training prototype provides a preview. It shows what the final course will
look like when it is complete. Both training specialists and clients love
prototypes. Until this point, people have been envisioning the course
materials in their minds. In this step, the training specialist builds a tangible
sample that everyone can see and discuss.
Training prototypes often vary in scale and complexity. For some courses,
the prototype might be just a few template pages. Other courses might need
detailed step-by-step storyboards. The course's format often influences the
type of prototype the training specialist will create.

Course Format A Possible Prototype

Classroom Training Led by an

Sample pages (templates) from the learner and instructor guides
Instructor

Storyboards that show text, images, layout, animations, and

E-learning (CBT and WBT)
voiceover instructions

Blended Learning Samples pages and storyboards

Web-based classroom Sample pages from the learner and instructor guides

Job Aids Mockup that shows the design and layout

Intulogy's training specialists build prototypes that fit the type of course
they're developing. Simple courses don't need massive prototypes. However,
when a project grows in size and complexity, prototypes help people envision
the final deliverable.

Course Templates and Prototypes

Some large companies have created standardized templates for all their
print and e-learning courses. These templates provide a consistent look for
the company's training message and reinforce the company's branding. With
these templates, people don't have to reinvent the wheel for each new
course.
However, the training templates can become limiting and restrictive. Our
training specialists have seen companies whose in-house brand guidelines
actually inhibit learning. If a company uses standardized templates, they
need to be flexible enough to allow courses to deliver their content
successfully.
Many companies do not have standardized in-house training templates.
When that's the case, our training specialists can use one of Intulogy's in-
house templates or create a custom template for the course.

The Prototype Review Process

In the simplest format, the training specialist and the client meet to discuss
the prototype. Sometimes, this review process is as simple as a one-on-one
meeting between the client's representative and the training specialist.
We've also worked with clients who require a number of different people and
groups to approve the template. For example, the marketing department
might want to confirm that the template conforms with branding guidelines
and the legal department might want to ensure that the template properly
protects the company's intellectual property and marks. It's really a matter
of how the client structures its business and its decision-making process.

A Sample Prototype
Let's look at a sample prototype process, based on the experiences of our
training specialists. Many training projects have a simple prototype review
process. However, in the corporate world, the prototype process can quickly
become quite complex.
In this example, Intulogy's training specialists will create an e-learning
project for a financial services company. The online course will teach
employees how to comply with a new federal law that protects consumers'
private data.
The company wants the e-learning module to follow the company's branding
guidelines but also wants a fresh look. The instructional designer and graphic
designer review the brand manual and design a template that shows the
course's interface and navigation. In addition to the client's project leader,
the marketing department asks to review the template.
Once the template has been approved, the training specialists create e-
learning storyboards for the entire course. These storyboards show slide-by-
slide what the course will look like when its complete. They are similar to the
storyboards that directors use when planning a movie. It's generally easier
to change these mockups than to change a fully programmed course.
The training specialists and the client then meet to discuss the storyboards.
The client's subject matter experts review the storyboards to ensure the
content is accurate and complete.
Since this training project touches on legal compliance issues, the client's
project manager sends the storyboards to the company's internal legal
department for review and approval.
Once the training prototype has been approved, it's time for the training
specialists to develop the actual course materials.
Developing Training Materials
The Course Development Process
If the training specialist has followed the ADDIE instructional design model,
then the prior steps will provide solid preparation for the course
development process. The course developers will have access to the
following information:
• Any prior course materials and other documents found in the discovery process

• The course's learning objectives

• The instructional design document

• A prototype or template that models the course's layout and appearance

Training specialists can certainly write courses without these resources, but
it's hard to develop effective courses without this information. On this page,
we'll look at the course development process.

The Role of the Course Developer

A good course developer understands both instructional design and training
delivery.
When the course developer creates content, two questions are paramount:
• Does this material meet the learning objectives?
 • Will the material work in the classroom?

For example, an instructional design document might call for an activity

where learners gather into small groups and discuss case-based scenarios.
It's the course developer's responsibility to write scenarios that will interest
the learners and promote discussion. If the course developer doesn't
understand classroom dynamics, those scenarios might fall flat or seem
contrived.

