A Guide for Designing Online Courses: ADDIE Model

Welcome. This Blackboard course is a learning resource intended for faculty who are planning to or interested in teaching online courses and wish to learn more about online course design and development. It provides fundamental information for faculty before they develop an online course. Designing and developing an online course may be overwhelming at times. This learning resource outlines the general process for designing and developing online courses by following five phrases: Analysis, Design, Development, Implement, and Evaluation (ADDIE).

ADDIE stands for the steps of the model: * Analyze: define the needs and constraints * Design: specify learning activities, assessment and choose methods and media * Develop: begin production, formative evaluation, and revise * Implement: put the plan into action * Evaluate: evaluate the plan from all levels for next implementation Each step in the model has an outcome that feeds into the next step in the sequence.

ADDIE: Analyze

Introduction

As you begin developing your course, just as you would when developing a traditional course, start planning your online course by clarifying the instructional problems, establishing learning goals, identifying learning environment, recognizing the learners’ prerequisite knowledge and skills, and analyze learning characteristics and constraints. The Analysis step helps to develop a clear understanding of the "gaps" between the desired outcomes or behaviors, and the audience's existing knowledge and skills. It is also important to build strong understanding of the need of your students and how to meet their needs.

Analyze: About Learning Objectives

Introduction to Learning Objectives There are some crucial questions for instructors: What do we expect our students to be able to do intellectually as a result of taking our courses? What kind of sustained and substantial difference can we make in the way they think, act, and even feel? If we spell out explicitly and systematically the learning objectives in our courses for ourselves and our students, the quality of teaching can be improved enormously. What do we want our students to be able to do intellectually (or sometimes physically or emotionally) as a result of our teaching? To identify the learning objectives is one of the important aspects in the Analysis phase in our course design. A learning objective is a statement of what students will be able to do when they have completed instruction. A learning objective has three major components:

1. Behavior: An objective must describe the competency to be learned in performance terms. The choice of a verb is very important. The verb identifies an observable behavior. In addition, the type of level of learning must be identified.

2. Condition: An objective should describe the conditions under which the learner will be in the evaluation situation.

3. Criterion: An objective should make clear how well a learner must perform to be judged adequate. This can be done with a statement indicating a degree of accuracy, a quantity or proportion of correct responses or the like.

ADDIE: Design

Introduction

The design phase is the systematic and reflective process of translating principles of learning and instruction into plans for instructional materials, information resources, learning activities, and evaluation. In this phase the instructional sequence is identified, instructional strategies are selected and media choices are made. The first step of design is to determine the sequence in which the instructional objectives will be met. After the sequence has been determined, a solution for each objective identified during the analysis phase is selected (content, instructional strategies, learning activities, and assessment). The objectives, solutions, and descriptions of activities are then transferred to storyboards. During the design phase, constant communication and feedback occurs between ID and SME. Instructional design rubric is used to evaluate design of the course.

Design: Instructional Sequence

Instructional Sequence

The very first step in the Design phase is to determine the sequence in which the institutional objectives will be met. The instructional sequence includes major subtopics that address your instructional goals and objectives. Each subtopic can be an individual learning unit or module. An online course contains multiple units or modules. Each learning unit/module can be one or 2 weeks long. If you are in a 16 week-long semester, identify the major topics that address your instructional goals and objectives that you will teach over a 16-week course. The following table can be used as a sample to display your instructional sequence of your course(s).

Course Title Duration Comments

Learning Unit 1: Subtopic title

1 week

Learning Unit 2: Subtopic title

2 weeks

Learning Unit 3: Subtopic title

Learning Unit 4: Subtopic title

Learning Unit 5: Subtopic title

Learning Unit 6: Subtopic title

Learning Unit 7: Subtopic title

Course Schedule

After the instructional sequence is identified, a course schedule could be created too. The following table is a template course schedule.

Date Begins Unit Topic Activity/Assignment Due Date

ADDIE: Develop

Introduction

You have already determined in the design stage the teaching methods and instructional strategies you are planning to adopt and the types of assessments you are going to use. In the development stage, you will start to build course content, activities, assignments and assessments for individual units. You will also need to identify which technologies should be chosen to build the course materials and enhance the learning experience. The development phase in the ADDIE model of instructional design is the process of authoring and producing the materials needed to meet the objectives. It addresses the tools and processes used to create instructional material. During the development phase, all audio, video, and text materials are collected, prepared, or created. Documentation is prepared and the product is ready to be tested.

Develop

Develop Teaching and Learning Activities When you are ready to develop teaching and learning activities, you will need to consider what teaching methods work best for the content you are teaching. Here we introduce some teaching methods including direct instruction and a few student-centered teaching methods with some types of activities, such as collaborative learning, discovery learning, and problem based learning, to name a few. All of these student-centered methods are overlapping in some sense, and aim at providing an active learning environment for students to learn. I. Direct Instruction Direct instruction refers to the explicit teaching of a set of skills using lectures or demonstrations of the materials. It occurs when knowledge is acquired directly from the immediate source of transmission. This method usually involves explicit instruction of subject matter or skill, and may not include an opportunity for student participation. It is therefore often contrasted with active learning.

