Instructional Design and the ADDIE Model

Ensuring student success through good design...

 

A is for ANALYSIS

During the Analysis phase, you will conduct a leaner analysis to determine the learners' incoming knowledge, characteristics and skills.  What do your students already know about the content?  What is the gap between what they know and what you want them to know?  You can also conduct a task analysis to determine the steps involved and skills/knowledge required of the learner in order for him to achieve the learning objective.  

Learner and Task Analysis

Who are your learners and what do you want them to be able to do?

• What are the ages of your learners? All young, old, mix? What is the maturity level of your learners?
• What gender are your students? All male, all female, mix?
• What cultural background do your students come from?
• What previous education do your learners possess?
• What do your learners already know about the content of the course? 
• Have they taken courses that may have covered this content previously? 
• Have they had personal experiences that may give them prior knowledge regarding the objectives of the course? 
• How do they like to learn? 
• What barriers may exist that will keep them from learning (physical, mental, emotional)?
• What is their motivation for taking this class?  Program of classes?

It is essential to know about your learners so you can provide appropriate instructional experiences for them.  If all your examples rely on strong knowledge of the political climate in the US during WWII, then your learners need to be conversant with this time period – either due to age, class work, or special interest.  As the teacher, it is helpful to understand why learners are taking your class(es), how they like to learn and to be aware of any barriers that might exist that will keep them from learning.  How do you think learning styles, personality styles impact your students' mastery of objectives?

Conducting a task analysis is an important part of ADDIE to determine the background knowledge and skills students must have to be successful at the objective. For example, let's say you have asked your students to create a website for an upcoming project. A task analysis would tell you that in order for students to do well, they must (among other things) have access to a computer, have access to a webpage creation tool, know how to use the software to design a website, understand how webpages "communicate" with each other, understand how to upload webpages to a server, etc. You can see that the instruction might be to create a webpage, but in order to do that there are many things the students must know and be able to do. If you design your instruction without conducting a task analysis, you might assume your students have the requisite skills, knowledge and behaviors and end up teaching at an inappropriate level.

(Source: Amy MacPherson)

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