The Course Development Team

The course development team can include writers, editors, graphic
designers, e-learning programmers, usability experts, and project managers.
Some people may be needed for the entire course development process,
while other people may be called in to accomplish just a few specific tasks.
Once the course materials have been written, it's time for the training
specialist to conduct a tabletop review with the client.
The Tabletop Review
The Goal of Tabletop Review
After the course has been developed, the training specialist delivers a first
draft of the course materials to the client. It's now time for a tabletop review
of the course.
During the tabletop review, the training specialist and client check the
content's accuracy and completeness. They walk through the course
materials as experts looking for errors rather than as learners interacting
with the course.
The tabletop review serves as a quality assurance step. The training
specialist and client check the course's content before any learners interact
with the course.

How the Tabletop Review Works

The tabletop review works best when the course developers and the client's
review team can actually speak with each other. A tabletop review could
occur during a face-to-face meeting or a phone call. It's much more difficult
to conduct a tabletop review through e-mail or reading reviewer's notes in
electronic files.
During the tabletop review, the training specialist asks the client's reviewers
to focus on two important questions:
 • Is the content accurate?

• Is the content complete?

If a specific section seems vague or unclear, the training specialist might ask
a third question—how can we communicate this idea better? It's important
to gather ideas that will strengthen the course materials, but the tabletop
review shouldn't turn into "what if" discussions that last for hours.
The tabletop review can focus very tightly on these issues because so many
questions have already been asked and answered during the needs analysis
and instructional design phases.

Tabletop Review Participants

The training specialist usually will ask the client's project leader and key
subject matter experts to attend the tabletop review. These participants will
best be able to address the questions of accuracy and completeness.
Some clients may also want other internal people to attend the tabletop
review. Additionally, the client may require additional internal review cycles
before the course begins pilot testing.
Pilot Testing a Course
Pilot Testing with Actual Learners
In the tabletop review step, project members reviewed the course content
for completeness and accuracy. Now, it's time to put the course in front of
the learners and measure how they interact with the materials. In most
cases, the pilot test will be the first time actual learners experience the
course.
The pilot test of the course takes place before the official course
implementation. It provides the training specialists and the clients a final
chance to review the course prior to its official launch.

The Benefits of Pilot Testing

In many ways, a course's pilot session is similar to a software beta test.
Whenever you put a piece of software or a course in front of actual learners,
they'll interact with it very differently than trained experts will. Experts and
learners will be sensitive to different types of issues within the course.
Subject matter experts can make sure that the course materials are accurate
and complete, but they might not catch that a learning activity's instructions
should be worded with more clarity. People who are actually trying to learn
the course material provide a very rigorous test for two reasons. They're
often very willing to provide candid feedback. Additionally, at the end of the
course, you can measure how well the pilot course's learners have achieved
the course's learning objectives.
That's why Intulogy's representation of the ADDIE model includes a two-
stage review process after course development. Both tabletop review and
pilot testing provide important quality assurance checks, and there's really
no way for one process to replace the other.

Pilot Testing Methodologies

The pilot test will be conducted differently, depending on the course's
delivery format. Let's take a look at two possible examples.
If the course is an e-learning course, learners may sit individually at their
computers and take the course. Learners may be asked to fill out a survey
after they finish the course. Then, the training specialist reviews the data
and perhaps conducts follow-up interviews.
However, if the course is an instructor-led course, learners and instructors
may gather in a classroom while a training specialist quietly takes notes at
the back of the classroom.

Issues Identified in Pilot Testing

Before the pilot test, the training specialist builds a checklist of issues. Some
of these issues are standard review items, but others will be specific to the
course's content and its delivery format. Here's a very brief list of some
issues that the training specialist might measure during the course pilot:
• Measure the amount of time learners need for each module and activity

• Check learners' engagement with the material

• Detect points where material may be too easy/too difficult

• Confirm that learners understand the instructions for activities and exercises

• Evaluate the flow and balance of the course

• Test how well learners achieve the course's stated learning objectives by the end of the
course

• Validate the course assessment tools

• Collect feedback from learners about the course

 • Locate points where the course should be revised

During the course pilot, it's important to let learners interact with the course
rather than try to correct things on-the-fly. When you spot something wrong,
it might be tempting to jump in and "add one thing" but that can create a
cascade effect throughout the course. After the course pilot, the training
specialist and the client meet and decide what revisions should occur before
the course launches.
ADDIE Implementation Phase
Launching the Course
The ADDIE model provides a systematic methodology to plan, develop, and
test the course before it launches. If you follow the ADDIE model, you'll have
a high degree of confidence about the course when it's ready to launch:
• The course meets important business goals

• The course covers content that learners need to know

• The course reflects the learners existing capabilities

Additionally, you'll have reviewed the course's content for accuracy and
completeness. You'll also have conducted a pilot test to ensure that learners
will actually master the skills they need to achieve the course's learning
objectives.
It's possible for someone to write and launch a course without following the
ADDIE instructional design methodology, but there's a much higher degree
of risk. The course could have the wrong focus, confuse or frustrate the
learners, or even lack critical content. So, if the course has been developed
without planning or testing, then all you can do is hope that the course will
go well.