• Lecture is one of the most frequently used instructional strategies. It assumes that the instructors are experts and responsible for disseminating information. Lectures can be delivered either at the beginning of the learning module as an introduction to the course content or at the end of the module as a summary of the key concepts covered in the module. It is usually used in combination with other instructional strategies. In online courses, lectures can be delivered in a variety of forms. For example, lectures can be presented via audio or video and embedded in the modules. Lectures can also be created with PowerPoint and linked to the course site. In addition, lecture notes can be uploaded onto the course site for learners to review.

II. Collaborative Learning Collaborative learning is a method of teaching and learning in which students work together in small groups to explore a significant question or create a meaningful project. The teacher's role is to facilitate and coordinate the student groups. Students having group discussions and working together on a shared assignment are examples of collaborative learning. Online learning has made it possible for students at different locations to participate collaborative learning activities synchronously or asynchronously.

• Online Discussion: Online discussion is a widely used instructional strategy for online courses because it encourages active participations and interactions from the students, and helps to create a sense of learning community. Online discussion forum is a place where students share resources, negotiate meanings, and construct knowledge collaboratively. As the center of interaction and learning, online discussion is regarded as the core of an online course. Therefore, it is important to appropriately design online discussion activities and foster productive online discussions. There are two types of online discussion: asynchronous online discussion and synchronous online discussion.

• Group Work/Project: In online courses, group work provides opportunities for students to interact with each other as well as with the course content. Students can ask questions, explore ideas, and solve problems together by working in groups. There are many different types of small group activities. Here we list three types of activities commonly seen in online courses.

o Group Discussion: It allows students to reflect on a topic and share their views.

o Group Project: It allows students to gain practical experience from completing a project such as case studying, solving problems, brainstorming, and so on.

o Role Playing: It allows students to understand other people's positions and responsibilities through acting out various roles.

ADDIE: Implement

Introduction

The implement phase includes the testing of prototypes (with targeted audience), putting the product in full production, and training learners and instructors on how to use the product. In the implementation phase of the ADDIE model, a plan is developed. This plan establishes the implementation timeline and procedures for training the facilitators and the learner, and delivering the final product. The final product is developed based on needs and errors discovered while utilizing a prototype product with members of the target audience.

Implement

Suggestions

Implementation is the step in the ADDIE model in which you deliver your course to the target audience. In other words, the effectiveness of your course design will be tested and confirmed. A solid groundwork is critical for a smooth and successful implementation of all instructional strategies. Here we provide a few key tips for implementation based on distance learning best practices:

• Predictability: write detailed, sensible policies and consistent information to help create predictability from the student’s perspective.

• Organization: provide students guidance about how to use the course management tools effectively (e.g., threaded discussions, assignments, assessments, etc.).

• Preparedness: know your syllabus, resources, and learner support systems to respond to students’ questions timely and completely.

• Resourcefulness and planning: identify alternative plans for delivering the course in the event of technology issues or modifying activities if students are not “getting it.”

• Responsiveness: counteract the negative aspects of the distance separating you and the students by monitoring your online courses frequently and responding to student concerns timely.

Some additional suggestions for easing course implementation include:

• Hold regular online office hours. • Encourage dialogue by building student contributions

with examples of your own experiences or relating it to the core content.

• Reiterate critical information to clarify assignment instructions, course processes, and other important details.

• Model your expectations. • Manage conflict between and among students. • Create an interactive online classroom culture. • Monitor all aspects of the online environment

simultaneously (as much as possible).

ADDIE: Evaluate

Introduction

Although the ADDIE model includes evaluation in each step of the process, it also dedicates one phase to evaluating your course. Evaluation is important to ensure learning objectives are met, as well as improve future offerings of your instruction. To insure continuous improvement of your course, perform both formative and summative evaluations.

Evaluate

Two Types of Evaluations Evaluation consists of two parts: formative and summative. Formative evaluation is part of each proceeding phase and determines effectiveness and quality of each stage. Summative evaluation consists of tests for criterion-related referenced items and provides opportunity for feedback from the users and assesses learner outcomes.

Formative Evaluation

Formative evaluation involves gathering information during the early stages of the design process with the focus on finding out whether efforts are unfolding as planned and identify mid-project adjustments and corrections which can help insure the success of the project. The feedback gathered during formative evaluation is designed to fine-tune the implementation of the program, gather reaction and identify what is not working.

Formative evaluation allows for adjustments during each step of the ADDIE process and throughout implementation of your course. These modifications ensure the content and instructional strategies meet your students’ needs and learning characteristics. In an online course, formative evaluations are especially important because the students have a learning curve inherent to technology. This evaluation method is like having someone look over your shoulder during the development and implementation phases to help you catch things you miss.

Summative Evaluation

Summative evaluation is the process of collecting data following implementation of the project in order to determine its effectiveness and satisfy the instructional objectives. The summative evaluation is instructionally congruent, allows for complete analysis, and provides feedback.

Course evaluations, final exams, and final projects are examples of summative evaluations. Such evaluations offer opportunities for quality assurance and help you decide what needs to be changed: the content, the activities, or the mode of delivery. Summative evaluation provides a starting point for improving and redesigning the course according to the learner’s needs.