Course Delivery Issues

There are plenty of issues to address during the ADDIE implementation
phase. It's important to make sure that the course gets delivered smoothly
and effectively to the learners. Of course, these delivery issues will
substantially depend on the course's delivery format. Generally, the
implementation phase contains a lot of project management and logistics
issues.
Let's take a brief look at the training delivery issues for a company that
wants to offer instructor-led courses to 2,000 employees who work at sites
across the United States. During the one-day course, learners will gather in
classes (ranging between eight and fifteen learners). Each learner will need
to receive a course workbook and have access to an internet-ready
computer. Some of the client's sites have classrooms with computers, but
many sites will need to go to offsite locations for training.
Here are just a few of the implementation issues that the delivery team will
need to decide.
• Establish the timetable for the course rollout

• Schedule the courses, enroll learners, and reserve on-site and off-site classrooms

• Notify learners and their supervisors about the course

• Select trainers and prepare them with a custom train-the-trainer

• Arrange for the printer to deliver course workbooks to the class site

• Ensure all sites will have internet-ready computers and arrange for laptops to be
shipped when necessary

• Manage travel and expenses for the trainers and/or learners

The rollout of a national training program often becomes a complex,

choreographed activity. Usually, the planning for the delivery phase starts
well before the course is ready for implementation. We'll take a look at how
the ADDIE implementation phase intersects with the corporate world in our
In the Workplace section.
Once the course has been delivered, it's time for the final phase of the
ADDIE model—the evaluation phase.
ADDIE Evaluation Phase
Evaluating the Course
The ADDIE model stresses the concept that good training programs require
planning, review, and revision. Each of the five ADDIE phases provide review
checkpoints that allow the training specialist and the client to evaluate the
work that has been produced so far.
The ADDIE evaluation phase can produce pretty graphs and metrics, but
that's not its main purpose. The evaluation phase measures the course's
efficacy and locates opportunities to improve learners' on-the-job
performance.

Evaluation Questions
When a course launches, it's not the end of the process. The ADDIE
evaluation phase provides a final review checkpoint for the project. During
the evaluation phase, the training specialist measures how well the project
achieved its goals. Here are just some of the questions that might be
explored during the evaluation phase.
• Do learners like the course?

• Do learners achieve the learning objectives at the end of the course?

• Do the learners change their behaviors in the workplace?

• Does the course help the company achieve its business goals?

For some questions, it's fairly easy to collect information. You can find out
learners' opinions of the course through a short survey immediately after the
course. A pre-test and post-test can measure how well learners achieved the
learning objectives.
However, it takes more time and effort to measure changes in workplace
behaviors and improvement towards business goals. In both cases, you can't
measure these results immediately. You want to measure the long-term
improvements rather than the immediate results. The evaluation phase can
extend for months.
Effective training helps learners make lasting changes to their workplace
behaviors. The changes shouldn't just last for a few days or a few weeks, but
they should remain with the learner months after the training course. A
training specialist might follow-up with a sample group of learners several
months after the course to see what the learners currently do. While the
training specialist might identify people who need refresher training, the
study's purpose is to measure the course's long-term effectiveness. If many
of the learners quickly fall back into their old habits, then that's a course-
level issue that needs the training specialist's attention.
Similarly, the course should produce measurable business results. During the
needs analysis phase, the training specialist asked the company's leadership
to identify business metrics that they want to improve through the training.
Some courses may have an immediate effect on a metric that's measured
daily or weekly, but many courses affect metrics that take longer to measure
and detect a change. Sometimes the company has to wait an entire quarter
or longer before it can measure the course's impact on its business results.
ADDIE in the Workplace
Corporate Training in the Real World
The corporate world lives by project deadlines. You probably have several
projects on your desk right now, and you're already anticipating others that
are on their way to you. If you want to stay current, you have to keep
moving forward and meeting deadlines. Intulogy's clients often have urgent
training projects. Here are just a few real examples of projects from our
clients:
• "Our new software system goes live in ninety days, and we need a training course to
support its implementation."

• "We'll be hiring people in eight weeks, and we need to create a complete new-hire
training course."

• "Senior leadership has launched a priority initiative that requires us to retrain people
ASAP."

• "We just sold a new product to a client, and they want us to train their people in a
month, but we don't have a training course."

In each of these examples, the client had a very important training project,
yet the project's timeline was driven by a business need.

Applying the ADDIE Model

The ADDIE model describes an ideal-world methodology. It assumes that
training specialists will have plenty of time to create a great training
program. Unfortunately, that's not always the case. With an urgent training
project, you have to balance quality and timeliness.
The ADDIE instructional design model represents a complete instructional
design workflow. It has built-in planning activities, quality assurance
checkpoints, and feedback cycles. Sometimes, it's not possible to delay the
training project's go-live date. Then the question becomes, "What can we do
in the time that we have?"

Balance Risks and Costs

Because the ADDIE model builds each subsequent step from previous steps,
skipping one step can create ripple effects throughout the entire process.
While it takes more time to properly plan and execute a training project, it
will substantially reduce the risk and the cost of errors. Like every business
decision, you have to weigh risks and make a choice. However, it's best to be
informed and make an educated choice.
If you've got a training project with a tight timeline, Intulogy's training
specialists can help you assess your options and the associated risks. With
that information, you'll be able to make an informed decision.
In this section, Intulogy looks at the ADDIE instructional design model
through a real-world corporate training perspective. While we can't cover
every factor that might affect a training program's development, we've tried
to present some of the common choices in each of the five ADDIE phases.
We begin our exploration of ADDIE and the Workplace by looking at the
Analysis phase.

ADDIE Analysis in the Workplace

Real World Choices
If your company has an immediate training need, it's tempting to skip over
the training needs analysis phase and just start writing the actual training
materials. You could save production time, but will you actually save money?
Many companies wrestle with this question, because they want to make the
right choice.
In this article, Intulogy looks at the ADDIE analysis phase from a real-world
perspective. We offer some insights into the general risks, benefits, and
tradeoffs involved when you reduce or omit the analysis phase. We can't
make this decision for you, but we can help you ask intelligent questions
that can lead to the right choice for your project and your company.

The Tough Questions

If you're thinking about reducing the scope of your project's training needs
analysis, here are some questions that will help you assess your level of
risk:
• What might happen if our company skips over the ADDIE analysis phase and starts
creating course content?

• How will the course's quality (and results) be affected?

• How much development could the company save?

• If we discover something later on and have to fix it, will it take more time or cost more
in the long run?
In many ways, your choice will be an economic one. If you choose speed
over quality, you want to make sure that you're not stepping over dollars to
pick up dimes.

Analysis and Quality Assurance

The ADDIE analysis phase serves as a formal planning and quality assurance
process. It defines the project's objectives using the language of
instructional design, and it validates that the course will meet the company's
needs and the learners' needs. If you don't perform the needs analysis, you
will increase the project's risk.
In many ways, a training project is very similar to a software development
project. If you were leading a software project, you could start the project
by asking engineers to analyze the project's needs and plan the application.
However, you could also start the project by asking programmers to start
writing code. If the programmers write code without a plan and a clear goal,
they're likely to produce a software application that doesn't quite do what it
needs to do. The code may also have a lot of bugs that may not be
discovered until late in the development cycle or even post-launch.
In the software industry, one standard metric states that QA planning and
review activities produce a 10:1 return on investment. It's less costly to
prevent software bugs through planning than by fixing them line by line in
the code. The same principle applies to training projects. If you can identify
mistaken assumptions during the assessment phase, it'll be easier and less
expensive to correct them. If you wait until the training materials have been
written, it'll be more expensive to go back and make changes.

Timeliness vs. Quality

Sometimes, a company has to choose between getting the training project
done (timeliness) and getting the training project right (quality). Here are
some reasons that companies make their choices:

Reasons to Choose Timeliness Reasons to Choose Quality

• The project will make only slight modifications

• Course will be entirely new
to an existing, well-written course

• The company's business needs indicate that it's • Business goals are unclear or have
better to deliver a partial training solution on changed
 time than miss the deadline

• Course is a one-shot event for a very small • The training program must achieve
group of learners measurable results

• Course covers compliance issues or

critical business processes

• Course will be used for a long period

of time or delivered to a large
audience

• An existing course will be rewritten

for a new learning audience with
different needs

Although some companies try to save time by skipping the needs analysis,
they may not save time overall. Unanswered questions from the analysis
phase can bring the design and development process to a complete halt.

Some Potential Risks

Here are some of the risks that your company would face if you reduce or
omit the steps in the training needs analysis phase.

If You Skip This

. . . Here Are Some Possible Risks
Step . . .

• Training specialists may not know about (or use) important

Discovery information when designing the course.

• Training specialists might not talk to the right subject matter experts.

• The course may not be written to suport the business' goals.

Business Goals
• It may be difficult to measure the course's effectiveness or results.

• If the course content is too easy for learners, they may become
bored.
Learner Analysis
• If the course content is too difficult for learners, they may become
frustrated.

Instructional Analysis • The course may omit critical steps and information.

• The course may become bogged down with less-important

 information.

• The project omits a major QA checkpoint that allows you to review

and confirm the course's objectives.

Learning Objectives • Mistaken assumptions may not be caught until much later in the
project.

• These mistakes may be more costly to correct.

These aren't the only risks, but they are risks that companies commonly
encounter. Intulogy's training specialists can advise you about the risks
relevant to your specific project.

A Risk-based Scenario
Imagine that a pharmaceutical company creates a training program for
newly-hired account managers. However, time is short, and the company
decides not to perform a training needs analysis. The instructional designer
creates the course with the assumption that the new account managers will
have some previous experience in the pharamaceutical industry.
The course doesn't explain important industry jargon and terms. However,
the company's management chooses to hire experienced account managers
who don't have experience with pharmaceuticals. When the company
discovers this problem, the training specialist must redesign the training at
the proper level for their learners.
Although the company saved some time and money by skipping the analysis
phase, they lost money because the program needed to be reworked to fit
the learners' needs. Thus, the company would be under more time
constraints to get the redesign done before launch. With redesigns, it doesn't
take long to add up to the point where the analysis phase might have
comparatively cost dimes and the redesigns and patches cost dollars.

ADDIE Design in the Workplace

Development without Design
In the ADDIE instructional design model, the training specialist first creates a
comprehensive training plan and then develops the training materials.
Design and development are two separate and equally important phases in
the theory. Yet, sometimes companies choose to reduce the time they
devote to the design phase.
In this section, we'll take a look at some of the choices that companies face
during the ADDIE design phase.
Let's be clear. Every fully developed course will have some form of
instructional strategy and a course format. It's virtually impossible to create
a course without
somehow answering each of the following four questions:
• How will content be grouped and sequenced?

• What activities and exercises will the course contain?

• How will the course assess learners' accomplishments?

• How will the course be delivered to learners?

When a project follows the ADDIE model, these choices will be made during
the instructional design phase. However, if the choices aren't made during
the deisgn phase, they will have to be made during course development.
Hasty and unplanned decisions are still design choices, but the choices can
weaken the quality of the training materials and the entire course.

Planned Design vs. "Winging It"

In some situations, a company may choose to entirely skip over the ADDIE
design phase and jump straight into course development. Some companies
may make this choice because their decision makers aren't aware of the
ADDIE model. However, other companies make this choice because of
project deadlines. They'll say, "Yes, we'd like to spend time on design, but
we have to get this project written immediately." From what our training
specialists have seen, omitting the design phase generally plays out in one
of three ways:

Scenario Key Issues Possible Results

A skilled instructional • Does the designer • If everything else in the project

designer makes design accurately understand goes smoothly, the course
choices during the the learning materials may be adequate
course development objectives, business but not ideal.
phase. goals, and the • If everything else doesn't go
learners' needs?
 • Does the designer
clearly know what
materials must be
included in the
smoothly, the course's quality
course?
will be harmed.
• Does the project's
• Minimal (if any) time savings.
leadership and
champions trust and
actively support the
designer?

• How many people will • If the team can quickly reach

be involved in these agreement, the delay may
debates? only be slightly longer than the

• How well do they work design phase would have

The development
been.
process comes to a together and

complete halt while the communicate? • High chance of long project

team debates design • Do they understand delays.

choices. instructional design • Materials may need to be

principles? redeveloped.

• Can they reach • Can they reach decisions

decisions quickly? quickly?

• Development can be quick.

• Has the developer
ever created a course
An unskilled or semi- • The course may seem
before?
skilled course developer unorganized, unfocused, and
• Does the developer
creates the course unclear to learners.
understand adult
without consciously
learning and
making design choices. • If the course developer
instructional design
creates an effective course, it
principles?
will be through luck not skill.

Here's an irony. Course developers who skip over the instructional design
phase are often the people who most need the structured planning the
phase offers. They don't have the formal training or experience to know how
to make sound instructional design decisions. The quality of the course really
depends on the skill of the instructional designer.
Intulogy's training specialists haven't seen a value to skipping or reducing
the instructional design process. Instead, when courses rush to
development, the project team often discovers a host of issues at the end of
the development process. These problems may be detected during the
tabletop review—if there is even a tabletop review. We've seen courses rush
to the delivery phase, and the training material's quality reflects that haste.
The costs of redevelopment, from our experience, often greatly exceed the
costs of the ADDIE instructional design phase.
Next, we'll take a look at the choices company face during the development
phase.

ADDIE Development in the Workplace

Course Development Strategies
The ADDIE development phase calls for a prototype, a tabletop review, and
a pilot session. However, it's tempting to cut corners and race through the
development process. We live in a world where rapid prototyping and just-in-
time delivery have become commonplace practices. Do training specialists
really need to perform each of these training development steps? Are there
any shortcuts? In this article, we look at how the workplace shapes the
training development process.

Production and Quality Assurance

There are four steps in the training development process. However, only one
of these steps involves content writing. The other three steps serve as
review checkpoints.

Development
Value Role
Step

Produce and review samples of content and

Prototype Quality assurance
layout

Develop materials Create all course materials Content creation

 Tabletop review Check content for completeness and accuracy Quality assurance

Course pilot Measure learner's response to the materials Quality assurance

At Intulogy, we've seen some companies complete each of these steps

thoughtfully and carefully. However, we've also seen companies that want to
omit one or even all three quality assurance steps during the development
phase.

Choices That Companies Make

Why would some companies skip these quality assurance steps during the
course development proecss? It seems risky to launch an untested course.
Learners may encounter inaccurate, incomplete, or even confusing learning
materials.
We've generally seen four reasons that a company's course developers and
project leaders make this choice:

Reason Effect

• Course developers can become so focused on writing course

Don't know about the ADDIE content that they don't think about quality assurance.

methodology • Team members may not know how to check the course
materials' quality.

Don't see the value of quality • People won't include sufficient time for quality assurance
assurance activities in the project schedule.

• People may treat quality assurance steps as desirable but

Have a tight timeline
impractical choices for this project.

• Project may face a strong temptation to reduce the scope of the

Have a limited project budget
prototype and course pilot steps.

• A very skilled developer can possibly take informed shortcuts

and still create a good course.

Have confidence in the • Increased risk when the course is launched, because QA steps
course developer's skills have been omitted.

• If the course developer makes a misstep, the launch may be

especially bumpy.
Many project leaders trust their course developers to make the right choices.
However, it's important to remember that many training projects are led and
created by people who are not familiar with the ADDIE training methodology.
After all, not every training project includes a training specialist. These
project members have to figure out how to create a course that meets their
needs. There's a huge irony here. The course developers who are unaware of
the ADDIE methodology are also the people who could generally benefit the
most from these quality assurance steps.

Why Experience Matters

An experienced training specialist draws on lessons they've learned from
past projects.
• When they build a prototype, they can draw upon past prototypes. They don't have to
reinvent the wheel.

• When they conduct a tabletop review, they flag specific areas for special attention and
prepare questions for the subject matter experts (SMEs).

• When they pilot a course, they make a list of issues that they want to test.

An experienced training specialist knows how to maximize the value of each

quality assurance task. They also know how to minimize the time spent on
peripheral and less-important issues. For example, a great training specialist
can lead a tabletop review with all the elegance and grace of an orchestra's
conductor guiding musicians through a particularly difficult section in a
performance.
Sometimes, Intulogy's training specialists must explain both the ADDIE
development phase and its value. We've found that these quality assurance
steps will generally produce more accurate materials, save time, and reduce
production costs.
However, our training specialists serve as advisors to our clients, and it's the
clients who guide our production choices. If the project has a tight timeline
or a limited project budget, then our training specialists can advise the client
how to make the most of their time and dollars.

ADDIE Implementation in the Workplace

Implementation Makes the Difference
When companies launch a course, they enter the ADDIE implementation
phase. During this phase, the companies must successfully deliver their
courses to their learners. Each course represents a significant investment of
corporate resources and time. It's very important for the course to make a
significant and meaningful impact on the learners.
On the strategic level, companies rely on training programs to reduce costs
and improve profitability by improving people's performance in many
different ways:
• Increase sales and customer satisfaction

• Improve efficiency and productivity

• Ensure legal compliance and reduce liability

• Guide people through new and changed processes

• Introduce new people to the company's methods and culture

Companies that want to achieve these goals need well-written training

programs that are launched successfully. However, it's important to
remember that great course content doesn't guarantee a successful launch.
In this section, we'll assume that the company has done its homework and
created an excellent training course. Instead, we'll focus on the challenges
that companies face during the ADDIE implementation phase.

How Scope Impacts Training Delivery

When companies deliver training programs, they often involve hundreds and
perhaps even thousands of learners. Even a small course can involve dozens
of people. Some of the biggest challenges during the ADDIE implementation
phase fall into the categories of training administration and logistics.
Some companies have very skilled in-house training departments. These
people know how to coordinate and deliver training programs to thousands
of people across the world within a short time frame. However, other
companies don't have this depth of training delivery experience and a
nationwide course rollout can become quite a challenge.
If you've followed the ADDIE model, you've conducted a course pilot session.
Perhaps some learners gathered together in a classroom or tested out the
online learning course. You've asked a sample group of learners to help you
review the course. However, there's a lot of work to ramp up from this single
session to a full nationwide or global course delivery.
In many ways, the training delivery phase must recognize the powerful
impact of Murphy's Law—if anything can go wrong, it will. It's extremely
important to carefully plan the training delivery process. Let's look at some
of the factors that companies must consider when preparing to launch
classroom and e-learning courses.

Launching a Classroom Course

Here's a list of some of the questions that people have to answer when they
start a large-scale training delivery project. This list is not comprehensive,
but it gives a good overview highlighting why training delivery often requires
active project management.

Course
Delivery Some Key Questions
Aspect

• How many copies of the course materials need to be printed?

• Will course materials be printed in-house or outsourced to a printer?

Course Materials
• How will course materials be shipped?

• Who will be responsible for shipping?

• How many trainers will be needed for the project?

• Will the trainers come from an in-house team or from an outsource provider?

• Will the project require the trainers to travel?

• Should the trainers be geographically-based?

Instructors • How will the instructors learn to teach this course?

• Will the project require a train-the-trainer session?

• When and how will trainers receive their schedule?

• Who will be the SME to answer trainer questions?

• Who will be the technical contact for trainers?

• What locations will courses be offered?

Course Schedule • What dates and times will the course be offered?

• How will this schedule be communicated?

 • Will the classroom require any specific technology—computers, AV
Classroom
projectors, etc.?
Space
• Will learning happen on-site or off-site?

• How will learners be enrolled for the course?

• Will they enroll themselves or will someone enroll them?

• How will course rosters be tracked?

Registration
• How will rosters be communicated to instructors?

• How will instructors record attendance and test scores?

• Will this course be entered into a learning management system?

• If people need to travel, who will book it?

Travel • How will travel and expenses be coordinated?

• Will travel come from the overall project budget or a separate budget?

• Who will manage training administration?

• Who will manage training logistics?

Logisitics
• How will course statistics be tracked?

• Who will be responsible for collecting and communicating these statistics?

Many of these questions have to be answered well before the

implementation phase begins. If a company starts a large scale delivery
project without answering these questions, the project can quickly turn into
disorganized chaos.

Launching an E-learning Course

An e-learning course oftern requires significant systems integration tasks.
Here are some sample issues for an e-learning course that will be delivered
online to learners.

Course
Delivery Some Key Questions
Aspect

Hosting • Where will the course be hosted?

• How much storage space will be required for the e-learning files?
 • How many learners will need to access the course total?

• How many learners will access the course at any time?

• How much bandwidth will be needed (peak use and monthly)?

• Will this course need to integrate with an existing learning management

system (LMS)?

Integration • Will the LMS track course enrollment and course completion data?

• Will this course output test scores and other data to an LMS?

• Is this course SCORM and AICC compliant?

• How will learners enroll for the course?

Access • Will learners be able to access the course through the web or will they
need to connect to an intranet?

• Will any users connect to the course via dial-up?

Learners' • Will any users connect to the course via a VPN?

Connections • Can the course recognize the learner's connection speed and optimize

course delivery?

Learners' • Will learners have all necessary applications loaded onto their computers?

Computers • Will learners need to download any applications or plug-ins?

Security • Who will be responsible for security issues related to the course files?

• Who will help learners who have difficulties accessing the online course?

Help Desk • Who will answer technical questions?

• Who will answer content questions?

• How will learners be enrolled for the course?

Registration • Will they enroll themselves or will someone enroll them?

• How will course rosters be tracked?

• Who will manage training administration?

• Who will manage training logistics?

Logistics
• How will course statistics be tracked?

• Who will be responsible for collecting and communicating these statistics?

There are many ways that an e-learning course can implode during the
delivery process. An online course can be so popular that the hosting site
crashes when everyone tries to access it at the same time. The course might
not integrate properly with the company's learning management system.
The file might have a broken link so learners receive the dreaded "file not
found" error.
These technical issues often require the training project's team to coordinate
with the company's IT department, but the collaboration can mean the
difference between a rough and a smooth launch.

ADDIE Evaluation in the Workplace

Evaluating a Course's Success
The ADDIE evaluation phase helps companies measure the course's impact
on their learners and their business. When a company creates a custom
course, it makes a substantial investment in time and resources. However,
perhaps surprisingly, many companies do not invest in the evaluation phase.
These companies never really know how well the course works.
If we had to make an estimate, we'd say that only ten or fifteen percent of
companies conduct significant evaluation activities. That's why we consider
evaluation the "forgotten phase" of the ADDIE model.
Many companies seem to skip over the evaluation phase because they're
thinking tactically instead of strategically. Sometimes companies become
focused on the go-live date; they want to make sure that the learners
experience the course. Once the course has launched, people shift their
focus to the next training project. Instead of measuring learning and its
impact on the business, some companies will let the course run until it
becomes obsolete and an obvious source of pain.

Types of Evaluation
In 1959, Donald Kirkpatrick identified four levels of training evaluation:
1. Response—Do learners like the course?
2. Learning—Do learners actually learn the material?
3. Behavior—Do learners change their workplace behaviors?
4. Results—Does the course acheive the company's business goals?
In the corporate world, companies measure response through quick post-
course surveys (often called "smile sheets"). These surveys often ask
learners to answer simple, subjective questions about the course. Because
these surveys are easy to conduct, many companies use them. However,
these surveys can't measure complex learning or long-term behavior
changes.
Some companies use post-course assessments to measure how much people
have learned before they return to the workplace. We'd like to think that
these post-course assessments are part of every course, but we've seen a
lot of training courses that just present material without ensuring that
learners have understood it. In the corporate world, courses with rigorous
post-course tests are often called certification courses. Learners need to
pass the certification test before they can be qualified to perform certain
tasks or jobs.
In order to measure behavior changes and business results, training
specialists have to wait until learners return to the workplace. Sometimes,
these studies take place months after the learners complete the course. That
way, training specialists can measure what behaviors actually retained in the
workplace.

The Costs of Evaluation

In most cases, a robust evaluation phase doesn't add much additional cost
to the training project. Sometimes the entire evaluation phase can be
conducted for less than five percent of the total project's budget.
The other cost associated with the evaluation phase is time. To properly
conduct an evaluation, training specialists will need to dedicate some time
immediately after the course launches to measure how people respond to
the course and what they learn. Then, a few months later, they will need to
measure whether the course has actually led to long-term behavior changes.
Intulogy's training specialists have observed two patterns when it comes to
the training evaluation phase:
• Companies that clearly identify business goals during the needs analysis phase are
more likely to conduct a rigorous evaluation phase—the company wants to measure
(and improve) its degree of success.
 • Companies that follow the ADDIE model carefully tend to see substantially better
results for their training courses than companies that adopt a hit-and-miss approach to
training development and delivery.

Sometimes companies have to rush training projects to meet an immediate

need, but when they can integrate training initiatives with their strategic
business objectives they experience a greater degree of success. That's why
the ADDIE of instructional design exists, afterall.